Skip to content

Belgium for Christmas: 8 Reasons to Go City Hopping This Winter

Why visit Belgium for Christmas? For people like me with a demanding full-time ‘day job’, the end of the year holidays are the perfect opportunity for an extended trip.  

Living our expat life in Europe for more than a decade has opened up travel rituals we never would have established otherwise. Each year, we like to go somewhere in Europe for about two weeks for an opportunity to immerse ourselves in a different destination and pretend to be locals.

One year, we visited Belgium for Christmas because it was just a short flight from Dublin where we were living at the time. 

We were delighted to discover that Belgium is an ideal destination for the Christmas holidays. We split our time between Bruges and Brussels as a home base and used the train to take day trips and go city hopping all over the country.

Read on for eight reasons I loved celebrating Christmas and ringing in the New Year in Belgium.

1. A Belgian Rail Ticket Is a Great Christmas Present

Belgium is an ideal destination for Christmas because the country is compact with all four corners accessible from Brussels within about a two-hour train ride. While we had the luxury of 2 weeks to explore, my part-time travel philosophy ensures that we do all we can to maximize the travels we undertake.

We traveled by train to and from the airport to Bruges to celebrate Christmas day and then took the train to Ghent, Liege, Mechelen, Lier, and Leuven from our home base in Brussels. 

If you have limited time and are torn about which cities to visit, check out this post comparing Ghent and Bruges on Vicki Viaja.

A Belgian passenger train with vibrant graffiti and iconic red doors stopped at the Gent-Sint-Pieters station platform

2. Christmas Cuberdons

Cuberdons are sold by the bag full on the streets during the Christmas season, especially in Ghent.  Cuberdons are tasty little purple cones with a firm shell and oozy center.  This sweet treat is perfect for the holidays and uniquely Belgian.

A split image. On the left, a stall at a market with the sign "CUBERDON" above a display of sweets, with people looking at the confectionery. On the right, an open palm holds a single, smooth, purple, cone-shaped candy, which is a traditional Belgian sweet known as a cuberdon.

3. Waffles Filled with Fruit

Are you hungry yet?  Belgian waffles filled with fruit are another fond memory from our trip to Belgium at Christmas.  We picked up a piping hot waffle stuffed with cherries in Liege.

A person holds a freshly baked Belgian waffle folded over and filled with cherries, wrapped in white paper, with a cobblestone ground visible in the background.

4. Belgium’s Christmas Markets

Every city in Belgium has one or more Christmas markets.  Christmas markets are fun to stroll, do a little shopping, and have an indulgent treat.  Liege has one of the largest Christmas markets in Belgium.

A collage showing scenes from a variety of Belgium's Christmas market and fair. Images include an aerial view of market stalls, a brightly lit carousel, a large Ferris wheel, and a lower-angle street view of market stalls and a line of pigeons perched on a railing.

5. The Christmas Light Show on the Grote Markt in Brussels

The Grote Markt in Brussels is transformed into a fantastic extravaganza of light during the Christmas season.  All the buildings on the main square glow and change in color from one minute to the next.  The effect is truly magical.

A collage of nighttime photos showing Brussels' Grote Markt illuminated with colorful Christmas lights in blue, pink, and red. The collage also features a Christmas market carousel and an ornate building facade covered in bright pink lighting and string lights.

6. Belgian Hot Chocolate Cubes

Belgium is synonymous with fine chocolate and in the wintertime there is no better way to imbibe it than by melting a dense cube of dark chocolate in hot milk to make hot chocolate. 

A hot chocolate is the perfect winter warmer after exploring Belgium’s Christmas markets. Bruges in particular has some amazing chocolate.

A close-up of a wooden table with a white plate holding two cubes of solid chocolate on sticks, next to a silver tray with two glass mugs of hot milk, suggesting a preparation for making hot chocolate.

7. Atmospheric Pubs Full of Taxidermy

You may think this reason to visit Belgium at Christmas is a bit odd but keep an open mind for a moment.  

Belgium is full of pubs with character selling a huge variety of Belgian beer.  We noticed that these pubs seem almost obsessed with taxidermy with stuffed grouse, boar, and peacock; all as likely to be seen as the bartender.  

I equate this interior decoration with a hearth and roaring fire.  There is nothing better than to sip a beer tucked away inside from the cold.

A triptych of interior photos showing taxidermy specimens: a large brown game bird on the left, a peacock with a plume of tail feathers in the center, and a mounted wild boar head on the right, all inside a cozy, traditionally decorated establishment, a Belgian pub.

8. A Dusting of Christmas Snow

Christmas just feels right if there is a light dusting of snow.  On our winter holiday in Belgium, it snowed just enough to be scenic but not enough to be inconvenient.

A quiet street scene in an urban area in Brussels with a row of varied apartment buildings as a backdrop. In the foreground, a cobblestone street is partially covered with patches of snow and ice, with a row of black bollards also dusted with snow.

Our two-week Christmas trip to Belgium proved to be an ideal destination for the holidays and a perfect adventure enabled by our expat life in Europe.

Whether we were enjoying the magical light show on the Grote Markt in Brussels, warming up with Belgian hot chocolate, or sampling unique treats like Cuberdons, every experience was easily accessible and memorable.

Thanks to Belgium’s compact size and the efficiency of the Belgian Rail pass, we were able to city hop between Bruges, Ghent, Liege, and more, allowing us to maximize every moment of our extended winter holiday.

Where to Next?

Did you enjoy this post about spending Christmas in Belgium? Sharing is caring…

Tags: