The market returns to Petersfield town centre on Sunday 13 December 2026, 10am to 3.30pm, with 100 stalls and free entry. Bordon runs its own the Sunday before.
After two Decembers without one, the Petersfield Christmas Market is back on Sunday 13 December 2026, taking over the centre of town from 10am to 3.30pm. Entry is free.
That is confirmed by the organisers, Petersfield Community Events, on their own site, and it is backed by the harder evidence: trader bookings for the date are already open and priced.
What the organisers have published
The date, times and shape of the day come from the Petersfield Christmas Market page on petersfieldfest.com:
- Sunday 13 December 2026, 10am to 3.30pm, in the centre of Petersfield
- 100 stalls
- Festive music, mulled wine and food in The Square
- Family entertainment through the streets
- Local school children and choirs singing carols
- Free to attend
Two things the organisers deliberately hedge. Father Christmas is described as “possibly making an appearance”, not as booked. And the music line-up, including which local schools and acts are playing, is explicitly still to come: the page says more will be announced “over the coming months”.
The proof it is really happening
An events page can sit up for months without anything behind it. This one has money attached.
The organisers’ stallholders page carries “Booking for Petersfield Christmas Market 2026 is now live” with the same Sunday 13 December date and the same 10am to 3.30pm trading hours, and a published price list. All figures include VAT:
| Pitch | Price |
|---|---|
| 3m by 3m, space only | £110 |
| 6m by 3m, space only | £200 |
| 9m by 3m, space only | £260 |
| 6ft folding table hire, limited stock | £15 |
| Power supply | £20 |
Traders book through the organisers at bookings@the-hometown-group.com.
Why there was no market in 2024 or 2025
This is the question behind most searches for it, and the answer is not a secret.
Petersfield Community Events, run by Ben Errey and Steve Jacob, have organised the town’s festivals since 2011. The Alton Herald, reporting on 24 November 2025, said the pair had decided to take a break after the previous year’s cancellation and the refund row that followed it, and were putting their effort into launching a Petersfield Spring Festival in May 2026 instead, with a crowdfunding campaign behind it.
That worked. The organisers’ own site records the Spring Festival returning in 2026 “thanks to huge community support (and raising just over half of our crowdfunding target)”, and says it will be back again in 2027. The Christmas market is the second thing to come back, and the organisers say they brought it back because so many people asked.
So if you are looking for the old Petersfield Christmas Festival, that is not what this is. This is a one-day market, in daylight, on a Sunday.
Bordon has its own, the Sunday before
If 13 December does not suit, The Shed in Bordon is running a Christmas Market on Sunday 6 December 2026, from midday, at Sergeants Yard, GU35 0DJ.
It is a smaller and different thing. The venue has set a theme, Winter Woodland, and it is an outdoor market where every stallholder has to bring their own weighted gazebo. Trader pitches are £20 and the venue lists a fixed number available, so it is a modest stall count rather than a hundred. There are no food trucks: the venue says so on the listing.
Parking and getting in
A Sunday market in the town centre means the car parks matter. Our parking in Petersfield page has the tariffs and the trap worth knowing before you drive in: Castle Yard and Festival Hall are free on Sundays, and Swan Street, reached from the same street as Castle Yard, charges the full weekday tariff. Central and The Causeway charge for two to three hours on a Sunday, and a ticket transfers between those two car parks only.
Petersfield station is a short walk from The Square if you would rather not drive. Check roadworks and travel on the day.
There is no temporary road closure order for 13 December in Hampshire County Council’s East Hampshire public notices list as of 4 September. A market taking over the town centre needs one, so expect it to appear later in the autumn, and that notice will be the thing that confirms which streets close and when.
Still to be confirmed: the music line-up and stage times, whether Father Christmas is booked, the road closure and its hours, and the full stall list. This page will be updated as the organisers publish them. The town’s Christmas lights switch-on is a separate, earlier event run by the town council.
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