Everyone Books Christmas in Paris for the Wrong Week

If you are planning Christmas in Paris this year, there is a good chance you have already picked your dates, and a good chance you picked the wrong week. Not wrong as in a ruined trip, but wrong as in paying more, standing in longer lines and seeing less than the people who came two weeks earlier. In this video we walk through the whole 2026 Christmas season week by week, so you can choose the one that fits you.

The season, week by week

• Late November: the lights are already on, and you can actually see the Galeries Lafayette windows instead of the back of someone’s head.
• Early December: the “sweet spot” most people book, and what it costs you, including which nights are the most crowded, when the markets actually close and the cash-or-card question.
• The week before Christmas: when the prices break, with a side-by-side of the same hotel room at two very different rates.
• Christmas Day: what is actually open on the 25th, from restaurants and museums to the metro.
• December 26 to January 5: the lights are still up, the crowds thin and the winter sales begin.

Christmas Day and New Year’s Eve

The question we get asked more than any other is what is open in Paris on Christmas Day. Our answer is that the 25th is not a day to avoid, it is a day to plan for. We also give you an honest warning about New Year’s Eve on the Champs-Elysees before you build your trip around it.

Our verdict

We have spent the last five Christmases in Paris filming every one of these weeks, and at the end of the video we tell you the one week we would actually book. It is not the one most people think.

Whichever week you land in, our free Christmas in Paris map and guide covers the markets, the lights and the spots worth your time. For hotels, restaurants and everything else, our Paris Guide Bundle will help you plan the rest of your festive trip.