By 6pm on a Thursday in late November, the string lights along Grey Street are already doing their job, even before the stalls show up. That’s the giveaway that Christmas is close in Brisbane. Not the weather, which barely shifts, but the lights going up around South Bank while everyone’s still wearing shorts.
This year the wait is over. Brisbane City Council has locked in the dates for the city’s two biggest Christmas markets, and they’re bigger than last year’s run. South Bank’s Christmas Market opens on November 28 and runs every Thursday to Sunday night through to December 24, set up along the Riverside Green and spilling into the Clem Jones Promenade. The CBD market returns to King George Square on the same opening weekend, running daily until Christmas Eve, with extended hours on the two weekends before the big day.
Anyone who’s done the South Bank market before knows the drill. Wooden stalls, fairy lights strung between the fig trees, the smell of cinnamon doughnuts fighting with mulled wine for attention. What’s changed this year is the footprint. Organisers have added another twenty stalls to the river side of the market, mostly local makers rather than imported trinkets, which locals have been asking for since 2024. A woman named Priya, who runs a candle stall out of Paddington, said she applied for a spot back in July and only found out she’d got one in September. “It’s not cheap to be there,” she said, “but you make it back in the first two weekends if the weather holds.”
That’s the catch with any outdoor market in Brisbane in December. Storm season doesn’t care what’s booked. Council has said both markets will run rain or shine where possible, with the CBD site able to shift undercover near the square’s colonnade if a storm rolls through, but South Bank doesn’t have the same shelter. Last December saw two Saturday nights washed out entirely, which stallholders are still annoyed about given how last-minute the cancellations were. This year the market’s Facebook page will supposedly post weather updates by 3pm on show days, so it’s worth checking before you drive in and pay for parking.
Parking is its own headache, and it’s worth sorting out before you go rather than after you’re circling Melbourne Street for the third time. South Bank has the usual options: the Cultural Centre car park, the Montague Road lots, or the ferry if you’re coming from New Farm or West End, which honestly might be the better call given how packed the roads get on market nights. The CBD market is easier in that sense, since most people are already in the city for work and just stick around, but King George Square’s own car park fills fast after 5pm once the after-work crowd mixes with families arriving for the market.
Food is where both markets have actually improved. South Bank’s added six new vendors this year, including a Filipino lechon stall that did ridiculous numbers at the Jan Powers markets earlier in the year, and a wood-fired pizza van that’s been working the Sunshine Coast circuit. The CBD market has leaned harder into dessert this time around, with three separate stalls doing some version of a pavlova, which feels about right for a Brisbane Christmas. Drinks-wise, expect the usual mulled wine and a few too many glitter cocktails aimed squarely at Instagram rather than taste.
For families, the bigger draw is probably the entertainment lineup rather than the food. South Bank’s running a Santa photo booth every weekend from December 5, free for kids under twelve, and there’s a kids’ choir performance scheduled for the final Saturday before Christmas that’s become something of a tradition since it started in 2021. The CBD market has gone a different direction, with a rotating list of local bands and a few surprise acts the council’s being cagey about announcing early, probably to build a bit of hype closer to the date.
If you’re after something less crowded, locals tend to point to the Wednesday nights, which haven’t officially started yet but may be added if demand holds from last year. Thursday openings tend to be quieter too, before the weekend crowds show up. Saturdays, unsurprisingly, are chaos. If you’ve got small kids or just hate queuing for a $12 hot chocolate, go early in the week or go right at opening before the after-work crowd arrives.
One thing worth knowing if you’re new to Brisbane or just haven’t been in a few years: both markets are genuinely different experiences, not just the same stalls in two spots. South Bank feels like a proper night out, riverside, a bit romantic if you time it right, good for a date or a wander with a glass of mulled wine. The CBD market is faster and more functional, better if you’re doing Christmas shopping on a lunch break or meeting people after work and want something easy to duck into.
Prices haven’t shifted much from last year, which is a small win given how much everything else has gone up. Most stalls are still sitting in the $15 to $35 range for gifts, with the food vans a bit steeper, closer to $18 to $25 a meal depending on what you’re after. Entry to both markets remains free, which matters more than it should when you’re already budgeting for the actual Christmas shop.
Whichever one you end up at, the real trick is going more than once. The stalls rotate a little through December, new vendors show up in week two or three once the early applicants prove themselves, and the vibe shifts as the date gets closer and the crowds thicken. Early December is for wandering. The week before Christmas is for getting it done.
Both markets close on December 24, with South Bank traditionally hosting one last big night that doubles as the unofficial start of Brisbane’s Christmas Eve. If history’s any guide, it’ll be packed, it’ll be humid, and somebody’s kid will be crying near the Santa booth by 7pm. That’s just Brisbane in December. Get there early if you can.