Christmas in Singapore 2026: the lights, the snow, the markets and what to book

Fake snow, real humidity, and a very long string of fairy lights.

Christmas in Singapore 2026 has three dates that matter: the Orchard Road lights go on at 7pm on Tuesday 17 November, Christmas Wonderland opens at Gardens by the Bay on Friday 27 November, and Orchard Road closes for a free street party on Thursday 24 December. Most of it costs nothing, the snow is foam and falls on a timetable, and the only things that need booking are a concert, a pantomime, a fairground and a turkey. This page is the plan, with everything we cover linked from it, and every date, time and price below comes from the organiser's own page, read on 13 November 2026 unless the note at the end says otherwise.

Three things are already open: the Great Christmas Village at Ngee Ann City, Christmas at Jewel and VivoCity's Super Mario Christmas all opened on Friday 13 November. Christmas Day is Friday 25 December, a public holiday on the Ministry of Manpower's list, and New Year's Day is a Friday too, so there are two long weekends. Schools break up on Friday 20 November, by the Ministry of Education's calendar, and stay out until 31 December.

At a glance: every date, in order

Free things are marked free. Everything runs daily unless it says otherwise.

• Now to 3 Jan · free – the 3D projection show on Hilton Singapore Orchard, 7pm to 10pm nightly, to 12.30am on 24 and 31 December. Between Orchard and Somerset MRT. Our Orchard Road story
• Now to Sat 21 Nov · from S$22 – Junior and the Holiday Magic, SRT's hour-long Christmas musical for ages 4 and up. Drama Centre Theatre, Bugis MRT
• Now to Sun 27 Dec · S$55 to S$120 – Monkey Goes West, Wild Rice's pantomime, ages 5 and up. Funan, City Hall MRT
• Fri 13 Nov to Sun 3 Jan · free entry – The Great Christmas Village, Ngee Ann City Civic Plaza, 3pm to 10pm, snow at 8pm and 9pm. Orchard MRT
• Fri 13 Nov to Sun 3 Jan · free – Christmas at Jewel: a 16-metre tree and snow at 8.05pm and 9.05pm. Changi Airport MRT
• Fri 13 Nov to Sun 27 Dec · free – Super Mario Holiday Power-Up at VivoCity, snow Tuesday to Sunday at 7.30pm and 8.30pm. HarbourFront MRT
• Fri 13 Nov to Sun 3 Jan · free – Tanglin Mall's Holiday Express: foam and snow nightly from 14 November at 7.30pm, and a weekend market to 20 December. Orchard Boulevard MRT
• Tue 17 Nov, 7pm · free – the Orchard Road light-up at Shaw House Urban Plaza; the lights stay until Sunday 3 January. Orchard MRT
• Fri 20 to Sun 22 Nov · from S$8 – Boutiques: The Gifting Edition, the design fair, at the F1 Pit Building. Promenade MRT
• Fri 20 Nov to Sun 3 Jan · with Flower Dome admission – the Christmas Train Show, 9am to 9pm; residents S$12, children S$8. Bayfront MRT
• Fri 20 Nov to Sun 3 Jan · free entry – the second Great Christmas Village, at Shaw House Urban Plaza, 3pm to 10pm. Orchard MRT
• Fri to Sun, 20 Nov to 20 Dec · free – A Sweet Christmas market at Downtown East, noon to 8pm. Pasir Ris MRT. Christmas markets
• Fri 27 to Sun 29 Nov · free – Christmas Together, a 70,000 sq ft indoor village in Hall F, Sands Expo, 10am to 9pm. Bayfront MRT
• Fri 27 Nov to Sun 3 Jan · adults S$9 to S$16 – Christmas Wonderland, Gardens by the Bay, 6.30pm to 11pm. Bayfront MRT
• Fri 27 Nov to Sun 3 Jan · tree free, parks ticketed – Resorts World Sentosa's Season of Joy, with fireworks inside Universal Studios on 15 nights. HarbourFront MRT, then the Sentosa Express
• Wed 2 and Thu 3 Dec · free – Design Assembly's Christmas market in CHIJMES Hall. City Hall MRT
• Sat 5 Dec to Sun 3 Jan · free – Gardens-A-Glow, lit trees at the Singapore Botanic Gardens. Botanic Gardens MRT
• Thu 10 Dec to Sun 3 Jan · free – A Christmas Story, the market at the METT Hotel on Fort Canning, to 11pm. Fort Canning MRT
• Fri 11 and Sat 12 Dec, 7.30pm · S$48 to S$228 – the SSO Christmas Concert, Esplanade Concert Hall, ages 5 and up. Esplanade MRT
• From Fri 11 Dec · from S$15 – Pop after Pop at the National Gallery; children 6 and under free. City Hall MRT
• From Fri 18 Dec · residents S$39, children S$29 – The Story of Studio Ghibli on the West Lawn, Gardens by the Bay. Bayfront MRT
• Thu 24 Dec, 8pm to 12.15am · free – the Great Christmas Eve Street Party on Orchard Road, closed to traffic from 6pm. Orchard MRT
• Fri 25 Dec – Christmas Day, a public holiday
• Thu 31 Dec, 8.30pm · S$28 and S$38 – The Kallang Countdown 2027 Concert at Stadium Roar. Stadium MRT. New Year's Eve in Singapore

Orchard Road Christmas lights 2026: dates, light-up time and price

The Orchard Road Christmas light-up, Christmas on A Great Street, runs from Tuesday 17 November 2026 to Sunday 3 January 2027. It is free: a street with lights on it, no ticket and nothing to book. The switch-on is a Community Chest ceremony at Shaw House Urban Plaza from 7pm on 17 November. The Orchard Road Business Association does not publish nightly on and off times for the street lights themselves; what it does give times for is the new 6.2-metre inflatable Merli in a Santa hat on the Shaw House facade, lit from 6.30pm to 6.30am, and the projection show on the front of Hilton Singapore Orchard, which has played since 1 November from 7pm to 10pm nightly. So go after 7pm and you will not be early.

The association has mapped five photo spots this year: the Steps of Golden Joy at Shaw House, an illuminated arch and a lit Christmas scene outside ION Orchard, a mistletoe installation with Merli outside Ngee Ann City, and a golden tree outside Mandarin Gallery. Walk it in that order, from Orchard MRT down to Somerset, and you finish at a station. Go on a Tuesday or Wednesday in the last week of November, before the school-holiday crowds have found their rhythm; the lights are the same on a Saturday in December and the pavement is not.

On Christmas Eve, Thursday 24 December, the road closes to traffic from the Paterson junction at ION Orchard to the Bideford junction at Ngee Ann City from 6pm to 2am, and the free street party runs from 8pm to 12.15am. Benjamin Kheng and Maia Lee headline, Kheng leads the countdown to midnight, and the Hilton projection runs on to 12.30am. Take the train, arrive before 9pm and agree a meeting point. The switch-on, the photo spots and the party are in our Orchard Road light-up story, and the air-conditioned shortcuts are in the Orchard Road guide.

Gardens by the Bay: trains by day, Christmas Wonderland by night

The Christmas Train Show runs in the Flower Dome from Friday 20 November to Sunday 3 January, 9am to 9pm, and is included with Flower Dome admission: S$12 for a resident adult and S$8 for a child of 3 to 12 or a senior. Visitors from overseas buy the dome with Cloud Forest, at S$46 an adult and S$32 a child. Model trains run through miniature versions of the United States, Singapore, where two SMRT trains pass MRT stations redesigned by NUS architecture students, and a snowy Rovaniemi with Santa's toy factory, post office and sauna. It is the easiest air-conditioned Christmas outing with small children, and the one to keep for a wet afternoon.

Christmas Wonderland, in its 13th edition, takes over the Supertree Grove and the Meadow from Friday 27 November to Sunday 3 January, 6.30pm to 11pm, with last admission at 10.15pm. Is Christmas Wonderland free? No. Adults pay S$9, S$11 or S$13 booked by 11.59pm the night before, depending on the night, and S$12, S$14 or S$16 on the day; children of 3 to 12 pay S$7 on any night and under-3s go free. Entry is by session, at 6.30pm, 7.30pm, 8.30pm or 9.30pm, rides and games cost extra, and there are no refunds for rain.

Our advice has not changed: book an off-peak night, 27 November to 3 December or 7 to 10 December, when the adult ticket is S$9, and take the 6.30pm session if you have children. Avoid 18 to 27 December unless your dates are fixed, when it is S$13 and everyone else is on holiday too. The Gardens also sells the Flower Dome and Wonderland together to residents, from S$20 an adult and S$13 a child booked ahead for an off-peak night, which saves a dollar on the adult and two on the child and gets the trains and the fair done in one trip. From Bayfront MRT, the organiser sends you to Gate 3 by the Meadow. The price for each night is in our Christmas Wonderland tickets story.

One more arrives late. The Story of Studio Ghibli opens on the West Lawn on Friday 18 December and runs to 4 July 2027: 12 walk-through scenes, 60 to 75 minutes, residents S$39 an adult and S$29 a child, others S$49 and S$43. The Gardens' page gives its hours as 10am to 7pm and the exhibition's own site says 11am, so go by the slot on your ticket. It runs until July, so December is not the month you have to see it.

Where to see snow in Singapore: the timetable

Does it snow in Singapore in December? No. The Meteorological Service's December figures are a mean daily high of 30.5°C and a low of 24.3°C. What falls is foam or artificial snow, on a schedule, and four of the five shows below are free.

• Jewel Changi Airport, Forest Valley · free – 13 November to 3 January. Monday to Thursday at 8.05pm and 9.05pm; Friday to Sunday, public holidays and their eves at 8.05pm, 9.05pm and 10.05pm. Jewel marks the last show as Forest Valley only; the snow also falls in Canopy Park, which is ticketed. Changi Airport MRT. Christmas at Jewel
• The Great Christmas Village, Ngee Ann City · free – 13 November to 3 January. Daily at 8pm and 9pm at the Hitachi Santa House on the Civic Plaza. Orchard MRT. The Great Christmas Village
• Tanglin Mall, Level 1 outdoor foyer · free – 14 November to 3 January. A foam 'avalanche' at 7.30pm, then artificial snow at 7.45pm, every night; at weekends and on public holidays both run again at 8.30pm and 8.45pm. Orchard Boulevard MRT
• VivoCity · free – 13 November to 27 December. Tuesday to Sunday at 7.30pm and 8.30pm; not on Mondays. HarbourFront MRT. Super Mario Holiday Power-Up
• Christmas Wonderland, Supertree Grove · ticketed, adults from S$9 – 27 November to 3 January. The organiser lists Blizzard Time with the Supertrees' light show daily at 7.45pm, 8.45pm and 9.35pm, with an extra 10.15pm session from 18 to 27 December, weather permitting. Bayfront MRT. Christmas Wonderland

For small children, Tanglin's foam and VivoCity's snow, both at 7.30pm, are the earliest shows in town; at Tanglin bring a change of clothes, because foam is the wet kind of snow. Jewel is the one to pick in the rain, since it is under a glass roof, and its 10.05pm show suits adults on a late dinner. On Orchard Road, time dinner around the 8pm snow at Ngee Ann City and walk the lights afterwards.

The malls, and what is free in them

This year's malls are on our pages rather than in our memory. The Great Christmas Village on Ngee Ann City's Civic Plaza is open from 3pm to 10pm daily, to 10.30pm on Fridays and Saturdays in December and to 1am on Christmas Eve. It is free to walk into; the games and the Mastercard Train run on a carnival card, from S$35 for 35 credits when paid by Mastercard, and a train ride takes 10 of them. A second village opens at Shaw House Urban Plaza on 20 November. Set the children a card budget before you arrive, because the claw machines have no such scruples.

Christmas at Jewel is a 16-metre UNIQLO tree with a brownstone house built into it, in the Forest Valley, and it is free, as is the snow. The paid part is Starry Christmas up in Canopy Park on Level 5. VivoCity's Super Mario Holiday Power-Up has six free zones around what Nintendo calls Singapore's first 10-metre Mario inflatable, opening in phases from 13 November, and a Nintendo pop-up store at Central Court from 1 to 27 December, 10am to 10pm. Tanglin Mall's Holiday Express adds an outdoor carnival with a Christmas train, from S$20 for 8 tokens with a ride at 3, on Friday evenings and weekends to 20 December and daily from 21 to 27 December.

On Sentosa, Resorts World Sentosa's Season of Joy runs from 27 November to 3 January. The tree at WEAVE is free to see. The fireworks are inside Universal Studios Singapore and need a park ticket: Fridays and Saturdays from 4 to 12 December, every night from 16 to 25 December except the 21st, and 1 and 2 January. If you only want a tree and a carol, go to WEAVE on a weekday evening and pay nothing.

Christmas markets in Singapore

The fairs have their own page, Christmas markets in Singapore 2026, with a dozen of them in date order. The four we would plan around: Boutiques at the F1 Pit Building from 20 to 22 November for presents made by the people selling them, from S$8 with under-12s free; Christmas Together at Sands Expo from 27 to 29 November, free, indoors and big enough to do the whole list in one go; Design Assembly in CHIJMES Hall on Wednesday 2 December from 5pm to 10pm and Thursday 3 December from 10am to 9pm, free; and A Christmas Story at the METT Hotel on Fort Canning from 10 December to 3 January, free, with a 38-foot real tree, open from 5pm on weekdays and 4pm from Friday to Sunday, to 11pm, and to 1am on Christmas Eve.

For a Christmas market this weekend or today, the answer changes every week: the markets page lists them by date, and this weekend in Singapore has whichever is on now. The one that repeats is Tanglin Mall's, every Friday from 5pm to 9pm and Saturday and Sunday from 11am to 9pm until 20 December, on the outdoor walkway by the Wine Connection exit.

Christmas lunch, dinner and buffets, including halal

The deadlines come before the menus. Our Christmas dinner, lunch and takeaways guide has 11 places to book or order from, and the early-bird prices on takeaway turkeys and log cakes end soon: Fairmont Singapore's on Sunday 29 November, Swensen's on 6 December and Holiday Inn Singapore Atrium's on 9 December.

For a Christmas buffet, the hotels in the guide charge S$158++ to S$170++ for Christmas Eve dinner and S$138++ to S$158++ for Christmas Day lunch; add 10 per cent service and 9 per cent GST to anything marked ++. Four are halal-certified, by the operators' own pages: Carousel at Royal Plaza on Scotts, Atrium Restaurant at Holiday Inn Singapore Atrium, Asian Market Café at Fairmont Singapore and Swensen's Unlimited, which starts at S$35++. Royal Plaza on Scotts also sells roasts to take home from its halal-certified kitchen, including a set for four at S$115. The guide has no brunch as such; Christmas Day lunch is the nearest thing, and Carousel does a Christmas Day high tea at S$88++. For a sit-down Christmas dinner, the Capitol Theatre has one sitting a night on 24 and 25 December.

Book Christmas Eve and Christmas Day now, and order the turkey before 29 November. The rest of the month's tables are on where to eat this month.

Christmas in Singapore for kids

The school holidays run from Saturday 21 November to Thursday 31 December, and our school holidays guide has 12 things to build them around, with ages and prices. The Christmas ones, youngest first: the Christmas Train Show has no age limit and a roof. Junior and the Holiday Magic, SRT's hour-long musical at the Drama Centre, is recommended for ages 4 and up and ends with a 2pm show on Saturday 21 November; weekend seats are S$22 to S$52, and under-4s still need a ticket.

Monkey Goes West runs to Sunday 27 December at Wild Rice in Funan, and Wild Rice recommends it for ages 5 and above. It lasts about 2 hours 30 minutes with an interval, so take a matinee, Saturday at 2.30pm or Sunday at 1.30pm, rather than a 7.30pm evening. Tickets are S$55 to S$105 from Tuesday to Thursday and S$60 to S$120 from Friday to Sunday. The SSO Christmas Concert on 11 and 12 December is also recommended for ages 5 and up; toddlers and infants in arms are not admitted, and every child needs a ticket.

For the days between, Glowing Oceans at the Science Centre, from S$7 for residents, is indoors and not for under-4s; Zoolympix at Mandai is S$20 for its village, daily from 10am to 7pm, and outdoors; and Pop after Pop lets children of 6 and under in free from 11 December. Year-round days out by age are on Shioklist Kids.

Shows and concerts

The surest booking of the season is the SSO Christmas Concert at the Esplanade Concert Hall on Friday 11 and Saturday 12 December at 7.30pm: the complete second act of The Nutcracker, John Rutter's Gloria and the carol singalong, in 1 hour 45 minutes with a 20-minute interval. Tickets are S$48, S$68, S$88, S$108, S$168 and S$228 before the booking fee, with 25 per cent off the two cheapest categories for students, seniors and NSFs. If it sells out, the SSO streams it live on its YouTube channel and on meWatch, which has better legroom.

Monkey Goes West is the pantomime, and it plays until the Sunday after Christmas. Pop after Pop opens at the National Gallery on 11 December, with Warhol and Lichtenstein beside Southeast Asian artists: timed entry, from S$15, and 30 per cent off for tickets bought by 30 November. It is the bright, air-conditioned answer to a stormy afternoon.

Free Christmas events in Singapore

A full December is possible without a ticket. Everything here is free to enter; where a part of it costs money, it says so.

• The Orchard Road lights, 17 November to 3 January, and the Hilton projection show, 7pm to 10pm
• The Great Christmas Eve Street Party on Orchard Road, 24 December, 8pm to 12.15am
• The Great Christmas Villages at Ngee Ann City and Shaw House, and the 8pm and 9pm snow (games and rides are on a paid card)
• The tree and the Forest Valley snow at Jewel (Canopy Park is ticketed)
• VivoCity's Super Mario zones and snow (meeting Mario needs a S$100 same-day receipt)
• Tanglin Mall's foam and snow, and its weekend market (the carnival rides take tokens)
• Christmas Together at Sands Expo, 27 to 29 November; the organiser invites you to register online first
• Design Assembly at CHIJMES, 2 and 3 December, and A Christmas Story on Fort Canning from 10 December
• Gardens-A-Glow at the Botanic Gardens, 5 December to 3 January
• The tree at WEAVE, Resorts World Sentosa, from 27 November

The year-round list is on free things to do in Singapore.

Christmas weather in Singapore, and the crowds

December is Singapore's wettest month. The Meteorological Service puts the average at 331.9mm of rain over 19 rain days, with the early Northeast Monsoon bringing spells of widespread, continuous rain. The lights look better after dark anyway, and the wet pavement doubles them. Carry an umbrella, keep the train show, Jewel, Christmas Together and the National Gallery as the indoor plan, and remember that Christmas Wonderland does not refund for rain.

For crowds, pick weekday evenings over December weekends everywhere. Schools are in until 20 November, so the first week of the lights is the one to choose. BTS play the National Stadium on 17, 19, 20 and 22 December, so expect packed trains towards Kallang on those nights, and Christmas Wonderland lists a BTS-themed Supertree light show at 9.35pm from 12 to 22 December, which will not thin the Gardens out either.

Quick answers

Is Christmas Eve a public holiday in Singapore?

No. The Ministry of Manpower's list of 2026 public holidays has Christmas Day, Friday 25 December, and not Christmas Eve, so Thursday 24 December is an ordinary working day. The list says nothing about a half day; where offices close early, that is the employer's decision.

When do the Orchard Road Christmas lights turn on and off?

They are switched on at 7pm on Tuesday 17 November 2026 and stay up until Sunday 3 January 2027. The organiser gives no nightly switch-off time for the street lights; the Hilton projection runs from 7pm to 10pm and the Merli on Shaw House is lit from 6.30pm to 6.30am. It is free and there are no tickets.

What is open on Christmas Day?

Friday 25 December is inside the run of nearly everything here. Christmas Wonderland is open from 6.30pm to 11pm, at its top price of S$13 in advance; the Christmas Train Show from 9am to 9pm; Jewel's snow falls at 8.05pm, 9.05pm and 10.05pm; both Great Christmas Villages open at 3pm and close at 10.30pm; and Universal Studios lists fireworks that night. For lunch or dinner, see the dining guide.

Where is the best place to see Christmas lights in Singapore?

Orchard Road for the street, free and at its best on a weekday after 8pm. Gardens by the Bay for the fairground lights, ticketed, from 27 November. The Botanic Gardens' Gardens-A-Glow from 5 December for lit trees and no fairground.

What is there to do after Christmas?

The lights, both villages, Jewel, the train show and Christmas Wonderland all run to Sunday 3 January. For 31 December, The Kallang Countdown 2027 Concert at Stadium Roar has Highlight headlining, doors at 7.30pm and a show at 8.30pm; it is standing only, tickets are S$28 and S$38 before a S$3 booking fee, and general sale opens at 3pm on Tuesday 17 November, a day after the priority sale for members of The Kallang's app. Marina Bay's countdown, the free places to watch fireworks and the late trains are on New Year's Eve in Singapore, and the rest of the month is on things to do this month.

The order of play

This week: book the SSO concert and a Monkey Goes West matinee, order the turkey before 29 November, and see Junior before it closes on the 21st if you have a four-year-old. From 17 November: the Orchard Road lights on a weekday evening, with the 8pm snow at Ngee Ann City. From 20 November: the train show on the first wet afternoon. From 27 November: Christmas Wonderland on an off-peak night at S$9, booked the day before, and Christmas Together that weekend for the presents. In December: one market, one snow show at Jewel or Tanglin, and Christmas Eve on Orchard Road only if a crowd is what you came for. Then New Year's Eve, which has its own plan.

Good to know Checked 13 November 2026 against the organisers' own pages: the Orchard Road Business Association, Gardens by the Bay, Christmas Wonderland, Jewel Changi Airport, Tanglin Mall, Nintendo, Resorts World Sentosa, the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, Wild Rice, SRT, the National Gallery, The Kallang, and the Ministry of Manpower, Ministry of Education and Meteorological Service. Restaurant prices and deadlines are from our Christmas dining guide, checked the same day; the tree at WEAVE, the Mario meet-and-greet rule and Canopy Park are from our own stories, checked on 9 and 10 November. Not yet published: nightly switch-off times for the Orchard Road lights and the Marina Bay countdown. The Studio Ghibli exhibition's opening hour differs between the Gardens' page (10am) and the exhibition's own site (11am).