Old Town Square: the tree, the stage and the crowds
This is the market on the postcards. Wooden huts fill Old Town Square below the Týn Church and a tree of about 85 feet rises in the middle. From late afternoon a stage keeps the carols coming. It is also the most crowded square in Prague for the whole of Advent. This guide goes through the square from morning to Christmas Eve, with advice on the crush and the places a few minutes away.
The main market at a glance
The market on Old Town Square opens on 28 November and runs until 6 January, every day from 10 am to 10 pm. Christmas Eve is short, from 10 am to 2 pm, and on 25 and 26 December the stalls open at noon. Entry is free, as it is at every market in the city.
| What | When |
|---|---|
| Market stalls | Daily 10 am to 10 pm, 28 Nov to 6 Jan |
| 24 December | Stalls 10 am to 2 pm; open-air Mass at 9 pm |
| 25 and 26 December | Noon to 10 pm |
| Light shows on the tree | Every evening on the half hour, 4:30 pm to 9:30 pm |
| Stage program | Daily, roughly 4 pm to 7 pm |
| Children's workshops | Weekends, 11 am to 3 pm |
The organizers publish their final dates and times only shortly before each season, so check the market's own page before you set off. The other markets are in our table of dates and opening hours.
The tree and its light shows
The tree is the center of everything. It stands about 85 feet (26 m) tall and carries some 95,000 LEDs. It is lit for the first time late in the afternoon of opening day, 28 November, and after that it runs a brief light show at half past each hour in the evening, the first at 4:30 pm and the last at 9:30 pm. Arrive just before 4:30 pm and you see the first show at dusk, before the square fills.
Beside the tree stands the nativity scene, and a raised viewing platform runs above the roofs of the huts. Climb it for a view across the stalls toward the tree and the church towers. It is the easiest way to take a photo without a hundred heads in it. For the highest view of all, the tower of the Old Town Hall looks straight down on the market.
The stage and the children's workshops
From about 4 pm to 7 pm the stage hosts choirs and folk bands, with Czech carols in between. On weekends from 11 am to 3 pm, children can join workshops on the square, which makes a late morning the better slot for families with small children. Our guide to Prague at Christmas with kids adds the rink on Wenceslas Square and St. Nicholas Eve on 5 December, when the square is at its fullest.
The clock, the Týn Church and Jan Hus
The market stands among the city's most famous sights, and looking at them costs nothing. On the Old Town Hall, the Astronomical Clock, dating from 1410, sends its apostles past two small windows on the hour. A crowd gathers several minutes before, so watch from further back toward the stalls instead of fighting for the front row.
Across the square rise the twin towers of the Church of Our Lady before Týn, the backdrop of almost every picture of the market. The memorial to Jan Hus stands on the square among the huts. Come back by daylight to see the facades properly, since after dark the lights take over.
Crowds, pickpockets and the ham trick
The square is fullest on Friday and Saturday evenings, and worst of all on 5 December and the weekends just before Christmas. In the crush near the clock and the tree, keep your phone and wallet in inside pockets and carry a backpack on your front. Pickpockets favor the densest spots, especially while everyone is looking up at the clock.
The other trap is Prague ham, roasted on a spit and sold by weight. The board shows a price per 100 g, and a generous slice can weigh several times that. Before the knife goes in, ask for the weight and the full price. Hot drinks come in returnable cups with a small deposit, which you get back at a cup return hut, and a few koruna in coins speed things up at the smaller stalls. Our guide to svařák, trdelník and Christmas food explains what to order.
When the square gets too full
If the crowd around the tree is too much, let someone local take you elsewhere. Prague City Adventures' Christmas markets walk, from ~$95, starts outside Kafka's birthplace on the little square named after him, a few steps off Old Town Square, and spends 2.5 hours on three markets that Prague people use themselves. Until 24 December two of them are neighborhood markets, and after that the route swaps to two others in the historic center. Expect cookies from a Czech home kitchen, a cup of mulled wine and one of hot mead, with your rides on public transport paid for. Along the way the guide talks about Czech customs and how Christmas changed under Communism. Every stall you stop at is Czech-owned, and the walk ends near Wenceslas Square. Groups hold up to 11, or up to 15 on the private option, and the Viator price is about $97. Reviewers praise guides such as Nikola or Johanka. The catch is the short track record, 5.0 from 71 reviews on Viator and 4.9 from 34 on GetYourGuide. The whole walk is outdoors in the cold, and the meeting point is easy to miss among the crowds.
Swap the crush for three local markets
A Prague guide takes up to 11 people to three markets that locals favor, with homemade cookies and hot mead on the way, from ~$95. Look for the company sign by the Kafka house a few minutes early.
Christmas Eve on the square
On 24 December the stalls shut at 2 pm, and the city goes quiet while families sit down to fish soup and fried carp before Ježíšek, the baby Jesus, brings the presents. At 9 pm the square fills again for an open-air Mass under the tree. It is one of the few things happening in the center that evening, so dress for an hour of standing still in the cold. On 25 and 26 December the market opens again at noon.
A few minutes away
Havel's Market, trading on the same spot since 1232, lies a couple of minutes away on the route toward Wenceslas Square. It trades all year, 7 am to 7 pm on weekdays and Saturdays and 8 am to 6:30 pm on Sundays, with seasonal stalls added in Advent. Keep going and you reach the lower end of Wenceslas Square, about 7 minutes from the clock, where our guide to the Wenceslas Square market and its ice rink takes over. In the other direction, Charles Bridge is about 10 minutes on foot, and the small market on Kampa island waits below it. Kampa and the Vinohrady squares are described in our guide to the neighborhood markets.