Makers Market Near Me in Midtown: Bryant Park's Holiday Shops Kiosks

The Holiday Shops by Urbanspace open at noon on Wednesday October 28, 2026, along the allees and terraces of Bryant Park, the block behind the New York Public Library's Stephen A. Schwarzman Building at 476 Fifth Avenue, and they stay until January 3, 2027. Browsing is free, the hours are 11am to 8pm Monday to Friday and 10am to 8pm on weekends, and the glass kiosks hold artisans from New York and around the world. For a makers market near me in Midtown that runs every day, nothing else is this long.

Bryant Park has been public land since 1686, when Colonial Governor Thomas Dongan designated the site as public property. It later sat beside the Croton Distributing Reservoir, a four-acre man-made lake walled in granite between 1839 and 1842, on the plot now occupied by the library. The park was renamed in 1884 for William Cullen Bryant, the poet and longtime editor of the New York Evening Post, and redesigned under Parks Commissioner Robert Moses after 1934.

Today the park is run by the Bryant Park Corporation, and each autumn it becomes Bank of America Winter Village: a free-admission 17,000-square-foot skating rink, The Lodge bar and food hall, and the Holiday Shops, which Urbanspace curates. The Shops are what make the park a makers market for two months. The kiosks are custom-designed glass boxes that the park calls jewel box kiosks, lined up along the paths so you can walk the whole market without paying anything or reserving a time.

The park describes the mix as local crafts, artisan provisions and gifts from around the world. In practice that means a blend: New York ceramicists, jewelers and printmakers next to importers of knitwear, ornaments and food. The park publishes a full shop directory each season, released before opening, and it is worth reading before you go so you can separate the makers who produce their own goods from the stalls selling imported pieces.

This is the honest caveat about Bryant Park: it is not a juried handmade fair in the way a Brooklyn makers weekend is, and some kiosks repeat what you can find in other city holiday markets. Skip the generic novelty stalls near the busiest Sixth Avenue entrance and spend your time with the kiosks run by the people who make the work; the directory and a quick question at the counter tell you which is which. Hot food lives at The Lodge rather than in the kiosk rows.

Weekday mornings are the easiest time. The Shops open at 11am on weekdays, and before the lunch rush from nearby offices you can move along the allees without queuing at a counter. From about 5pm on weekdays and most of Saturday and Sunday afternoon, especially from Thanksgiving week onward, the paths are crowded with skaters, office workers and visitors, and the most popular kiosks build short queues at the counter.

Weekends open earlier, at 10am, and that first hour is the best window for a Saturday visit. The park notes that many shops keep extended hours on peak holiday dates. If the park is shoulder to shoulder when you arrive, the plan B is simple: walk across Fifth Avenue to the library steps, go inside the Schwarzman Building, which is free, and come back after 7pm on a weeknight, when the evening thins out before the 8pm close.

The crowd at Bryant Park is the most mixed of any New York holiday market: office workers buying gifts on a lunch break, families who came for the rink, tourists photographing the tree, and locals who head straight for one favourite vendor every year. Kiosks are staffed by the sellers or their teams, so questions about who made a piece and where are welcome and usually answered quickly.

Each kiosk sets its own payment and return policies, so ask before buying something you may want to exchange. Kiosk counters are small, and there is no single checkout, so carry a tote and expect to pay at every stall separately. If you plan to skate as well, note that bags are not allowed on the ice and bag check costs extra at the rink, so shop after skating rather than before.

The library's Fifth Avenue facade, with its two marble lions, is a minute's walk east through the park, and the building is free to enter. From the library's corner, walk north on Fifth Avenue to see the holiday windows along the avenue. West of the park, Sixth Avenue has the 42nd Street-Bryant Park subway entrances, and the Grace Building's sloping facade on 42nd Street is one of the odder sights in Midtown.

The Lodge, the park's open-air bar and food hall, runs alongside the rink from October 28, 2026, to February 28, 2027, opening daily at 10am and staying open later, to 11:30pm, from November 18 to January 3. It is the natural place to warm up with a drink after shopping and watch the skaters. The park's public restroom, staffed and open daily from 8am to 10pm, is on the 42nd Street side.

The Shops do not disappear on January 3. Last season the park moved a smaller group of shops onto the rink deck and the Fountain Terrace from early January through the end of February, open daily from 11am to 8pm. That quieter winter version, mostly on the rink deck where skaters warm up, is the best time to talk with sellers at length, since the holiday crowds have gone home and the kiosks no longer have queues. If you only want to browse rather than hunt for gifts, January is honestly the more pleasant month to come.

Where: Bryant Park, between 40th and 42nd Streets and Fifth and Sixth Avenues, behind the New York Public Library at 476 Fifth Avenue. When: October 28, 2026 (opening at noon) to January 3, 2027; Monday to Friday 11am to 8pm, Saturday and Sunday 10am to 8pm. Entry: free, no ticket required for the Shops. Many shops open longer on peak holiday dates.

Subway: B, D, F or M to 42nd Street-Bryant Park, which lets out directly onto the park, or the 7 to Fifth Avenue. The rink, also free to enter, opens the same day and runs to February 28, 2027, from 8am daily. Skate rentals and bag check are paid, and own-skate sessions must be reserved ahead online.