As 2024 comes to an end, it’s time for holiday celebrations to begin–and that means your city might be getting ready to host the crowds at their annual Christmas market.
Whether you hate it or love it, Christmas shopping is an inevitable December activity, and as a result Christmas markets have exploded in popularity across the US and Canada. Unfortunately, this means some of our favourite markets have become too crowded to actually get any shopping done. Nobody wants to be caught in the horde of holiday shoppers while on the hunt for their gifts, so we researched the markets in Canada and the USA with the biggest overcrowding issues.
For our list, we analyzed Yelp reviews from over 100 Christmas markets across North America. We looked into what percentage of these reviews mentioned the terms “busy” or “overcrowded” and filtered out any markets with fewer than 50 reviews. Interested to see if your local market made our list? Let’s count down from #10 to #1:
10. Columbus Circle Holiday Market (New York, NY)
Boasting over 100 stalls of artisans and designers, the Columbus Circle Holiday Market takes place in NYC’s iconic Central Park every December. With such a famous backdrop in one of the most populated cities in the world, it’s only natural that it would find a place on our list. With 17% of reviewers complaining about crowds, it just squeezes into our top 10.
9. Chelsea Market (New York, NY)
New York proves to be popular for Christmas markets with another spot on the list at #9. Chelsea Market is a popular food hall in NYC that converts into a Christmas market for the annual holiday season, proving to be popular with crowds from around the city and beyond. It has the most reviews of any venue on our list–2,533 at the time we compiled our data–but 17.1% of these make a mention of overcrowding.
8. Christmas Village in Philadelphia (Philadelphia, PA)
Located in LOVE Park at the center of Philadelphia, Christmas Village draws huge waves of customers every year. With 87 stalls to choose from and a packed-out beer hall, it aims to emulate the atmosphere of German Christmas markets for an American audience. Out of more than 300 reviews that we read, 18.5% pointed out how busy the area was, earning it the #8 spot on our list.
7. Leavenworth Christkindlmarkt (Leavenworth, WA)
Taking 7th in our ranking, Leavenworth is a small city in central Washington–home to just roughly 2000 people–with a center modelled on Bavarian architecture, giving its annual holiday market that authentic German Christkindlmarkt feel. But reviews haven’t been as kind about its capacity; in fact, almost 1 in 5 comments (19%) brought up an overcrowding issue at the market.
6. Union Square Christmas Market (New York, NY)
New York is back on our list for a third time, this time with Union Square’s holiday market in Manhattan. Out of 273 reviews, 19.4% complained about crowds in the area. After all, Union Square is almost 100 times smaller than Central Park!
5. Toronto Christmas Market (Toronto, CA)
Canada makes its first (and only) appearance in our top ten, with Toronto, Ontario’s Christmas Market landing in the middle of the list at #5. Held in the historic Distillery District of the city, this market brings in plenty of attention every year, with events such as guided tours and live music in addition to their stalls! It’s not enough to stop them from facing space issues, though, as 1-in-4 reviews mention how little room there was in the crowds of Christmas shoppers.
4. Enchant St. Petersburg (St. Petersburg, FL)
Held at Tropicana Field since 2019 (home of the MLB’s Tampa Bay Rays), Enchant St. Petersburg has transformed the stadium into a vibrant Christmas village filled with activities and stores. While the event has been a popular attraction year after year, with 28% of reviews mentioning crowding issues, this year’s event was unfortunately cancelled due to damage caused by Hurricane Milton.
3. Carmel Christkindlmarkt (Carmel, IN)
Carmel Christkindlmarkt has been voted Best Holiday Market in America by readers of USA Today for the past four years! When you’re that popular though, you’re bound to draw some big crowds, and Indiana’s biggest Christmas market finds their spot at #3 on our list. 29.1% of reviews left about Carmel’s Christmas festivities mentioned overcrowding issues. As much as it’s a popular choice for a reason, not everyone will be looking to brave the huge crowds this winter.
2. Bank of America Winter Village at Bryant Park (New York, NY)
New York continues to dominate our list with a fourth placement! This time, it’s Bryant Park’s annual Christmas market, sponsored by Bank of America. With popular attractions like ice skating and curling, it offers one of the more unique holiday market experiences; but that’s often at the expense of huge crowds. 1 in 3 reviews left on the Winter Village mentioned overcrowding, placing it at #2 on our list and almost doubling the numbers of our #10 and #9 spots!
1. Christkindlmarkt Chicago (Chicago, IL)
Despite being named one of the best Christmas markets in America by sources such as USA Today, it’s Chicago’s Christkindlmarkt that tops our list for the most overcrowded Christmas market in America, based on its reviews.
The Christkindlmarkt has run annually since 1996 and is one of the biggest holiday markets in the United States. However, with a massive 38.3% of reviews complaining about a lack of space or too many crowds, it couldn’t land anywhere on our list but the top spot.
It’s hardly surprising, since their website claims to have reached 2 million visitors last year across all three of their locations!
As Christmas markets continue to surge in popularity, keep an eye on attendance figures for this year if you want to beat the traffic.
There are plenty of ways to enjoy your Christmas season without getting caught up in all the hoards of shoppers. If you’re looking for a spot of entertainment from the comfort of your home instead, why not read our list of the best online casinos in 2024? You can enjoy all your favorite games without braving the cold and the crowds!
Methodology
To determine the most overcrowded Christmas markets across the US and Canada, Canada Sports Betting conducted a keyword search within the review sections of US and Canada’s most popular Christmas markets’ respective Yelp pages. The following terms were searched and tallied: busy, busiest, crowded, overcrowded
After crunching the numbers, we calculated the percentage of busy-related mentions across each Christmas markets’ total Yelp reviews. Over 100+ Christmas markets were analyzed. Only markets with over 50+ reviews were considered for the ranking.
This data was collected in November 2024.
