Each year - starting on December 1st - the center of Brussels becomes a Christmas village. The Grand-Place and its neighbouring streets become an appendix of the house of Santa. This year, the guest city of Brussels is Tallinn, capital of the Estonian Republic and you will be able to discover its specialities throughout your walk in the Christmas village.

From the Place Saint-Jean up to the Place Sainte-Catherine, while passing by the Bourse (Belgian Stock Exchange), and the Fish Market, 220 Christmas country cottages take place and transform our capital into a "Christmas Tales Village" where you find thousands of gifts ideas.

Leave the Place Saint-Jean and go to the Grand-Place. The Grand-Place was transformed into a fairy Christmas place. It receives a monumental luminous installation and comes back to the Christmas traditions and suitable amazement for childhood. A fantastic sound and light display takes place each day and is supplemented by concerts every saturday.

The Hotel de Ville, the King's House and other constructions dating from the XVIth century will fascinate you. Did you know that the Hotel de Ville of Brussels was built in the exact center of the city and that Charles-Quint himself posed the first stone during its construction? Do not hesitate to visit it and discover the Pentagon (in fact, our city is a pentagon) paved in its center.

Leave the Grand-Place by the Rue au Beurre and discover our Brussels lace stores and tapestries containing tons of original gifts ideas. The Rue au Beurre crossed, you are at the Bourse and enter the Christmas village: country cottages are already installed, the craftsmen await you and propose to you, in addition to the gifts, the opportunity of tasting delicious winter specialities from their countries or drinking a hot wine or another reinvigorating drink.

Continue your walk by the street Devaux and the street Sainte-Catherine. On the place Sainte-Catherine, the Ice Monster and the Black Tower as of the horse-gears will be a real pleasure for your children. While waiting for them, visit the Tallinn Christmas Village craftsmen who precisely expose to this place.

Enter the Fish Market and discover the Skating Rink. It is the principal attraction of the Brussels winter. The children can safely slip on a small track arranged for them. Keep an eye on your children while tasting a drink in the mountain brewery being next to the skating rink.

The end of this excursion in the Brussels Christmas Village is the Big Wheel ; located just after the skating rink. The spectacle of this gigantic machine is even more staggering when the night falls and its 18.000 bulbs ignite.

While walking through the Brussels Christmas Market you will also meet concerts, plays, processions, troops of travelling artists who will brighten your way by their art and their beauty.

During one month, Brussels joins again with its past of popular attractions and becomes a city with the colors of the winter and traditions of Christmas.