The Matadero Madrid cultural space will host the seventh edition of Madrid, Christmas Meeting from 20 December 2025 to 4 January 2026. It is a party of culture and meeting, with a rich and diverse Christmas programme that included Germany as the invited country in 2024.
This year, Matadero will once more be one of the key spaces in the Christmas programme, with an extensive range of activities throughout the day for all ages: concerts, workshops, games, ice rink, unique shows and an area devoted to gastronomy. In 2024, the Madrid, Christmas Meeting programme was extended to the Serrería Belga Cultural Space.
As of this year, Madrid, Christmas Meeting will embark on a new phase, in which each edition will feature and schedule programming around an artistic and cultural theme. This year’s theme is words, a vehicle for memory, emotion, imagination and a meeting point for families and their loved ones.
Therefore, with literature as its common thread, the programme offers a journey through the stories, characters, and tales that have shaped the Christmas imagination of different generations, paying tribute to the classics of European children's literature—with authors such as Shakespeare, Dickens or Andersen—and to the stories that have accompanied this festive season.
In this way, Madrid, Christmas Meeting fosters coexistence and celebration through shared words and invites people to rediscover the holidays through literature, opening the doors to new forms of cultural encounter.
Snow in Plaza Matadero
One of the traditions of Madrid, Christmas Meeting will be back from 20 December to 4 January 2026, as snow comes to the Plaza Matadero every day as night falls, magically turning the space into a picture postcard. From 6pm, a typically Christmas landscape can be enjoyed.
Activities at Cineteca, Aulario, Casa del Lector – Espacio Nube
Like every year, Cineteca Matadero will host a very special film programme featuring Christmas, with selected films from all genres and for all ages. There will also be theatre shows and exhibitions for all the family. A collection of stories to make Christmas even more exciting.
As part of the Madrid, Christmas Meeting programme, the Aulario has prepared a series of Victorian Christmas craft workshops, a Christmas Baubles Workshop, an Ornament Workshop using oranges and branches and a Gift Workshop for the Three Wise Men and their camels.
There will be Literary Christmas Workshops run by Art Stories at Casa del Lector - Espacio Nube, designed for families with children between the ages of 3 and 14.
From 20 December to 4 January, Nave 1 will be hosting The Classics Return to Madrid for Christmas. Even before writing existed, we already imagined and were told of beings who came to assure us that light would always overcome darkness. These beings are part of the earliest form of literature: myths and legends. When we learnt to write, we started to celebrate Christmas, which soon became a source of inspiration for authors of the likes of Oscar Wilde, Gogol, Tolkien, Truman Capote or Paul Auster. This Christmas, we plan to bring together traditional Christmas and winter stories and legends and tales written by the most renowned authors. Tales for all ages will come to Matadero Madrid in a programme that brings us together in words and their magic.
Nave 1 is also ready for the Arrival of the Royal Emissaries, a very special event that will light up Matadero Madrid on 4 January from 12 Noon to 2pm. The Royal Emissaries will meet the children of Madrid to talk to them and receive their letters, which will be swiftly delivered to the Three Wise Men, who will fill the city's homes with magic and gifts on the night of 5 January.
See Full Programme
pista_hielo_matadero_navidad_2025.jpg
