In December, Venice hosts two ice skating rinks: the one in Campo San Polo and an incredible ice installation at Palazzo Diedo. Additionally, there are exhibitions, cinema, performances, and conferences: here is the Venezia da Vivere guide to events through Christmas and New Year’s Eve.
A 15-meter tree decorated with 200 stars in St. Mark’s Square and the artist chandelier installations Murano Illuminates the World under the Procuratie provide the backdrop for Christmas in Venice. Art exhibitions, design, craftsmanship, and contemporary ice rinks mark the days leading to Christmas and New Year’s Eve with openings, tastings, Christmas markets, and a fantastic film festival.
Here is the guide to December initiatives in Venice:
- In Laguna Film Festival (INLFF) 2025
From December 9 to 15
Various venues in Venice
Free admission while seats last*
*except for screenings at the Rossini and Dante cinemas (ticket price is €5)
Access to competition screenings is reserved for adults only.
Info: retecinemainlaguna@gmail.com
Films, aperitifs with authors, and Industry Days to meet professionals and discover career opportunities in the region: Rete Cinema in Laguna presents the fifth edition of the INLAGUNA Film Festival (INLFF) with a program of screenings and meetings dedicated to formal and narrative experimentation in contemporary cinema.
In addition to the screenings of films in Competition, which compete for the “Gianfranco De Bosio” Award dedicated to the Veronese director and partisan, there will be meetings with international guests, including British avant-garde director John Smith, conversations with authors, aperitifs, and the Industry Days—two days of meetings and training for the film and audiovisual sector designed to foster dialogue between professionals and the new generations. Featuring focus sessions on technical departments, set safety, family archives, and informal networking moments, the Industry Days at the Super Zazà comic book store are an opportunity to gain firsthand knowledge of work on set, engage with industry experts, and discover career opportunities within the Veneto region.
- An ice skating rink at Palazzo Diedo
Eisfeld II by Olaf Nicolai
Palazzo Diedo – Berggruen Arts & Culture, Fondamenta Diedo, Cannaregio 2328
From December 13 to February 22, 2026. Press preview: Saturday, December 13
Admission with ticket
A spectacular ice installation will welcome visitors in the ballroom of Palazzo Diedo, the Venice headquarters of Berggruen Arts & Culture. Artist Olaf Nicolai brings Eisfeld II to Venice, an environmental installation conceived as an open and accessible space. Visitors’ movements will be accompanied by the original soundtrack from the Berlin band To Rococo Rot as the work progressively cools as the exhibition proceeds.
The ice skating rink, created for the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games, is built using advanced artificial ice production technologies to create a contrast with the Baroque atmosphere of the frescoed hall in the 18th-century palace. At both ends of the rink, the light boxes ENJOY/SURVIVE I & II revisit the themes of the relationship between pleasure and survival, which the German artist first presented in the original version of the work in 2001 at the Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst in Zurich.
Thanks to the intervention of philanthropist Nicolas Berggruen, Palazzo Diedo is an exhibition and artistic research center established by Berggruen Arts & Culture under the direction of Mario Codognato. Following the inaugural exhibition Janus, it has hosted site-specific and permanent installations by artists such as Marcantonio Brandolini d’Adda, Urs Fischer, Piero Golia, Carsten Höller, Ibrahim Mahama, Mariko Mori, Sterling Ruby, Jim Shaw, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Aya Takano, Lee Ufan, and Liu Wei.
- Christmas in the City
Ice skating in Campo San Polo is a winter tradition in Venice: the Venice ice skating rink opens on Saturday, November 29 and remains active until February 17, 2026. It is important to remember that access to the rink is permitted only with gloves and follows 90-minute shifts.
Ideal for those seeking unique pieces, rare collections, and gems for a special gift, the Campo San Maurizio Antiques Market, a historic event since 1970, returns to Venice from Friday, December 5 to Sunday, December 7.
On Sunday, December 21, Christmas takes to the water with the Santa Claus Water Parade
. The eleventh edition of a unique regatta: hundreds of rowers dressed as Santa Claus parade along the Grand Canal aboard traditional Venetian rowing boats.
- Building the Joy of Christmas Together
The Home of The Human Safety Net, Procuratie di Piazza San Marco 105
Wednesday, December 3 and Thursday, December 4, from 3 PM to 6 PM
Free admission
Christmas is about solidarity at the Procuratie with the gift collection organized by The Home of The Human Safety Net for the mothers and children welcomed by the Istituto Casa Famiglia San Pio X on Giudecca. Everyone can bring books, toys, personal care products, and accessories (new and in their original packaging): volunteers will create the gift packages to be delivered to families at Casa San Pio X on Giudecca and Casa Taliercio in Mestre.
Founded in 1910, the Istituto Casa Famiglia San Pio X welcomes women in difficulty and mothers with their children to help them build an independent life, and is part of the over 85 NGOs in The Human Safety Net.
- MEN’S KIMONO. Threads of Life, Tales of Style
Palazzo Mocenigo Museum – Center for the History of Textiles, Costume, and Perfume, Santa Croce 1992
From December 5 to April 4, 2026
The exhibition can be visited during the Museum’s opening hours with a standard ticket
Sober on the outside, decorated on the inside with images of battles, nature, and philosophy: the Early 20th-Century Men’s Kimono tells the story of Japanese culture and fashion.
The exhibition, born from the collaboration between Lydia Manavello, who provides the kimonos from her collection, and Silvia Vesco from Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, creates a dialogue between Europe and Japan through Japonisme—when European art was inspired by Hiroshige, Utamaro, and Hokusai—and especially Occidentalism, when Western modernities entered Japanese kimonos, transforming traditional decorative language.
The exhibition path is divided into nine thematic sections featuring loans from the Museum of Oriental Art in Venice and a sector dedicated to decorative and textile techniques.
- Textiles Tradition Transformation
The Claudia Kohlhoff Textile Collection
Salone Verde art & social club
Santa Croce 2258, Calle della Regina
Until December 28
Opening hours: Friday to Sunday, 10 AM – 6 PM, free admission
The Salone Verde art & social club presents the exhibition Textiles Tradition until December 28
Transformation, featuring the textile collection of Claudia Kohlhoff in dialogue with garments created by young couturiers.
Alongside, the installation Keep Cool! by Antje Schiffer features traditional textiles from Mali, Anatolia, and Uzbekistan taking flight, inviting us toward a slower and more sustainable way of being.
The Must-Sees
- Coro by Luciano Berio with choreography by Wayne McGregor
Saturday, December 6 and Sunday, December 7
Teatro La Fenice, Campo San Fantin 1965
Tickets available at www.labiennale.org and at the Teatro La Fenice box office from 8 PM on performance days
A dialogue between body and sound, memory and experimentation, a multicultural chorus: the world premiere of Coro, the work by Luciano Berio (1925-2003) with choreography by Wayne McGregor, Artistic Director of the Dance Department of La Biennale di Venezia, is the tribute that La Biennale di Venezia dedicates to the great composer on the centenary of his birth.
The masterpiece composed between 1974 and 1976, which debuted in Italy at the 1976 Biennale Theatre and Music directed by Luca Ronconi, returns to Teatro La Fenice with twenty dancers from Company Wayne McGregor and talents from the last five years of Biennale College Danza, along with forty voices from the Siena Cathedral Choir “Guido Chigi Saracini” and forty instruments from the Orchestra del Teatro La Fenice.
The tribute to Berio continues the cycle of Special Projects of the ASAC, the Historical Archive of La Biennale di Venezia – International Center for Contemporary Arts Research, a space for memory, research, and active reflection on the cultural roots of our time. Following Massimo Cacciari’s lectio magistralis on The Death of Jus Belli and the tribute to the philosopher-composer Franco Battiato with Arcipelago Battiato, the path of the Historical Archive’s Special Projects concludes for 2025 in the spirit of music and dance.
Coro is the construction of an open project to generate ever-changing relationships between sound, word, and movement—as Berio himself defined it—with texts by Pablo Neruda and folk songs from Peru, Polynesia, Persia, Croatia, Chile, and various Italian regions.
The musical direction is entrusted to Koen Kessels, director of the Dutch National Ballet and the Royal Ballet. The chorus master is Lorenzo Donati, and the lighting is by visual artist Theresa Baumgartner.
- Ve.Nice Stuff
From December 18 to 21
Spazio Badoer, Scuola Grande di San Giovanni Evangelista
Free admission
The seventh edition of Ve.Nice Stuff, the independent and sustainable design showcase that since 2014 has provided space for those creating craft and design objects, following the entire supply chain through recycled materials and innovative techniques. The project was born from the idea of Mauro Cazzaro and Antonella Maione of Kanz Architetti to give visibility to independent productions that believe in design culture and artisanal quality.
This year, the showcase expands its gaze beyond the Venetian territory to host creatives from other geographical and cultural contexts, confirming Venice as a place of encounter and cross-pollination. Ve.Nice Stuff brings together designers and artisans working with ceramics, textiles, leather, and paper.
Handmade porcelain jewelry, lamps that reassemble into ever-changing forms, macramé textile sculptures, ceramics blending Venetian tradition and Mexican culture, and two special events:
Thursday, December 18 at 6 PM
Tea sommeliers Gabriella Scarpa and Federica Lazzarini of Ar-Tea Academy offer an aperitif with tea selections from Japan, China, Nepal, and Taiwan, including alcoholic versions.
Saturday, December 20 at 6 PM
A wine tasting from the Sandrin winery, a third-generation family business that cultivates a nine-hectare plot in the Cru Valdobbiadene Superiore di Cartizze between the Asolo and Conegliano-Valdobbiadene DOCGs.
Events and Activities at Palazzo Grassi and the Teatrino
- Palazzo Grassi and the Teatrino
San Marco 3260
Screenings, performances, meetings with artists, music, and many activities for all ages. The upcoming events on the calendar for the month of December:
Wednesday, December 3
6 PM and 8 PM
Seeing and Touching – Thomas Schütte. The Metamorphoses of the Body
Free admission while seats last
The eighth evening of the auteur cinema series curated by critic and curator Dominique Païni, dedicated this year to the German artist Thomas Schütte, featured in the current exhibition at Punta della Dogana, and to the infinite possibilities of transformation and hybridization of the human body.
On the program: at 6 PM The Song of Songs (1933, 90′) by Rouben Mamoulian and at 8 PM Showing Up (2022, 107′) by Kelly Reichardt.
Thursday, December 4
from 9:30 AM to 6 PM
Free admission while seats last
Conference: On the Politics of Fragments and the Perception of Lacunas. Science Diplomacy and Heritage
A day dedicated to culture as a tool for dialogue in an era of tension and climate crisis. Topics include artificial intelligence and satellite imagery for heritage protection, the diplomatic role of art, and the restitution of works in museums.
4 PM meeting with Ali Cherri (Silver Lion, Venice Biennale 2022) and Bruno Racine, Director of Palazzo Grassi – Punta della Dogana. 5:30 PM the Lebanese artist presents The Book of Mud in the atrium of Palazzo Grassi, a musical and poetic performance linked to the film The Dam (2022) exploring mud as a material and metaphor between earth and water.
Saturday, December 6
A Zig Zag
Palazzo Grassi with Veronica Canale – The Music of Dreams
Registration fee €7 per single session, €5 for children of Pinault Collection Membership Card holders
For info: education@palazzograssi.it
A Zig Zag returns, the cycle of workshops for children aged 6 to 11 involving movement practices, museum space, and theatrical play. In this session, they start from the works of Tatiana Trouvé (on display at Palazzo Grassi until January 4, 2026) and create compositions with everyday objects, exploring the world of dreams evoked by the artist.
Link to book.
Tuesday, December 9, 6:30 PM
House of Words at the Teatrino di Palazzo Grassi
Free admission while seats last
Embraces is the theme of the event dedicated to literature lovers, returning for a new season of literary readings. Every month from October 2025 to June 2026, a thematic selection of texts from around the world is read in the original language followed by the Italian translation.
Saturday, December 13, 11 AM
Other Gazes
Participants of the Other Gazes project guide the public through Tatiana Trouvé’s exhibition at Palazzo Grassi, recounting the works through their migration experiences. The workshop, which accompanied participants from October to December over seven meetings, transforms travel stories into new ways of looking at art.
Article by Lucia Pecoraro. Photos courtesy of the respective press offices.
