Christmas Parades
in Chester 2025

Experience the history and beauty of Chester’s Christmas parades

Chester has numerous magical parades throughout the festive period range from the historic and symbolic to the simple beauty of bringing light and life to the city in celebration. 

The typical line up is the 12 Days of Christmas parade with live music, carols and Santa’s sleigh which includes the lantern parade with the city’s children filling the streets with the glow of beautiful lanterns mid to the end of November followed by the historic Winter Watch and the Winter Watch and Saturnalia parades in December which date back to the 1400’s and the Roman legions led by traditional torchlight.

While you are visiting the city don’t forget to also enjoy the delicacies and warm welcome in Chester’s best eating and drinking spots and to make the most of the offers and deals they have for you through the Christmas period not to mention the fabulous places to enjoy fabulous cocktails.

Chester has the best restaurants to choose from with lots of child and family friendly options and we highly recommend you do some local Christmas shopping and check out all the festive menus available in the city while you’re out and about enjoying the parades.

You can find everything you could wish for this Christmas at a glance on our Christmas in Chester page plus all the latest updates as they happen in our definitive guide to what’s on for Christmas.