If your ideal holiday outing involves time travel, corsets and ample mulled wine, clear a weekend: our new ranking of the best Christmas markets in the U.S. has crowned The Great Dickens Christmas Fair at the Cow Palace in Daly City, California, just south of San Francisco, as number one. And honestly, nothing else on the list is quite as extra.
Instead of a quaint row of chalets, all 140,000 square feet of the Cow Palace is transformed into Victorian London, with more than four acres of cobblestone-style lanes, gaslamp lighting and hundreds of costumed characters roaming the “streets.”
Attendees can spot an Ebenezer Scrooge grumbling past chimney sweeps, Father Christmas posing for photos and may even bump into Oliver Twist, Nancy, sailors, suffragists, or even Dickens himself mid-monologue. Scenes from A Christmas Carol and other novels break out around you like pop-up theater.
The fair is essentially a full indoor city of holiday distractions. There’s Fezziwig’s dance party, where you can learn Victorian waltzes and country dances; the Surrey Theatre for melodramas and magic; Mad Sal’s Dockside Ale House for rowdy music hall antics; and a Father Christmas Stage and Punch & Judy theatre for kids.
The experience starts at “Victoria Station,” complete with a miniature live steam train that ferries you, symbolically at least, back to Christmas Eve in 19th-century London. On the food front, expect English bangers and fish and chips, plus global comfort food, sweets and five pubs pouring local craft ales, wine and Champagne.
If you want to go all in, there are also ample add-ons, ranging from port and chocolate tastings, Champagne tastings featuring B. Stuyvesant, the Jekyll & Hyde pub crawl and the Dark Garden Corset Experience, which is exactly what it sounds like. Shopping runs from handmade jewelry and art to Victorian-inspired clothing, ornaments and pewter.
This year's fair runs through December 21 and is open from 10am to 6pm. Adult general admission is $45, youth tickets (5–12) are $25 and kids under 5 are free. Costumes are encouraged but absolutely not required—throw on a scarf and call it Dickens-core. But if you want peak Christmas market energy this year, this is the one to build a whole weekend around.
The best Christmas markets in the U.S.:
1. The Great Dickens Christmas Fair, Daly City, CA
2. Christkindlmarkt, Bethlehem, PA
3. Christmas Village, Baltimore, MD
4. Denver Christkindlmarket, Denver, CO
5. Christkindlmarket, Chicago, IL
6. Carmel Christkindlmarkt, Carmel, IN
7. Union Square Market, New York, NY
8. D.C. Holiday Market, Washington, D.C.
9. Christmas Village, Philadelphia, PA
10. Kerstmarkt, Holland, MI
11. Tomball German Fest, Tomball, TX
12. Old World Christmas Market, Elkhart Lake, WI
13. Helen's Christmas Market, Helen, GA
Read more:
• The best Christmas Markets in the USA