The Christmas market takes the Argos end of the High Street for two days, on top of the regular market. No 2026 dates published, 2025 ran 21 and 22 November.

Bromsgrove’s Christmas market is two days, not a season, and it is not run by the council. Friends of St John joined forces with the Bromsgrove Festival to put it on, and it sits in the Event Space at the Argos end of the High Street, at the top of town.

No 2026 dates have been published. Bromsgrove District Council’s news page carried nothing festive as at 5 September 2026, and the market’s dates have historically come out with the council’s Christmas announcements in late October or early November.

The dates it has used

Year Days Hours
2023 Fri 17 and Sat 18 November Friday 9am to 4pm, Saturday 9am to 6pm
2024 Fri 22 and Sat 23 November 10am to 4pm both days
2025 Fri 21 and Sat 22 November Friday 9am to 4pm, Saturday 10am to 6pm

The pattern is firm on one point: it is always the Friday and Saturday of the Christmas lights switch-on weekend, with the Saturday running through to the countdown. If you want the market and the lights in one trip, it is the Saturday you want.

It lands on days the ordinary market already runs

This is the detail that changes how you plan a visit. Bromsgrove Market runs in the High Street every Tuesday, Friday and Saturday, according to the council. The Christmas market has always been scheduled on a Friday and a Saturday, so on both days you get the regular traders and the Christmas stalls side by side, in different parts of the street.

The Christmas stalls are the ones at the top end, near Argos. They are independent local traders selling gifts, decorations and produce, and the market supports local charities.

What was on in 2025

The 2025 programme is the best guide to what the market actually is, because it is the most recent one published in full.

Friday

  • DJ Phil from Jammersley Entertainment across the day, with games and giveaways
  • 11am, St John’s School Choir
  • 11.30am, the “Sign and Sing” performance by students from Chadsgrove Educational Trust Specialist College, joined that year by Alvechurch Middle and Fairfield First Schools
  • Chadsgrove students also sold their own Christmas decorations and gifts, raising money for their life skills training

Saturday

  • 12.30pm, Rock Choir
  • 1.30pm, a taster from All and Sundry’s pantomime, Cinderella
  • 2pm, Sounds of Steel
  • 2.30pm, students from Stage Coach
  • 3pm, Got to Sing Choir, then Sounds of Steel again
  • 4.30pm, Vintage Class Singers, running into the countdown and the light and laser show
  • VC Ladies after the switch-on, until the event finished at 6pm

Street entertainer Steve Kaos worked the crowd both days with unicycle juggling. Saturday added street food, a burger van, desserts and ice creams, and fairground rides for children.

The market and the lights are the same weekend, not the same event

They are run by different people. The market is Friends of St John and the Bromsgrove Festival; the countdown and the lights are Bromsgrove District Council. In 2025 that mattered, because the council announced in August that there would be no switch-on at all on safety grounds, then reversed it the next day. The market was going ahead either way. The full story is on Bromsgrove Christmas lights switch-on.

Parking, and the car park that has gone

The High Street is pedestrianised at the market end, so plan the car first. Parking in Bromsgrove has the tariffs: 30 minutes free in every council car park, but you still have to take a ticket, charges to 6pm on every day of the week including Sundays, and £6 for long stay in most of them.

Two things have changed since last year’s market. Stourbridge Road car park closes on 25 September 2026 under the council’s parking order, taking 71 spaces out of the town centre. And the station car park, which is not the council’s, remains the cheapest long stay at £3 a day and £1.50 at weekends.

Check Bromsgrove roadworks and travel before travelling. Old Birmingham Road at Lickey End is closed into November.

Still to come

  • The 2026 dates and hours
  • The stallholder list and the entertainment programme
  • Whether the Saturday again runs into the switch-on countdown

Sources