Rugby's first confirmed Christmas fair is at the Benn Hall on Sunday 22 November, 11am to 2pm, free entry. Town centre evening markets have no 2026 dates yet.

Checked 6 October 2026. One Rugby Christmas fair has a confirmed 2026 date: the Christmas Fair at the Benn Hall on Sunday 22 November, 11am to 2pm, free to get in. The town centre’s own Christmas markets, which Rugby Borough Council ran with CJ’s Events Warwickshire on four Thursday evenings last year, have no 2026 dates yet. Neither the council nor CJ’s has listed them, so this page sets out what ran in 2025 and will be updated when the 2026 programme appears.

What is confirmed for 2026

  • Christmas Fair at the Benn Hall, Sunday 22 November, 11am to 2pm, Benn Hall, Newbold Road, CV21 2LN. Free entry and free parking. The organiser, TT Country Events, lists over 60 stands of gifts, crafts, decorations and food, a Christmas hunt with clues for children, Father Christmas walking the hall, and Rugby Heritage Lions joining the day. Awesome Coffee sets up outside the venue (TT Country Events on Eventbrite).
  • Festive Window Trail, Saturday 21 November to Thursday 31 December, town centre shops. Free and self-guided: up to twelve businesses each get a hand-painted window by local artist Alphabeth, and you find a clue and collect a stamp in each one (The Rugby Town). It is not a market, but it is the one council festive item already dated.
  • Rugby Market, every Friday and Saturday, 9am to 4pm, Market Place by the Clock Tower, CV21 3DU. The regular street market, also run by CJ’s Events Warwickshire, is listed week by week on CJ’s site through the autumn (CJ’s Events Warwickshire).

The town centre evening markets: what ran in 2025

In 2025 the council branded its Christmas season “Home for the Holidays in Rugby”, 20 November to 4 January, and the markets were its backbone. CJ’s Events Warwickshire’s own event pages describe them as “4 magical evening Christmas Markets in Rugby”, run “with Rugby Borough Council”, with local makers, artists, bakers and live entertainment. All four were on a Thursday, 3pm to 8pm:

  • Mistletoe Market, Thursday 20 November 2025, Market Place, CV21 3DU
  • Holly Jolly Market, Thursday 27 November 2025, Old Market Place car park, Gas Street, CV21 2TX
  • Jingle Bells Market, Thursday 4 December 2025
  • Candy Cane Market, Thursday 11 December 2025

The first two sites come from CJ’s own pages for those nights; the council’s 2025 Christmas guide gave the series’ venues as Old Market Place, Railway Terrace and Market Place. The two nights whose pages are still up listed 16 and 17 traders, mostly handmade gifts, jewellery, candles and local food.

The same guide also carried:

  • Christmas Artisan Market, Caldecott Park, Sunday 30 November 2025, 10am to 3pm, with over 30 stalls, run by TT Country Events (Eventbrite listing).
  • Christmas Independent Market, Market Place, Sunday 14 December 2025, 11am to 5pm.

Is it on this year?

Probably, but nobody has said so yet. Three things are worth knowing.

The council now runs Rugby’s festive events itself. Rugby First, the business improvement district that co-organised the 2025 season, stopped operating on 31 March 2026, and the council said in March that “all events previously organised by the BID will now be delivered by the Council”. The full story is on our Christmas lights page.

CJ’s has not listed Rugby’s 2026 Christmas nights. On 6 October its calendar shows Rugby’s ordinary Friday and Saturday markets through October, and its Leamington Christmas Market already dated for 1 November, but no Rugby Christmas market. Its 2025 Rugby event pages were dated by name, such as “Rugby Christmas Market 20th November 2025”, and we checked the matching 2026 addresses for 21 likely dates between 12 November and 19 December: none exists yet.

The park market’s organiser has only an indoor fair listed. TT Country Events’ only Rugby Christmas listing for 2026 is the Benn Hall fair on 22 November. The Caldecott Park artisan market has no 2026 listing. The Benn Hall sits at the edge of Caldecott Park, so if you went to the park market, the hall fair is the nearest equivalent we can confirm.

The 2025 Thursday markets started on 20 November, the opening day of the council’s season. The Festive Window Trail starts on Saturday 21 November this year, so the wider programme is likely to open in the same week, but that is our reading of the pattern, not an announcement.

Nearby, already dated

  • Leamington Christmas Market, Sunday 1 November 2026, 10am to 5pm, the Parade, Royal Leamington Spa, CV32 4BL. CJ’s lists over 90 traders, crafts, local produce and street food (CJ’s Events Warwickshire).
  • Luminate at Coombe Abbey, from 28 November, is the big festive night out in the borough. It is a light trail rather than a market; our Luminate page has the dates.

Getting there and parking

The Benn Hall fair has free parking on site, per the organiser. For the town centre markets, the nearest car parks CJ’s lists are Chestnut Field (CV21 2PE), North Street (CV21 2AG), Evreux Way (CV21 2RR) and Rugby Central (CV21 2JR). In 2025 the council made Westway car park free seven days a week from 15 November to 5 January, with John Barford free at weekends; whether that returns for 2026 has not been announced. Our parking in Rugby page has the tariffs, and roadworks and travel has anything closed on the way in.

For everything else on in the next six weeks, see what’s on in Rugby this month, and for the pantomimes, our Rugby panto page.

Sources

  • TT Country Events on Eventbrite: Christmas Fair at the BENN Hall, 22 November 2026, and Rugby Christmas Artisan Market, 30 November 2025
  • CJ’s Events Warwickshire: Rugby Christmas Market pages for 20 and 27 November 2025, the events calendar, and Leamington Christmas Market, 1 November 2026
  • Rugby Borough Council / The Rugby Town: What’s On Christmas 2025 guide, and the Festive Window Trail
  • Rugby Borough Council, “Borough Council prepares for BID transition”, 16 March 2026