The Hague Royal Christmas Fair | 2024 Dates, Locations & Must-Knows!

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The Hague Royal Christmas Fair is known for its enchanting ‘royal’ location, large offerings of stalls, and excellent variety of delicious food and drink options.

Thanks to its size and beauty, it’s also widely considered to be one of the best Christmas markets in the Netherlands, with a perfect location in the heart of The Hague’s most stunning neighborhood!

We first visited this Christmas market in 2022 and loved how charmingly decorated and festive it was, with the ‘proper’ feel of a Christmas market that is usually a little lacking in the Netherlands.

Looking to learn more about The Hague’s Christmas market, or perhaps need some guidance on planning your own trip there?

In this post, we’ll be covering…

Practical Info for The Hague Royal Christmas Fair
A Brief History of The Hague Royal Christmas Fair
Why Visit The Hague Royal Christmas Fair?
Christmas Markets in The Hague Royal Christmas Fair to Visit
More Photos of The Hague Royal Christmas Fair

We hope you find it helpful and interesting!

Practical Info for The Hague Royal Christmas Fair 2024

Here are some quick must-knows for The Hague Royal Christmas Fair this year:

Dates 2024: December 5 – 23, 2024
Official website: Click here

In need of a place to stay? Here are some quick hotel recommendations:

Budget: Check prices and availability
Mid-Range: Check prices and availability
Luxury: Check prices and availability

A Brief History of The Hague Royal Christmas Fair

The Royal Christmas Market in The Hague has only been running since 2014, but it has quickly become one of the most anticipated Christmas events in the country!

The market has also gotten larger since it first began, growing from around 80 stalls to more than 100 selling gifts, food and drinks.

Since The Hague is the seat of the Dutch government and home of the Royal Family (even though Amsterdam is the capital of the Netherlands) this Christmas market capitalizes on that royal connection with the name ‘Royal Christmas Fair’.

Why Visit The Hague Royal Christmas Fair?

Wondering whether The Hague Royal Christmas Fair is worth a trip? Here are some reasons to visit:

Location, location, location!

The Royal Christmas Fair is located in the heart of The Hague, just around the corner from the beautiful Binnenhof, Noordeinde Palace and many of the city’s best museums.

Instead of taking place throughout crowded streets, the entire Lange Voorhout street is enclosed and transformed into a beautiful winter wonderland, making it ideal if you want to make a quick stop after shopping in the CBD, or just spend hours soaking up the atmosphere.

The festive atmosphere

Since The Royal Christmas Fair is located in an enclosed street, the opportunities for decorating and enjoying are wonderful.

Lange Voorhout is lined with trees that are festooned with lights during the market and since you don’t need to dodge traffic or people trying to get to ‘normal’ shops, it just makes the whole thing feel extra Christmassy.

Christmas music is played on speakers throughout and there’s plenty to enjoy even if you don’t need to buy any gifts, including some German-themed drinking spots selling glühwein.

The shopping and eating opportunities!

There are many stalls selling beautiful gifts at The Royal Christmas fair as well as multiple places for delicious treats, either as an edible Christmas gift or if you just want to stop off for some glühwein and crepes.

The Royal Christmas Fair is a very popular spot for locals to meet up to just enjoy the atmosphere, have some drinks and food with friends or catch a musical performance.

Things to Do at The Hague Royal Christmas Fair

Wondering what to do while visiting the Hague Royal Christmas Fair? Here are some ideas:

Eat and drink

There are a LOT of excellent food and drink stalls at The Royal Christmas Fair, with many visitors simply attending to meet up with friends and enjoy the atmosphere with some tasty food and drink in hand.

There are multiple places to sit throughout the grounds including covered bars and heaters to stay warm while sipping some glühwein.

Since there’s a big British expat community in The Hague, we spotted both a British pie stall and a British fudge stall (the fudge was delicious too!).

Of course, Dutch delights such as oliebollen and poffertjes are available, along with delicious-smelling crepes, coconut balls and as many chocolate options as any chocoholic could desire!

Shop

While browsing the stalls, we were also pleasantly surprised to see many cool ideas for Christmas gifts – rather than any kitschy mass-produced stuff.

You can find plenty of clothing, beautiful home decor, specialized Christmas decorations and even fun wooden items like the funny bird feeders/nesting boxes below!

Enjoy some entertainment

Along with the many food and gift stalls, there’s also the main stage where local groups provide musical performances.

We really enjoyed the Christmas carollers with their ‘ugly’ Christmas sweaters (below)!

We also saw Santa Claus roaming around for the children and apparently, the Coca-Cola Christmas truck usually shows up for one day during the fair.

Take photos!

The Royal Christmas Fair is so gorgeously decorated that you will definitely want to go wild with your camera!

As you can see in the next section, we took plenty of photos and there are lots of special photo opps to take advantage of if you want a festive snap with your family or partner.