Oxford Christmas Light Festival 2026: what's on

Oxford's Christmas Light Festival is back for 2026, and it's a three-day affair that spreads across the city rather than sticking to one spot. The main festival runs from Friday 13 to Sunday 15 November, led by Oxford City Council with cultural organisations and funded by the council, so there's plenty to do without spending much. The centrepiece is the Victorian Christmas Market on Broad Street, which actually opens a day early on Thursday 12 November and carries on through to the Sunday, with food, drink, decorations, gifts and festive street entertainment.

Saturday 14 November is the busiest day. The Rose Hill Light Parade returns with the theme 'Fantastic Fiction', run by Film Oxford alongside Rose Hill Community Centre and Rose Hill Junior Youth Club, with lantern-making workshops in the afternoon before the parade itself from 2pm to 6pm. Over in Cutteslowe Park, The North Wall Arts Centre and Cutteslowe Community Association put on a free, fully accessible light trail from 4pm, with craft activities, music, theatre, railway journeys and discos, closing with the 'And…Breathe' sound and light installation. In the city centre, the DSO Singing and Signing Choir sing festive tunes in Bonn Square from midday to 2pm, and the Museum of Oxford on St Aldate's opens a new gallery trail with a lantern-making session for £2 a person, with gallery entry and object handling free.

It's not just the centre, either. In Cowley, Ark-T turns 'The Venue' into a winter wonderland on the Friday. In East Oxford, Pegasus Theatre fills Saturday 10am to 4pm with free activities: IF Oxford's 'Glow Gallery' with lasers, LEDs and phosphorescent boards, shadow puppet-making with Wild Boor Ideas, interactive walking-tour performances from WhatNot Theatre, drop-in arts and crafts with local artist Carmen Rodriguez Macias and a youth open-mic night. On Sunday 15 November, Integrate Community brings things round in The Leys, where residents decorate homes and communal spaces.

For anyone who wants to get involved before the lights go up, IF Oxford's Science and Ideas Festival is running a six-week online course called 'Glow Your Own', which started on Wednesday 14 October and continues on Wednesdays until 18 November, 5pm to 6.30pm. It's aimed at ages 7 to 12, teenagers and adults, and shows you how to build your own LED light display using Arduino and Tinkercad, with a suggested donation of £45 for the course or pay-what-you-decide. And if you'd rather see the city lit up from a window, the Christmas Light Bus, run by Oxford Bus Company and City Sightseeing Oxford, loops within the Ring Road on the Friday and Saturday.

It's a lot to take in, so the best plan is to pick a day or two and a couple of neighbourhoods rather than trying to do it all. Most of it is free or cheap, which makes it an easy one to bring the whole family along to.