Between Christmas and New Year’s Eve, Venice comes alive with theaters, museums, palaces, and squares hosting concerts, exhibitions, and activities for everyone. Here is our practical guide to events between Christmas and New Year’s Eve.
Candlelight Concerts at San Giovanni Evangelista
Saturday 27 and Sunday 28 December, 7 PM and 9:30 PM
Saturday 10 and Saturday 17 January 2026, 7 PM and 9:30 PM
Scuola Grande San Giovanni Evangelista, San Polo 2454
Candlelight Concerts will illuminate the Scuola Grande San Giovanni Evangelista as part of the La Scuola nella Città series. Candlelight concerts are multi-sensory musical events where string ensembles, illuminated by thousands of candles, perform pop and classical music in spectacular locations. For the holiday season, the program includes concerts inspired by Coldplay and Imagine Dragons, the greatest hits from Bridgerton, Christmas Classics, and the great film scores of Hans Zimmer. Paid tickets, info, and reservations
The Manos Blancas Choir at Aman Venice
Sunday 29 December, from 4 PM
Aman Palazzo Papadopoli, Calle Tiepolo 1364, San Polo
Amidst the frescoes by Guarana and the Tiepolo School at Palazzo Papadopoli, the Manos Blancas Choir of Friuli brings a message of art and inclusion to Venice. Supported by the Nonino family in honor of Claudio Abbado, this project by the Associazione Coro Manos Blancas del Friuli Onlus allows young choristers to overcome cognitive and motor barriers through “visual music.”
The Aman Venice hotel will welcome guests with hot chocolate and panettone, and the proceeds from admission (€50 per person) and donations will be entirely donated to the project.
Paid tickets, reservations, info +39 041 2707333 amanvenice.fnb@aman.com
Theater: Ennio Marchetto. Carta Canta
Wednesday 31 December, 9 PM
Teatro Goldoni, San Marco 4650/b
New Year’s Eve at the Theater is always a good idea: after the show, you can head to St. Mark’s Square or join one of the New Year’s Eve parties in Venice. Carta Canta is the show created and performed by Ennio Marchetto together with The Living Paper Cartoon, the stage project that has made his work internationally recognizable. Marchetto is a Venetian performer and quick-change artist who uses paper as an expressive material to build characters, costumes, and theatrical actions—a sequence of “living” paper figures created, modified, and dismantled in real-time on stage. Paid tickets, reservations,
New Year’s Concert
From 29 December 2025 to 1 January 2026
Teatro La Fenice, Campo San Fantin
The New Year’s Concert at La Fenice marks the turn of the year with four dates between late December and the morning of January 1st. On the podium is Michele Mariotti, with Rosa Feola and Jonathan Tetelman as soloists.
Following symphonies by Rossini, Bellini, Mascagni, Donizetti, and Verdi, there will be opera arias and duets, Va’ pensiero from Nabucco, and Libiam ne’ lieti calici from La Traviata. The performance on January 1st will, as always, be broadcast live on Rai1 at 12:20 PM.
Paid tickets, with various price tiers.
New Year’s Eve
St. Mark’s Basin
31 December, 12:00 AM
Midnight in Venice is celebrated in front of the St. Mark’s Basin with a fireworks display visible from the banks facing the water (but not from St. Mark’s Square or the Piazzetta).
Access is free, but the areas along the banks of the Basin are monitored with entry gates and capacity limits, activated based on the influx of the public.
Free admission, restricted sectors, info
Ice skating in Venice
- It is a tradition to skate in Campo San Polo, one of the city’s largest squares, on the outdoor ice skating rink.
The rink is open until 17 February 2026 and is accessible with a ticket, which includes skate rental for those who need it. Admission is in shifts of approximately one and a half hours, separated by 30-minute technical breaks.
On weekdays, it is scheduled to be open from 3:00 PM to 7:00 PM, while on weekends and during the Christmas and New Year holidays, the hours extend from 11:00 AM to 8:00 PM.
The use of gloves is required. - The ice rink installed inside Palazzo Diedo is an art project open to the public until 22 February 2026.
Artist Olaf Nicolai has transformed the frescoed ballroom of the palace (home to Berggruen Arts & Culture) into a rink of approximately 100 square meters as part of the exhibition Eisfeld II, featuring a broadcast soundtrack and a conceptual dialogue between movement and perception.
The installation can be visited during the holiday period: it is open daily with afternoon admission (3:00 PM – 7:00 PM, last entry at 6:00 PM). With the exception of public holidays: on 25 December, Palazzo Diedo is closed.
Access to the rink is included in the admission ticket and includes skate rental.
Culture in Venice is always open
Cultural experiences in Venice during the holidays: shows, city rituals, galleries and exhibitions, places to experience, and events, also remembering that Venice’s museums are open with extended hours during the holidays: Guide to museums open for the holidays.
In St. Mark’s Square
Murano Illuminates the World is the exhibition of Murano glass chandeliers displayed in St. Mark’s Square: the project by Venice Glass Week and the City of Venice transforms St. Mark’s Square into an open-air art gallery: the arches of the Procuratie Vecchie are illuminated by twelve Murano glass chandeliers, the result of collaboration between international artists, master glassmakers, students from the Abate Zanetti School, and the most important furnaces in Murano.
The installation is visible for free until 1 March 2026.
The main art exhibitions in Venice open for the holidays
- Lucio Fontana. Mani-Fattura
Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Palazzo Venier dei Leoni, Dorsoduro 701
Until 2 March 2026
Hours: daily 10 AM – 6 PM (last entry 5:15 PM). During the holidays: closed on Tuesdays and 25 December. Open 26 December and 1 January. - Tatiana Trouvé. The Great Life of Things
Palazzo Grassi, Campo San Samuele 3231
Until 4 January 2026
Hours: daily 10 AM – 7 PM (last entry 6:15 PM). During the holidays: closed on Tuesdays and 25 December. Open 26 December and 1 January - Robert Mapplethorpe. The forms of the classic
Le Stanze della Fotografia, Island of San Giorgio Maggiore
Until 6 January 2026
Hours: daily 11 AM – 7 PM (last entry 6:20 PM). During the holidays: closed on Wednesdays. Open 25, 26 December and 1 January. - Wonder, Reality, Enigma. Pietro Bellotti and 18th-century Painting
Gallerie dell’Accademia, Campo della Carità 1050, Dorsoduro
Until 18 January 2026
Hours until 31 December: Monday 9 AM – 2 PM, Tuesday–Sunday 9 AM – 7 PM (ticket office closes one hour before). During the holidays: closed 25 December. Open 26 December 9 AM – 2 PM and 1 January 9 AM – 7 PM. Free every first Sunday of the month.
Give the gift of art with the Civic Museums
Give yourself the pleasure of unlimited entry to collections and exhibitions, direct access without reservation, exclusive events, and invitations to openings for one year with the MUVE Friend Card.
The card is valid for the Civic Museums of Venice, the municipal museum network that includes the Doge’s Palace and Museo Correr in the St. Mark’s area, Ca’ Rezzonico, Ca’ Pesaro, Palazzo Mocenigo, the Fortuny Museum, Carlo Goldoni’s House, the “Giancarlo Ligabue” Natural History Museum, as well as the museums on the islands of Murano (Glass Museum) and Burano (Lace Museum).
Discover the Civic Museums that remain open even on public holidays between Christmas and New Year’s Eve
Article by Lucia Pecoraro and Laura Scarpa.
Photos courtesy of the respective Press Offices.
