Markets Open Over Christmas and New Year

Christmas Day 2026 falls on a Friday and New Year's Day on the next Friday. That leaves two weekends in between, 26 and 27 December and 2 and 3 January, and the markets split hard on them. Many weekly Sunday markets trade as normal. Monthly markets mostly don't, and a long list of them take all of January off.

If your market runs every week, it is probably on. If it runs once a month, assume it isn't until you have checked. This guide covers the stretch from Boxing Day to the second weekend of January. The run-up to Christmas, when markets shift dates and go twilight, is in Christmas markets in Australia.

Open on the Sunday after Christmas

A lot of weekly Sunday markets close only when Christmas Day lands on a Sunday. This year it lands on a Friday, so they trade on 27 December and again on 3 January.

That covers Trash & Treasure Market at Macquarie in Canberra (6:30am to 12:30pm, in all weather), Caboolture Country Markets north of Brisbane, which opens at 5am, Oakleigh Rotary Sunday Market and Wantirna Trash & Treasure Market in Melbourne, and Sunday Markets Maddington in Perth. Maddington also closes when New Year's Day is a Sunday. In 2027 it is a Friday, so that rule doesn't apply either.

One weekly Sunday market does stop. Akoonah Park Market in Berwick skips 27 December and is back on 3 January.

Open through the whole break

A few barely notice the holidays. Cairns Night Markets on Abbott Street opens every night of the year, Christmas Day included. Geelong Vintage Market trades seven days a week, public holidays included, and Christmas Day is its only closure. Carisbrook Town Hall Market keeps going through December and only stops for Christmas Day and Boxing Day.

Whittlesea Monday Market trades every Monday, public holidays included, so Monday 28 December and Monday 4 January are both market days. Very few markets near Melbourne offer anything on a Monday.

The ones that take a fortnight off

Some weekly markets close for the break on published dates.

Chatswood Mall Market runs its summer break in two stages: the Mall market stops from 13 December, the Spring Street market from 20 December, and both return from 14 January 2027. Kingsbury Drive Community Market in Bundoora holds its last market on 20 December and is back on 10 January. Oxford Street Farmers Market in Darlinghurst pauses its Saturday sessions for a fortnight over New Year. The Local Farmers Market at Wandi announces its exact break on Facebook each year.

Willunga Farmers Market does something more useful. Its Saturday would land on Boxing Day, so it trades on Thursday 24 December instead, which puts a farmers market on the day before Christmas lunch.

No market in January

This is the list that catches people. The first weekend of 2027 is Saturday 2 and Sunday 3 January, and a lot of first-weekend markets take it off. Every market in the next three paragraphs takes the whole month.

Around Sydney and the Blue Mountains: Leura Produce & Artisan Market, Mosman Market, Hornsby Welcome Markets and Glenbrook Rotary Markets.

Around Melbourne and regional Victoria: Caulfield Food & Craft Market, Kingston Farmers' Market in Cheltenham, Lilydale Craft and Produce Market, Warrandyte Riverside Market, Castlemaine Farmer Trading Hall, Gisborne Olde Time Market and Tallarook Farmers Market.

Elsewhere: Hartley Hall Markets outside Canberra, Springfield Markets west of Brisbane, and Toodyay Farmers Market in the Avon Valley, which skips February as well.

A few skip December instead and are back in January. Belmont Rotary Club Flea Market in Perth trades every Sunday except in December. Gembrook Market, Mirboo North Market, HIRL Farmers Market in Hamilton and Murwillumbah Showground Market all have December as their month off. Swan Hill Farmers' Market swaps its December morning for a twilight market on 5 December and opens 2027 on Sunday 3 January.

Beach towns go the other way

Where the holiday crowd goes, the markets follow. Barwon Heads Market switches from monthly to every Saturday in December and stays that way through January, when the town has the population to justify it. Park well away from the hall.

On the Fleurieu Peninsula, Port Elliot Rotary Market adds a fourth market in December and goes weekly in January, and Goolwa Wharf Markets adds extra January dates. The Fresh Market Warrnambool runs a Summer Markets series across most Sundays in January, so a week on the Great Ocean Road should catch one without planning.

Little Beauty Market in Frankston has a twilight market in January, and in Perth the Scarborough Sunset Markets summer season fills Thursday nights on the beachfront.

The tropical north is on a different calendar

In the far north, summer is the wet season and many markets close for it. Mindil Beach Sunset Market in Darwin closes its 2026 season on Thursday 29 October and does not reopen until the dry. Palm Cove Markets and Gordonvale Cottage Markets both run until December and take January off. Strand Night Markets in Townsville does the same. Yungaburra Markets on the Tablelands skips December, and Koah Monthly Markets and Bullyard Hall Markets skip both months.

Two run against it. Marina Markets in Port Douglas closes for the wet but comes back for the Christmas school holidays, and Magnetic Island Sunday Markets keeps trading at Horseshoe Bay until late January before stopping.

Check before you drive

Every listing in the directory shows how often the market runs and, where we know it, what it does over summer. The organiser's Facebook page is where a late change shows up first, so look at it in the week you plan to go. Markets this weekend works from each market's regular pattern plus the holiday dates we have recorded, which makes it a good starting list, not a final word.

If you are looking at a monthly market for 2 or 3 January, assume it's off until the organiser says otherwise. Plenty are, and they'll be back in February.