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This year’s Christmas season kicked off on Saturday 18 November with the opening of the Christmas Market and our Let’s Glow Belfast switch-on event.
The celebrations continue across the festive season, with an array of free events at 2 Royal Avenue’s Winter’s Den, plus a selection of festive activity in the city centre and beyond.
| Event title | Date | Venue |
|---|---|---|
| Christmas Market | Saturday 18 November 2023 to Friday 22 December 2023 | Belfast City Hall |
| Winter’s Den | Saturday 18 November to Sunday 7 January | 2 Royal Avenue |
| Pantomimes | Various dates | Theatres across Belfast |
| Christmas Chronicles at the Castle | Thursday 30 November to Sunday 10 December | Belfast Castle |
| Wildlife Wonderland | Saturday 9 to Sunday 17 December | Belfast Zoo |
| Christmas in the Community | Saturday 16 December | Girdwood Community Hub |
Some of our services and venues' opening hours may be affected during the Christmas and New Year period. Check when your bin will be collected or when our offices are open.
Most of us produce extra waste over the festive period, so it is important to know what goes in your bin, when your bin will be collected and what you can recycle, including Christmas trees, wrapping paper, crackers and Christmas cards.
Our recycling centres are closed on Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year's Day. For more information, go to our holiday arrangements.
A range of stores will open late on:
Please go to individual store websites to confirm opening hours. Opening times may vary for independent stores.
For more information about shop opening hours during Christmas, visit Belfast One (link opens in new window).
Read Visit Belfast's Christmas shopping guide (link opens in new window)
Translink has your festive travel all wrapped up with a range of fast, frequent and convenient bus and train services.
Translink tickets and travel cards make it easy to travel greener, healthier and smarter this Christmas.
A Nightmovers service will also operate on Fridays and Saturdays over the festive season (Metro: 24 November to 22 December and Goldliner, Urby and NI Railways: 1 to 22 December).
For more details go to www.translink.co.uk (link opens in new window), call 028 9066 6630 or follow @Translink_NI on Twitter
We have information on all of our
Find all our city centre car parks
We operate and maintain public toilets in Belfast city centre and disabled access is available at 13 of our 14 public toilets.
City Hall has a Changing Places facility. View opening hours and access arrangements.
Belfast City Council is the Data Controller under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) for the personal data it gathers for the purposes of sending regular event-related emails from Belfast City Council.
The council accepts that you are providing your personal data on the basis of consent and are positively agreeing for the council to hold and further use it.
The personal data may be shared internally within the council with staff who are involved in providing this service and where necessary, between internal departments with the purpose of supporting an effective delivery of service.
Your personal data will not be shared or disclosed to any other organisation without your consent, unless the law permits or places an obligation on the council to do so.
The personal data is held and stored by the council in a safe and secure manner and in compliance with Data Protection legislation and in line with the council’s Records Retention and Disposal Schedule.
If you have any queries regarding the processing of your personal data or wish to withdraw your consent to the processing of it, call the Events team on 028 9032 0202.
If you wish to contact the council’s Data Protection Officer, write to:
Belfast City Council,
City Hall Belfast,
BT1 5GS
or email
Read our privacy policy for further information.
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