Palma in December: Christmas in Palma de Mallorca 2026

On the last Saturday of November the lights come on over the Passeig del Born, the smell of roast chestnuts drifts across Plaça Major, and Palma settles into its most beautiful season. Palma in December is a city of short, bright days and long evenings, of nativity scenes in candlelit churches, markets under the cathedral and lunches that last until the light goes. It is a Mediterranean Christmas, mild enough to sit outside at noon and festive enough to feel like the real thing after dark.

Casa Roca stands at the heart of it, on Carrer dels Hostals in the Old Town, with the Christmas stalls of Plaça Major two minutes away and the cathedral a ten-minute walk. Christmas in Palma de Mallorca covers the new 2026 Christmas market, the best things to do, what to eat and the places that are at their finest in December, along with the dates to plan a stay around.

Palma in December: Weather and What to Expect

Palma in December is mild by northern European standards. The official climate averages for Palma harbour, measured by AEMET, Spain’s national weather agency, give a daytime high of about 17°C and a night-time low of about 10°C, with around 150 hours of sunshine across the month. Clear, bright days are common, and on a sunny afternoon a terrace in the Old Town is a pleasant place for lunch in a light jacket.

December has the shortest days of the year, and the sun sets at around 17:25 in the middle of the month. Rain falls on six or seven days, usually as showers that clear within the hour rather than long grey spells. The sea cools to about 17°C, too cold for most swimmers but lovely for a walk along the seafront, and the Tramuntana mountains are often sharp and clear against a blue sky.

What Palma in December offers most is atmosphere. The Old Town is lit from the end of November, the markets and nativity scenes open, and the city fills with Mallorcan families doing their Christmas shopping and meeting for long lunches. Restaurants, bars, museums and the cathedral stay open through the month, apart from Christmas Day and a few public holidays, so a December break works as well for sightseeing as it does for the festivities.

The Palma weather month by month gives the full figures for December and January, including sea temperatures and sunset times, for anyone planning a longer winter stay.

Palma Christmas Market 2026

The Palma Christmas market moves to a new home in 2026. The city’s main market becomes the Parc de Nadal, set up in the Parc de la Mar below the cathedral from 21 November 2026 to 6 January 2027. Around 60 stalls sell Christmas decorations, crafts, gifts and seasonal food, and a natural ice rink turns the park into a winter fair with La Seu floodlit above it.

The traditional Christmas stalls stay in their usual places in the Old Town. Plaça Major fills with stalls selling figures and moss for nativity scenes, decorations and handmade gifts, and more stalls line La Rambla and the Parc de les Estacions near the Sóller railway. In 2025 the Old Town stalls ran from late November to early January, open daily from about 10:00 to 21:00, and the 2026 opening hours will be published by the council closer to the date.

Two other Christmas markets in Palma are worth knowing. The Poble Espanyol, the replica Spanish village on the west side of the city, has held a Christmas market on weekends and holidays through December, and the Sa Feixina park near Santa Catalina has hosted a family Christmas fair. For a walk through the food and drink of the markets, with what to eat at each, Tasting Palma’s Palma Christmas market food guide goes stall by stall.

Palma Christmas market	Where	What you will find	Walk from Casa Roca
Parc de Nadal (new in 2026)	Parc de la Mar, below the cathedral	About 60 stalls, food, crafts and an ice rink	About 12 minutes
Plaça Major stalls	The main square of the Old Town	Nativity figures, decorations, gifts	2 minutes
La Rambla stalls	The tree-lined Rambla	Flowers, decorations and seasonal crafts	About 5 minutes
Parc de les Estacions	Beside Plaça d’Espanya	Christmas stalls and family activities	About 10 minutes
Poble Espanyol market	The Spanish village, west Palma	Weekend market in a walled village	15 minutes by taxi

The best time to visit the Christmas market in Palma is at dusk, when the lights come on and the cathedral is floodlit above the Parc de la Mar. Weekday evenings are calmer than weekends, and the market is at its most festive in the two weeks before Christmas.

Things to Do at Christmas in Palma

The season begins with the lights. On Saturday 21 November 2026 the Christmas lights are switched on across the Old Town, from the Born and Carrer de Sant Miquel to the squares around the cathedral, and a walk through the lit streets after dark is the simplest and best Christmas experience in Palma. The lights stay on until after the Three Kings in January.

Nativity scenes, called betlems in Mallorca, are one of the great traditions of Christmas in Palma. Churches, convents and public buildings set up elaborate betlems with hundreds of figures, miniature villages and running water. Among the most admired in the Old Town are those at the Església de la Sang, the Convent de les Caputxines and La Misericòrdia, and walking from one to the next is a lovely way to spend an afternoon.

The most moving moment of Christmas in Palma comes on Christmas Eve. At midnight mass in La Seu, and in churches across the island, a singer dressed as the Sibyl performs the Cant de la Sibil·la, a medieval chant about the end of the world that has been sung in Mallorca for centuries. It was added to UNESCO’s list of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2010. The cathedral fills early, so arrive well before the service.

Between the traditions, December is a fine month for the rest of Palma. The cathedral, the Almudaina palace and the museums are open, the Old Town shops are at their best, and the walking route through Palma Old Town is at its most atmospheric when the streets are lit. On a clear day, the mountains and villages of the Tramuntana are an easy trip away.

What to Eat at Christmas in Palma de Mallorca

Christmas food in Mallorca has its own traditions, quite different from mainland Spain. The Christmas meal usually begins with sopa de Nadal, a rich broth served with large pasta shells called galets, followed by a main course of roast suckling pig, porcella, or a stuffed capon or turkey. Escaldums, a stew of chicken or turkey with almonds and potatoes, is another festive classic.

Sweets fill the bakeries through December. Turrón, the almond nougat, comes soft or hard, and Mallorca has its own version, coca de torró. Ensaimadas, the island’s spiral pastries, are made in large sizes for sharing at home, and the round boxes are carried through the airport in their thousands at the end of the holidays. On 6 January, the Three Kings are celebrated with roscón de Reyes, a ring-shaped sweet bread with a figure hidden inside.

Christmas dish in Mallorca	What it is	When it is eaten
Sopa de Nadal	Broth with large galets pasta shells	Christmas Day lunch
Porcella	Roast suckling pig with crisp skin	Christmas and festive lunches
Escaldums	Chicken or turkey stewed with almonds and potatoes	Christmas and Sant Esteve
Turrón and coca de torró	Almond nougat, soft or hard	Through December
Ensaimada	Spiral pastry dusted with sugar	Breakfast and as a gift
Roscón de Reyes	Ring-shaped sweet bread with a hidden figure	5 and 6 January

Restaurants in Palma serve Christmas menus through December, and many offer a set lunch on Christmas Day. Book early, because the best tables fill weeks ahead. The best restaurants in Palma Old Town include traditional cellers serving porcella and modern kitchens with festive tasting menus, all within a short walk of Casa Roca.

For a taste of the island without a full meal, the Capitulo bar at Casa Roca serves Mallorcan wines by the glass and an evening tapas menu until 23:00, and our Mallorcan wine tasting with tapas is a festive way to discover the island’s reds and whites.

Best Places to Visit at Christmas in Palma

The best places to visit at Christmas in Palma are all in or close to the Old Town. Plaça Major, the arcaded main square, is the centre of the traditional Christmas stalls, and Carrer de Sant Miquel, leading north from it, is the busiest Christmas shopping street. The Passeig del Born, the city’s elegant boulevard, has the most impressive lights in Palma.

Plaça de Cort, in front of the town hall, is decorated for the season and sets the scene for New Year’s Eve. La Seu and the Parc de la Mar come together in December, with the Parc de Nadal and its ice rink below the floodlit cathedral. Across the old riverbed, the market and restaurants of Santa Catalina are full of local life in the weeks before Christmas.

Place to visit at Christmas in Palma	Best for	Best time
Passeig del Born	The finest Christmas lights	After dark
Plaça Major	Traditional Christmas stalls	Late afternoon
Parc de la Mar and La Seu	The Parc de Nadal and ice rink	Dusk
Carrer de Sant Miquel	Christmas shopping	Morning or early evening
Plaça de Cort	The town hall lit for Christmas	Evening
Santa Catalina	Market and Christmas lunches	Saturday morning

For a morning away from the crowds of shoppers, walk to Santa Catalina for its covered market, where Mallorcan families buy their Christmas fish and meat. The Santa Catalina market and neighbourhood is fifteen minutes on foot from the Old Town, and its restaurants are a festive setting for a long December lunch.

Christmas Day and Key Dates for Palma in December

Christmas in Palma de Mallorca follows the Spanish calendar, with the main celebrations on Christmas Eve and the Three Kings in January. Christmas Eve, Nitbona in Mallorca, is a family evening with dinner at home and midnight mass. Shops close early in the afternoon, and many restaurants close for the evening or serve a special dinner.

Christmas Day is a public holiday, and most shops, museums and markets are closed. Restaurants that open serve a Christmas lunch, usually by reservation. The day after, 26 December, is Sant Esteve, also a public holiday in the Balearic Islands, when families gather again for another long meal. Public transport runs a reduced service on both days.

Date	Christmas in Palma	What is open
Saturday 21 November 2026	Christmas lights switched on; Parc de Nadal opens	Everything open
8 December	Immaculate Conception, a public holiday	Many shops closed
24 December	Christmas Eve and the Song of the Sibyl at midnight mass	Shops close early
25 December	Christmas Day	Most shops and museums closed
26 December	Sant Esteve, a public holiday in the Balearics	Most shops closed
31 December	Festa de l’Estendard and New Year’s Eve	Shops close early
5 and 6 January 2027	Three Kings parade and the Epiphany holiday	Shops closed on 6 January

The Christmas season in Palma ends with the Three Kings. On the evening of 5 January, the Kings arrive at the Moll Vell, the old harbour, and ride through the centre in the cabalgata parade, throwing sweets to the crowds along the Born and the Rambla. The next morning children open their presents, and the day is a public holiday.

Where to Stay for Christmas in Palma

The Old Town is the best place to stay for Christmas in Palma, with the stalls, lights, churches and restaurants all on foot. Casa Roca is on Carrer dels Hostals, two minutes from Plaça Major and ten from the cathedral, in the restored 1847 house of Francisco Roca’s paper and stationery business, whose Papeles Roca sign still hangs in the lobby.

The suites and apartments suit a December stay. Apartments have full kitchens for cooking with Christmas market produce, and the three-bedroom Francisco Roca Penthouse sleeps six, making it a natural choice for a family Christmas in the city. Breakfast is served in the Capitulo bar each morning, and our team can book Christmas lunches, tickets and day trips for you.

Christmas and New Year are the busiest weeks of the winter in the Old Town, so book early for the best choice of rooms. Email hello@casaroca.com with your dates for help planning a Christmas stay, or book direct through our website. The suites, apartments and penthouse at Casa Roca each have their own character, from city suites for two to apartments for families.

Casa Roca Gallery: Christmas in Palma Old Town

Warm interiors, marble, velvet and a rooftop over the Old Town: Casa Roca is a home in the heart of Palma for the Christmas season.

Image credits: Christmas star lights by Miguel Rincón Calahorro (CC BY 2.0); Parc de la Mar by Arieleisenhammer (CC BY-SA 4.0); Església de la Sang betlem and La Misericòrdia betlem by Joan Gené (CC BY-SA 4.0); porcella by Tamorlan (CC BY 3.0); Plaça Major by Olaf Tausch (CC BY 3.0). Via Wikimedia Commons.