Already looming on the horizon of Madrid (and its mountains) the last month of 2025. And with it, the balance of the year that is vanishing and the review of all that handful of big promises we made in January. Maybe you couldn’t keep them all. No matter: here we give you a more pleasant challenge: Christmas, winter, cultural and hedonistic proposals to eat your grapes with a good (better) conscience.
These December plans in Madrid cover endless possibilities that are not at odds, in any way, with the fantasies of Christmas. Put on your hat, your boots and take to the streets of a city dressed in lights.
Table Of Contents
- Shine Zoo (from December 5)
- A painting by Artemisia Gentileschi exhibited in Madrid only in December and January.
- Oliver Laxe: a rave at the Museo Reina Sofía (from December 17)
- Brilli Brilli, a festival for the whole family (December 26 to January 4, 2026)
- Madrid On Ice (from December 22nd to January 11th)
- Other ice rinks in Madrid (all month)
- La Caprichería Xmas Market: the sweetest corner of Christmas (from December 20).
- Avatar: The Experience (all month)
- NO-DO. The world of yesterday. Image and propaganda of Franco's regime (from December 3rd)
- IKONO: the sensory space a few meters away from Atocha
- Route through the must-see Nativity scenes this Christmas
- BuzzAttack (all month)
- Rent (from December 23rd)
- ABRALAPALBRA, festival of children's and young people's literature (December 12 to 21)
- Crafts Fair of the Community of Madrid (all month)
- The exhibition of faceless pop portraits by Coco Dávez (from December 5th)
- Victoria Eugenia (from December 3)
- Christmas plans for all ages
- Babylon Park: the indoor amusement park with an arcade
- Quiz Room
- Boira, dance and theater about children's emotions (December 27th and 28th)
- Christmas of encounter (from December 20th)
- Mythological Christmas (from December 20 to 28)
- Christmas videomapping at Conde Duque (from December 17 to 23)
- Always Classics' Season at Cineteca (from December 20 to January 4, 2026)
- NIKE. Design in motion (all month)
- Concerts of the month
- XIV Santa Claus Race (December 21)
- Plaza Mayor Christmas Market (all month)
- Dream, a reinterpretation of Shakespeare's classic (from December 19 to January 4).
- Candlelight for Christmas
- Mercadillo del Gato (from December 12th)
- An invitation to stop with the new exhibition of Javier Garcerá (from December 18).
- Numancia de Cervantes at Teatros del Canal (from December 9th)
- The Jury Experience: the immersive experience in which you become part of a jury.
- La Grieta Dorada at La Neomudéjar Museum (all month)
- The Jazz Room (December 7, 14 and 28)
- MAVIDAD, at the Bernabéu (from December 24 to 31)
Shine Zoo (from December 5)
A great tour of light with figures representing animals and mythological beings will light up Getafe again from December 5. Brilla Zoo is an ecosystem will be deployed by the Alhóndiga Park of Getafe along one kilometer.
📍 Location: Alhóndiga Park (Getafe)
💸 Tickets: from 9€.
A painting by Artemisia Gentileschi exhibited in Madrid only in December and January.
The Cristina Masaveu Peterson Foundation shows for the first time in our country, the work La Virgen de la leche by Artemisia Gentileschi. This work, which will be on display until January 25, presents one of the classic iconographies of Catholic spirituality, the Virgo lactans. One of the earliest works of the baroque artist (and caravaggista) during his stay in Rome.
📍 Location: Calle de Alcalá Galiano, 6 (Chamberí).
💸 Tickets: free
Oliver Laxe: a rave at the Museo Reina Sofía (from December 17)
A spiritual rave at the Reina Sofía? The Sabatini Building hosts HU / هُوَ. Bailad como si nadie os viera, an immersive installation by Galician filmmaker Oliver Laxe, based on his film Sirāt.
The installation works as a two-part ritual: first, a pyramid of loudspeakers immerses the visitor in sound; then, projections merge desert landscapes and dancing bodies in a trance. With electronic music by Kangding Ray, the work connects rave culture with Sufi mysticism in a search for transcendence and the sacred.
📍 Location: Calle de Santa Isabel, 52 (Atocha)
💸 Tickets: from 12 €.
Brilli Brilli, a festival for the whole family (December 26 to January 4, 2026)
La Casa Encendida is once again filled with creative glitter with Brilli Brilli, a festival designed for the little ones (and not so little ones) to bid farewell to the year by exploring the concept of “home” through play and art. In this edition, the center is transformed with fascinating proposals such as Venturia 3, an “extraterrestrial” structure by the architects Conjuntos Empáticos for free play, or the curious performance Pelis con los ojos cerrados, which invites to project stories directly into the imagination.
The program is a display of sensory stimuli ranging from abstract embroidery workshops and animated short films to the screening of Bitelchús in 35mm. As a culmination, the festival proposes a big pajama party with the music of Caries and the live performance of Dear Joanne.
📍 Location: Ronda de Valencia, 2 (Embajadores)
💸 Tickets: from 4€ to 10€ (according to activity)
Madrid On Ice (from December 22nd to January 11th)
Did you know that Madrid has one of the largest ice rinks in Europe? A total of 4,760 square meters of ice to slide on the Madrid On Ice experience, around the lawn of the Riyadh Air Metropolitano. The vast expanse of this “frozen Madrid” allows up to 1500 skaters simultaneously (and of all levels), a large circle of ice in which to practice or get started in the art of ice skating with friends, family or alone. In addition, around the rink, there is a cultural space with a gastronomic and leisure offer, with plenty of churros!
📍 Location: Avenida de Luis Aragonés, 4 (San Blas-Canillejas)
💸 Tickets: from 17€.
Other ice rinks in Madrid (all month)
The Madrid City Council warms up engines and cools the ice rinks of the city. The ice rink in Plaza de España is already open, which for some years has been coming to this point of the city as part of the activities of La Navideña. There are 600m2 of rink and will be active until January 11.
Another rink that starts its activity in November is the one in Plaza de Colón: it opens on November 29 and will be open until January 6, after the passage of Their Majesties the Three Wise Men. Once again this year, the rink will be managed by the expert team of skater Javier Fernández, who on this occasion has opted for ecological ice, an environmentally responsible alternative. This year also repeats the ice rinks of Matadero ( from December 5 to January 6) and Cibeles (from December 13 to January 5) and adds one more novelty to the south of the city: the ECO skating rink in Brilla Zoo, the park with luminous animal figures in the Alhóndiga Park in Getafe that opens from December 5.
📍Various locations
La Caprichería Xmas Market: the sweetest corner of Christmas (from December 20).
For the first time in Madrid… La Caprichería de Baileys is transformed into an Xmas Market! Because the best gift this Christmas will surely be a Baileys caprice. And in a city where Christmas markets are more booming than ever, it could not miss an irresistible space dedicated to the sweetest temptations of the moment: 20 locals gathered together will surprise you with the most iconic desserts reinvented with a creamy touch of Baileys. A delicious experience that only happens once a year! Are you coming to try it (all)?
🗓️Del December 20 to January 3,Monday to Friday from 15:00 to 21:00h.
December 24 and 31 from 12:00 to 17:00h. Weekends from 12:00 to 21:00h.
📍 Location: Esplanade of the CaixaBank Príncipe Pío Theater
💸 Admission: free.
Avatar: The Experience (all month)
With the premiere of the third Avatar film just around the corner, an immersive experience is coming to Madrid. immersive experience that immerses us in the universe of Pandora. It is located in Espacio Delicias and there are nine different rooms with scenarios of the saga and animatronic creatures.
📍 Location: Espacio Delicias (Delicias)
💸 Tickets : from 16€.
NO-DO. The world of yesterday. Image and propaganda of Franco’s regime (from December 3rd)
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The Filmoteca Española opens the doors to the awaited annual exhibition that, this time, delves into its archive through the images of NO-DO, that is to say, the Noticiarios y Documentales Cinematográficos. An entity born for propaganda in the Franco era but which was also the only window to audiovisual information and entertainment of the time. The exhibition tries to answer the big question: what does it represent today for society and for the Spanish audiovisual heritage?
📍 Location: calle de Magdalena, 10 (Centro)
💸 Admission: free of charge
IKONO: the sensory space a few meters away from Atocha
December usually brings cold, family plans and that search for warm shelters where to spend the afternoon. If the walk through the center ends up seeing the Christmas lights next to the Reina Sofia, this space of sensory rooms and photographic scenarios can put the icing on the tour: lights, color and visual games that work as a respite in the chaos of the city during the holidays.
📍 Location: Calle de Sánchez Bustillo, 7 (Atocha)
💸 Price: children between 4 and 13 years old, starting at €11,99.
Route through the must-see Nativity scenes this Christmas
Touring Madrid in search of the best representations of the nativity is one of the most deeply rooted traditions of these dates, a plan that adapts to all styles: from those looking for a purely traditional flavor, to art and history lovers, to those who need a family plan that leaves the kids with their mouths open. Among the nativity scenes that can be visited this year are:
- Nativity Scene of the Royal Palace ( December 5 – January 5).
- Bethlehem of the Madrid City Hall ( November 28 – January 4)
- Nativity Scene of the Museum of History of Madrid ( December 1 – February 1)
- Bethlehem of the Museum of San Isidro (December 2 – January 18)
- Mágicas Navidades Nativity (Torrejón de Ardoz, November 20 – January 6)
📍Various locations
BuzzAttack (all month)
If there is something that continues to be a tradition in each and every family, it is those moments of television watching programs with challenges, competitions, quiz shows… Did you know that there is a place in Madrid organized as a big set where you can participate like those TV quiz shows? BuzzAttack is located in the Chamberí neighborhood. It welcomes any group of friends, family, relatives, co-workers… (with a minimum of 4 people) who want to participate? and play!
📍 Location: Raimundo Lulio street, 9 (Chamberí)
Tickets: group of 4 people: 92€ (rest of rates here).
Rent (from December 23rd)
The Fernán Gómez Theater . Centro Cultural de la Villa, premieres the musical Rent on December 23. Coinciding with the 30th anniversary of this musical (created three decades ago by Jonathan Larson, both libretto, music and lyrics), José Luis Sixto has adapted and directed this new version in the city. The plot, inspired by Puccini’s La Bohème, portrays the lives of a group of young artists struggling to achieve their dreams.
📍 Location: Plaza de Colón, 4 (Salamanca neighborhood)
ABRALAPALBRA, festival of children’s and young people’s literature (December 12 to 21)
This year, ABRAPALABRA returns to La Casa Encendida, the festival of children’s and young people’s literature that this year is held under the slogan “It’s written in the sky”. Through celestial myths, light workshops and cloud readings, the event proposes to recover the capacity for wonder. With guests such as Juan Gómez-Jurado, Nando López or illustrator Violeta Lópiz, this second edition consolidates as a refuge where children and young people can find their own creative voice.
📍 Location: Ronda de Valencia, 2 (Downtown)
Crafts Fair of the Community of Madrid (all month)
The Paseo de Recoletos is again this year’s location for the 38th edition of the Crafts Fair of the Community of Madrid. The show, which has become the center of regional crafts par excellence, is also the perfect market where to get original gifts for the holidays. 139 workshops gather this year between Colón and Cibeles to represent the main craft trades in the Community of Madrid: ceramists, jewelers, leather workers, glaziers and even toy makers, among many others.
📍 Location: Paseo de Recoletos, from Cibeles to Colón
🕚 Hours: from 11h to 21h
🎟️ Entrance: free of charge
The exhibition of faceless pop portraits by Coco Dávez (from December 5th)
Coco Dávez celebrates the tenth anniversary of her acclaimed Faceless project by opening the doors of her studio in Carabanchel to showcase her most iconic works. This unique exhibition brings together unmistakable figures of pop culture, from Bowie to Yayoi Kusama, characterized by the absence of facial features and the use of vibrant colors.
The exhibition functions as a living archive where the viewer completes the identity of the portraits through silhouette and clothing: an opportunity to get up close and personal with this collection of acrylic portraits that explores collective memory and the psychology of color.
📍 Location: Calle de la Gaviota, 25 (Carabanchel)
💸 Price: from 55 €.
Victoria Eugenia (from December 3)
The Royal Collections Gallery opens the doors of a new monographic exhibition, an intimate and complex portrait of Victoria Eugenia de Battenberg (who arrived in Spain in 1906 to marry Alfonso XIII and ended up in exile in 1931). The exhibition brings together documents, photographs and objects that explore her role as queen consort as well as her role as mother (of seven children) and heiress of the British tradition.
📍 Location: Calle Bailén s/n (Ópera).
Tickets: from 14€.
Christmas plans for all ages
With the Christmas vacations and the little ones at home, in Madrid the options to enjoy with the family are multiplying. Not only with entertainment proposals, but also with cultural and artistic plans. In this article we propose film seasons for all ages, immersive family shows, free Christmas activities…
📍 Location: different locations throughout the Community of Madrid.
Babylon Park: the indoor amusement park with an arcade
Almost a month of school vacations is enough for many “what do we do now?” afternoons. This indoor theme park in Leganés combines attractions, lights, arcades and games for different ages, a way to celebrate the end of the year burning energy indoors. Plan 100% recommended (and 100% tested) by the editorial team: kids like it and adults too.
📍 Location: Centro Comercial Westfield Parquesur, Av. de Gran Bretaña s/n, Leganés, Madrid.
💸 Price:unlimited admission for 1,5h: 15€.
Quiz Room
You have to be the fastest, but also the most strategic, to get all the points. Quiz Room is a quiz show in which speed and expertise rule. Ideal to enjoy in a group and with different game modes (Todo al Quiz, musical Quiz or Quiz Room Kids mode for the youngest of the house).
📍 Where to find us? Calle de Sancho Dávila, 8 (Ventas)
💸 Tickets : from 20€.
Boira, dance and theater about children’s emotions (December 27th and 28th)
Is it possible to talk about children’s sadness in a luminous and poetic way? Boira proves it is. Through the story of Luz, who celebrates a somewhat “cloudy” birthday, this piece by Maquinant Teatre proposes an immersive and multidisciplinary journey to address mental health from childhood.
Combining dance, live music and live illustration, the play works as a valuable emotional tool where tenderness and a sense of humor serve to understand that validating what we feel is the first step towards empathy.
📍 Location: Naves del Español in Matadero (Arganzuela).
💸 Tickets: 6€.
Christmas of encounter (from December 20th)
One more Christmas, one more edition of Navidad de encuentro at Matadero. The cultural center will host the seventh edition of this cultural festival with different activities, workshops, games for the little ones, gastronomy… and, of course, the famous ice rink. Although this year’s dates are already confirmed, the program has not yet been published.
📍 Location: Paseo de la Chopera, 14 (Arganzuela)
Mythological Christmas (from December 20 to 28)
The Círculo de Bellas Artes advances what will be a mythological Christmas to enjoy with the family and with activities full of games to enhance creativity. Just as this summer the CBA was filled with plants and spaces to share (the Climatic Refuge that made us feel so much at home), this Christmas it opens again to the people of Madrid as “a magical space inhabited by extraordinary creatures, stories, symbols and the imagination of the children who fill the Sala de Columnas”. And always, with a critical look at the archetypal consumerism of these dates.
📍 Location: Calle de Alcalá, 42 (Centro)
💸 Tickets: free entrance to the space.
Christmas videomapping at Conde Duque (from December 17 to 23)
The Centro de Cultura Contemporánea Conde Duque is transformed this holiday season to host a proposal with light as the protagonist. Under the title A Christmas of Light, visitors will be able to enjoy an immersive videomapping on the facades of its Central Patio, designed by artist José Vaaliña. The proposal, which can be seen from December 17 (from 6:30 pm to 11 pm), seeks to guide attendees on “ an emotional journey through the different meanings of one of the most profound and universal symbols of Christmas: light”.
A Christmas of Light will culminate on December 23, with a concert by the Coro de Voces Graves de Madrid with soprano Sonia de Munck, who will accompany the videomapping in three shows: at 7 pm, 8 pm and 9 pm.
📍 Location: Conde Duque Contemporary Culture Center (Centro de Cultura Contemporánea Conde Duque) (Centro)
🎟️ Admission: free
Always Classics’ Season at Cineteca (from December 20 to January 4, 2026)
One more Christmas, the great cinephile classics of this time of the year return to the big screen at the Cineteca de Matadero. A film series that this year is dedicated to film adaptations of literary works where Christmas is the protagonist. We will find titles such as The Shining, Die Hard, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Dubliners, You can also live by illusion, How beautiful it is to live, Little Women or Carol.
📍 Location: Paseo de la Chopera, 14 (Arganzuela)
💸 Tickets: from 3,50 €.
NIKE. Design in motion (all month)
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From Serena Williams’ signature high-top boots, through a sneaker model by and for Elton John to a design with an infinite platform by Comme des Garçons or the T-shirt with which Rafa Nadal played his last Roland Garros: the NIKE exhibition . Design in motion, traces sixty years of history of the sports house and its impact on fashion and the collective imagination.
📍 Location: TeamLabs/, atPlaza San Martin, 1 (Center)
Tickets: from €14
Concerts of the month
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We already know: Madrid is musical by definition. The halls of the city keep sessions with the best clubbing, unexpected recitals and important dates in the tours of the most important national and international artists of the moment. We highlight some concerts in Madrid:
- December 3, Patrick Wolf (Teatro Lara).
- December 7 and 8, Raphael (Movistar Arena)
- December 7, The Raveonettes (Sala Mon)
- December 19, Lagartija Nick (La Sala de Movistar Arena)
- December 20, 21 and 22, Alcalá Norte (La Riviera)
- December 22, David Bisbal (Movistar Arena)
📍 Location: different venues and arenas in Madrid.
💸 Tickets: from 18 €.
XIV Santa Claus Race (December 21)
As iconic as it is epic: the fourteenth edition of the Santa Claus race will be held on December 21, as the climax before the arrival of Santa Claus to every house.
📍 Location: start and finish line at Paseo de Recoletos.
Plaza Mayor Christmas Market (all month)
One of the essential images of Christmas in Madrid. Perhaps even THE stamp. The Christmas Market in Plaza Mayor (to be installed at the end of November) returns this year with 104 booths where you can find Christmas decorations, objects for Nativity scenes and joke items.
📍 Location: Plaza Mayor (Center)
💸 Admission: free of charge
Dream, a reinterpretation of Shakespeare’s classic (from December 19 to January 4).
Shakespeare ‘s universe becomes more hooligan and vibrant than ever with Sueño, the proposal of Compañía Criolla, which arrives in Madrid after winning the prize of the International Children’s Baroque Contest of Almagro.
In this reinterpretation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, only four performers are enough to deploy a real theatrical whirlwind: music, poetry and an overflowing physical energy that takes us to that forest where the magical and the earthly merge. It is an agile and humorous piece that works as the perfect hook for the youngest to fall in love with the classics.
📍 Location: Teatro de la Comedia (Barrio de las Letras)
💸 Tickets: from 25€.
Candlelight for Christmas
The cold of Madrid in December stays outside and the warmth of the thousands of candles illuminating every corner while listening to the intimate sound of live music stays inside. That’s Candlelight at Christmas. And so it is again one more year, as the famous concert series has prepared shows dedicated to Christmas on various dates this season: from Christmas movie soundtracks and special Christmas carols to classic themes of these dates or the essential ballet of Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake.
📍 Location: different locations
💸 Tickets : from 14,50 € €.
Mercadillo del Gato (from December 12th)
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The classic Mercadillo del Gato is back for Christmas (from December 12 to January 6), an exclusive pop up market with more than fifty exhibitors. It is not an ordinary flea market, since among the pieces that will be on display, we will find from vintage haute couture dresses to luxury handbags or reproductions of works by the best painters of the nineteenth century. It will be located at the Centro Cultural de los Ejércitos, in the heart of Gran Vía.
📍 Location: Gran Vía, 13 (Gran Vía)
💸 Admission: free of charge
An invitation to stop with the new exhibition of Javier Garcerá (from December 18).
Is it possible to look differently in the age of immediacy? Artist Javier Garcerá thinks so and proves it in El pico al aire, his new exhibition at CentroCentro. Through an installation of paintings on synthetic silk and an enveloping play of lights, the show generates an atmosphere of almost spiritual intimacy: a journey between echoes of Fra Angelico and abandoned nature that vindicates the right to stop.
📍 Location: Plaza de Cibeles, 1 (Retiro)
💸 Price: free entry
Numancia de Cervantes at Teatros del Canal (from December 9th)
“A cry against the lack of freedom and slavery”. This is how director and playwright José Luis Alonso de Santos defines his new vision of Numancia. This production, an adapted version of Cervantes’ classic, can be seen at the Teatros del Canal from December 9 to February 1. The cast will be headed by actors Arturo Querejeta and Pepa Pedroche.
📍 Location: Teatros del Canal (Chamberí)
💸 Tickets: from 9€.
The Jury Experience: the immersive experience in which you become part of a jury.
Immersive theater. Immersive experience. A trial in which you have to decide, participate, listen to the testimonies, review the versions, deduce if the accused is guilty… The Jury Experience is an interactive experience in which, from your seat, you will be part of the jury in a peculiar case.
📍 Location: Cines Callao and Palacio de la Prensa.
💸 Admission: from 22,50€.
La Grieta Dorada at La Neomudéjar Museum (all month)
Until January, La Neomudéjar Museum hosts La Grieta Dorada, a project by artist Ana Dévora that questions the increasingly digitalized reality in which we live and how the metaverse evades us from real life. Using codes from the digital world, Dévora creates visual metaphors that invite us to reflect on hyperconnection and the search for authenticity behind the screens. Discover more exhibitions in Madrid here.
📍 Location: La Neomudéjar Museum (Retiro)
💸 Tickets: from 6€.
The Jazz Room (December 7, 14 and 28)
Café Berlín and Sala Clamores host a series of themed evenings dedicated to jazz and blues, nights that make us travel to the heart of New Orleans and pay tribute to greats in the history of music such as B.B. King, Etta James or Louis Armstrong.
📍 Location: Café Berlin and Sala Clamores
💸 Admission: from 25€.
MAVIDAD, at the Bernabéu (from December 24 to 31)
In addition, this December, the Santiago Bernabéu stadium joins for the first time the great festive events of the city. It will host MAVIDAD, a large-scale Christmas event that will transform the stadium. The initiative involves transforming the venue into a temporary theme park, with a setting centered on the “world’s biggest snow globe”. It will be complemented by shows, live music, workshops, food courts and a videomapping on the façade.
📍 Location: Santiago Bernabéu Stadium
🗓️ Dates: December 24 to December 31
Hours: 10:30 a.m. to 10:30 p.m.