Step Off the Train into a City Lit for Winter
It is late afternoon on the Second Day of Christmas and the light is already going. From Groningen station you walk ten to fifteen minutes into the centre, and by the time the Grote Markt opens up in front of you the square is a grid of lit wooden chalets, the smell of something hot and sweet drifting between them, and a Ferris wheel turning slowly above the rooftops. Strings of lights run up the masts of historic ships a ten-minute walk away along the Hoge and Lage der A. This is what the city reliably does at the turn of the year: the whole place is folded into a single winter festival, and the Second Day of Christmas falls right in the middle of it.
Ride the Ferris Wheel and Skate on the Grote Markt
The heart of the season is Winterstad, the German-style Christmas market on the Grote Markt, running daily from 10:00 to 22:00 through the holidays. Based on how the market has run in previous years, you can expect the following rhythm to the day:
- Ice rink — roughly 11:00 to 22:00
- Food and drink stalls — 10:00 until around midnight
- Craft winter chalets — 11:00 to 21:00
- Ferris wheel — 10:00 until around midnight
- Other rides, including a giant slide and children's rides — 11:00 to 22:00
Local musical groups and clubs perform among the trees at one end of the square, so you can time a lap of the stalls around a set. A large Christmas tree stands on the Grote Markt; in 2026 it is likely to be lit on 6 December, when the market switches from its Sinterklaas theme to its Christmas theme. By the Second Day of Christmas the square is fully in Christmas mode.
Walk the Wintergoud Market from the Canals to the Square
Across the same days, the Wintergoud Market threads a walking route between the canal area and the Grote Markt, with more than 175 stalls and three musical performance points spaced along the way. Roughly a fifth of the stalls are food and drink — a lower proportion than you would find at a typical German market, which means the route is weighted toward crafts and browsing. Give yourself an unhurried afternoon: start at the water, follow the stalls inland, and finish on the square with something hot in your hands.
Board a Lit Historic Ship at WinterWelVaart
If your Second Day of Christmas falls on 11, 12 or 13 December 2026, the canal festival WinterWelVaart is the reason to be in Groningen. Around twenty historic ships moor along the Lage der A, Hoge der A, Kleine der A, Pottebakkersrijge and Sluiskade, strung with lights up their masts and spars, and many are open for you to step aboard. Some serve as venues for music, art exhibits and storytelling. The name is worth knowing as you walk: welvaart means prosperity, vaart means making headway — winter prosperity, a good journey.
Expect the weekend to run roughly like this, based on the previous year:
- Friday — 17:00 to midnight; art route until 20:00, market until 22:00
- Saturday — 12:00 to midnight; art route until 18:00, market until 22:00
- Sunday — 12:00 to 18:00, art route and market included
The art route opens local studios to visitors. Maritime-themed events also run at the Akerk on Akerkhof 2, the A-Theater on Akerkstraat 11 and Het Pomphuis on Kleine der A 7. Be prepared for dense crowds during this weekend — it is the busiest stretch of the season.
Read the Warehouses on the Way Between
The walk between the market and the water is the quiet pleasure of the day. Groningen was a Hanseatic League city and a major peat-trade centre in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and canal transport stayed dominant here until the mid-twentieth century. The buildings along the Hoge, Lage and Kleine der A — many of them former warehouses with vertical door lines and gable hoisting mechanisms, alongside merchant houses — survived the wartime bombing intact. Most of the ships you board at WinterWelVaart date from the early twentieth century, so the whole canal-side reads as one continuous working history.
Plan Around the Weather and the Crowds
Late December in Groningen is changeable: near freezing when the sky clears, milder but cold when it is wet, and snow is unlikely. The market runs regardless of the weather. Wear layers, a waterproof jacket, gloves and a hat, and shoes with grip — wet cobblestones are slippery.
- By train: services from Amsterdam and elsewhere in the Netherlands; the station is a 10–15 minute walk from the Grote Markt, and the Grote Markt is about 10 minutes on foot from the WinterWelVaart canal area.
- By car: avoid parking in the centre and use the P+R lots on the city edge, such as Hoogkerk and Meerstad; a shuttle bus is planned.
- Timing: the wider Wintergoud festival runs from 27 November 2026 to 3 January 2027, so the Second Day of Christmas sits comfortably inside it whichever date it lands on.
Note that WinterWelVaart also runs in Slochteren on 12–13 December and in Zoutkamp, Sappemeer and Delfzijl on 19 December, and that the full Wintergoud schedule — including smaller markets, Sinterklaas children's activities and musical performances on the Grote Markt and along the market route — is published closer to the season.
Book your train, pack for wet cold, and give the day to the walk from the lit ships to the lit square. Check the Wintergoud and WinterWelVaart schedules as the season approaches, then let the Second Day of Christmas in Groningen unfold at the pace of a city that has been doing winter on the water for centuries.