After spending the week rushing from one meeting to the next along the wide, windy avenues of downtown Montreal, dwarfed by the 50-story concrete-and-glass skyscrapers, we deserve a little of that old-world charm this holiday season.
Unfortunately, not all of us have time to get away for a whole weekend, or to travel very far, and some of us don’t have a car or the money to spend on renting a Communauto that will rattle in the early-winter wind during the three-hour drive between Montreal and Quebec City.
Just a 45-minute drive from downtown Montreal—or a 1 hour and 20-minute ride by public transit—you can take a trip to the lovely Old Terrebonne on weekends between December 4 and December 20, 2026.
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THE TERREBONNE CHRISTMAS MARKET
The Terrebonne Christmas Market offers the romance of narrow cobblestone streets, buildings made of gray cut stone, ornate streetlamps, and small village squares that smell of pine needles and mulled wine.
There will be little wooden cottages, chocolate, bonfires to warm up by, and magical appearances by Santa Claus.
The city of Terrebonne is considered a suburb of Montreal, but it’s on the mainland (not on the island) and lies at the heart of the MRC des Moulins. It’s a city in constant expansion that, since 2014, has been the tenth most populous city in the country.
Preserved since the 18th and 19th centuries, and dating back to the time when Terrebonne was a seigneury, one neighborhood is considered one of the richest in colonial heritage in Quebec: Old Terrebonne.
The neighborhood resembles the most beautiful streets of Old Quebec in terms of its charm and cultural appeal, and it’s just a few minutes’ drive from Montreal and Laval.
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PRACTICAL INFO
Where? Île-des-Moulins, Vieux-Terrebonne
/ from downtown Montreal, the historic district of Old Terrebonne is about a 45-minute drive and about an hour and a half by public transit. Take the Orange Line to the Montmorency station, then the EXO 19 Terrebonne-Mascouche train to the Autoroute 25/J.-S.-Archambault (Île Saint-Jean) stop.
When? December 4–20, 2026 / weekends
Friday / 4:00 p.m. to 8
:00 p.m. Saturday / 10:00 a.m. to 8:00
p.m. Sunday / 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
How? Free admission; check out the special lineup here
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