NOVA This Week

Old Town Alexandria Holiday Markets and Craft Fairs

The 1753 Saturday farmers market runs 7 to noon, but there's no holiday village — just that, one Sunday fall festival, and King Street gift shops.

Alexandria · 17 listings · Checked 9/6/26

Historic market stalls with pumpkins, handmade crafts, and shoppers along a brick-lined Old Town street.

Old Town doesn’t stage a single holiday market with a row of matching chalets. It runs the market it’s run since 1753 and lets the season build up around it — which means the real decision isn’t “which market” but “which kind of stop,” since food, gifts, crafts, and evening atmosphere all live in different places here.

If you want food and flowers, not gifts

The Old Town Farmers’ Market is the anchor, and it’s worth knowing what it isn’t: it deals in produce, meat, flowers, and baked goods, not crafts or wrapped presents. Treat it as the stop for a centerpiece or something to bring to a party, not as a source of gifts. The Oldtown North Farmer’s Market covers the same ground at a smaller scale, worth knowing about if the main market feels like more browsing than you need.

If you actually want to browse and buy gifts or crafts

Neither farmers market above is built for that, and nothing inside Old Town proper quite fills the gap. The closest match is a short drive away: the Del Ray Vintage & Flea Market is where actual browsing-and-buying crafts and secondhand finds happen — closer to what people mean by “holiday market” than anything in Old Town itself. It pairs naturally with the Del Ray Farm Market nearby, so one trip covers both food and gifts. Worth the drive if the errand is finding presents, not produce.

If you want gifts without leaving King Street

For a short list, The Old Town Shop is sized for a quick browse and stocked with local and novelty items that read as chosen rather than grabbed at the airport — a better bet for stocking stuffers than a big-box run. For a longer list — furniture, imported housewares, specialty food gifts — World Market covers more ground under one roof. It’s less charming than a King Street storefront, but it’s the right call when there’s a long list and one afternoon to clear it.

The one fixed event, not a standing market

Everything above is a recurring stop you can plan around loosely. The Alexandria Fall Festival is different: it’s a single annual event rather than a market you can catch another week, so it’s worth building a trip around specifically if what you want is the craft-fair version of the season.

Where the evening actually happens

Once the shopping’s done, none of the stops above is where people linger after dark. The Old Town Alexandria Waterfront — a riverside promenade of bars, restaurants, and ice cream parlors, with live music along it — is the part of the neighborhood built for that. It works as a bookend to any of the choices above: walk it before the market run, or come back to it once the shopping’s done and let the evening stretch.