Ohio's 5 Best Christmas Markets For Shopping, Treats, And Holiday Vibes

While no state has a monopoly on Christmas cheer, Ohio is a strong contender for the title of most festive. You don't even need to wait for winter to get into the holiday spirit, thanks to spots like Castle Noel, America's largest year-round indoor Christmas attraction, located in historic Medina, a charming small town often referred to as America's Hometown. Throughout November and December, there is a wealth of unique holiday experiences across the state, from candlelight tours of historic Roscoe Village in Coshocton to the town-wide WinterFest celebrations that turn Findlay into a Christmas paradise.

Christmas markets are something else Ohio has in abundance. There are more than 30 just in the state's northeastern quadrant, with dozens more across the state listed in the Official 2025 Ohio Holiday Events Guide. These range from small and local one-day events to month-long markets with 50 or more vendors. If you're considering a trip to Ohio for holiday shopping, here are the top five Christmas markets that are worth traveling to for the treats, trinkets, and holiday vibes.

If you're looking for the most established and authentic Christmas market in Ohio, the Germania Society in Cincinnati has you covered. Its Christkindlmarkt was first held in 1998 and has remained the city's largest such event since. Along with perusing vendor booths of ornaments, nutcrackers, and other seasonal handcrafts from both German and local artisans, you can sample German fare like wursts, mulled wine, and mock turtle soup while listening to live traditional music. You can also meet Santa (if you've been good) or Krampus (if you haven't), or take part in activities like the petting zoo, carriage rides, scavenger hunt, and lantern parade. All activities are included in the $5 entry.

The Germania Society's Christkindlmarkt happens fairly early in the season, usually the first weekend in November. If you missed it, there's good news: Cincinnati has a second Christmas market that runs later and longer. The Cincinnati Christkindlmarkt at Moerlein Lager House is open on Thursdays through Sundays from late November through late December along the Smale Riverfront in downtown. You'll find vendors and food booths on any day you visit, and you can check the online schedule of events to see what else is on the docket. This includes live music on the Fest Tent Stage most weekend nights. For the kids, there are story times, character brunches, and visits with Santa. Adults can take part in the Merry-Oke competition, wine and bourbon tastings, or DJ dance parties. The U.S. Steinholding Association National Championship also takes place during the Christkindlmarkt kick-off weekend, and like all of the market's activities, is free to attend.

Located in Warren County, between Dayton and Cincinnati, Waynesville is one of Ohio's most charming small towns. Its dozen-plus antique shops have earned it the title "Antiques Capital of the Midwest." It's also a festive town, home to the annual Ohio Sauerkraut Festival, which draws in over 460 vendors from across the country every October, and the Ohio Renaissance Festival on weekends in September and October. After Thanksgiving, the Renaissance Park turns into a winter wonderland for the Yuletide Village Season of Lights.

The marketplace is the heart of the Yuletide Village, with dozens of shops selling handcrafted gifts, attire, and other goods. Elsewhere on the grounds, you can hang out with Santa in his workshop, hear some stories from Mrs. Claus, or find Krampus and his ghostly buddies like the Rat King and the Ghost of Christmas Future lurking in the shadows. There are also five stages for live music, or you can check out the light displays from the Yuletide Express train. The usual Renaissance Festival food vendors are open, too, meaning you can chow down on a massive turkey leg or throw back a tankard of mead at the Rose & Crown pub while you enjoy the festive atmosphere.

The Yuletide Village opens for the season on Black Friday. From then through the weekend before Christmas, it's open on Friday evenings and Saturdays starting at 3 p.m. Individual day tickets cost $10 to $20 depending on the day and when you buy them, or you can get a season pass for $45 and come back as many times as you'd like.

Bryan is a small town of about 8,500 people located in northwest Ohio, about an hour west of Toledo. In the summer, it's known as a destination for outdoor recreation, with 11 parks where you can play disc golf or pickleball and easy access to the Maumee River Water Trail, a 107-mile stretch that connects to state parks and Toledo's metro parks. Come late November, its Christkindl Market also makes it an excellent place to enjoy some old-school holiday cheer.

Bryan's Christkindl Market fills downtown's courthouse square starting the Friday after Thanksgiving, and is open Thursday, Friday, and Saturday evenings through the weekend before Christmas. Along with the European-style market, there are free nightly activities like German music and dance, fireside stories, reindeer games, and screenings of classic Christmas movies. Santa is also on hand for visits and pictures. Foodies can check the schedule for ticketed activities like the Sweet Life Christkindl Walk and Progressive Holiday Party, which let you sample festive foods at different vendors and restaurants.

If you're looking for more festive fun, there are plenty of other events happening around Bryan throughout the season. This starts with the Festival of Trees and Santa Arrival Parade on Black Friday, and continues with Holiday Trolley rides, a Winter Farmers Market, and performances from the Toledo Symphony and Williams County Community Theater through December.

The Ohio River town of Steubenville is located right on the state's border with West Virginia, about 45 minutes west of Pittsburgh. Its claims to fame include murals, Ohio Valley-style pizza, and the historic Fort Steuben outpost. But its biggest draw for holiday travelers is the Nutcracker Village, the largest collection of life-sized nutcrackers in the world, with more than 200 on display. This tradition started in 2015 with 37 hand-painted, custom nutcrackers displayed in Fort Steuben Park and has grown each year since. The village is free to tour and open all day long from Thanksgiving week through the first week of January.

Concurrent with this impressive holiday display is the town's Advent Market. On Saturday afternoons, vendors fill North 4th Street and the Gluhwein Garden. Each weekend brings a different set of artisans selling handcrafted goods and holiday gifts around the town's 30-foot Christmas tree. You can also venture to the Fort Steuben Visitor Center to check out their Christmas Shoppe, write a letter to Santa, or see their model train village display. In 2025, the Canton Ballet added performances of The Nutcracker Ballet to the schedule alongside the Sights and Sounds Christmas Parade and St. Nicholas Lantern Parade. Just before Christmas is the Nutcracker Masquerade Ball, where you can enjoy live music, dancing, and holiday games in the historic Renaissance Ballroom.

Sandusky's Christmas Market is the newest on the list, first started in 2024, but it quickly established itself as one of the top holiday markets in Ohio. It brings over 35 vendors in Alpine-style wooden stalls to downtown's Schade-Mylander Plaza. The market is open for three consecutive weekends, from Black Friday through mid-December, and each of those weekends offers a different set of activities. The fun starts on Black Friday with the kick-off party and tree lighting. Each weekend also features a different set of live musicians and DJs performing from the Main Stage (along with appearances from Santa). The market wraps up on the final Saturday with a fireworks finale. You can also get your four-legged friend in on the action with the Happy Pawlidays portraits with Santa.

The Sandusky area has become a tourism hotspot, with more than 13 million visitors in 2023. It's gained a reputation as one of America's best coastal towns thanks to its waterfront district and Cedar Point amusement park. While Cedar Point is closed for winter, the adjacent indoor water parks get dolled up for the holidays. Castaway Bay's Castaway Christmas celebration runs through the end of December, with holiday lights, games, and performances alongside the heated indoor water rides. Great Wolf Lodge's Snowland event runs through the first week of January and offers activities like scavenger hunts, trivia, and wintery crafts. The Erie County Fairgrounds also holds a yearly Lights on the Northcoast display, one of the stops on the Ohio Holiday Lights Trail. The more than 1 million lights include interactive displays, and you can also play a round of Santa's Mini Golf or peruse the fairground's Christmas Village while you're there.

For the purposes of this ranking, Islands aimed to find the most-travel worthy Christmas markets in Ohio. This started by identifying the largest markets with the most vendors who can offer visitors a wide variety of food, decor, attire, and other goods to peruse and buy. We also selected markets that have other entertainment and activities alongside the market stalls, focusing on those that provided unique experiences you can't get just anywhere, like the steinholding championship at the Cincinnati Christkindlmarkt or Steubenville's Nutcracker Village. 

Many of Ohio's Christmas markets are only open for a single day or weekend. In this list, we primarily focused on markets that span multiple weekends, giving travelers more flexibility for when they visit. For our final step, we researched the history of each market to determine how long it's been running, its cultural connection to the town that hosts it, and how authentically it presents a European-style Christmas market experience. This last point is why we included the Germania Society of Cincinnati's Christkindlmarkt on the list. Though it only takes place over a single weekend, it is consistently lauded as one of the most authentic Christmas markets in the United States, and was the runner-up on USA Today's 10Best ranking of holiday markets in 2024.