Santurantikuy in Cusco

The sale of the saints

On Christmas Eve, the Plaza de Armas of Cusco transforms. From early in the day, artisans spread their cloths and set out their stalls across the square and the streets around it until the whole centre becomes one enormous open-air craft fair: Santurantikuy, 'the sale of saints' in Quechua. It is one of the largest and oldest craft markets in the Andes, drawing makers from Cusco's villages and from far across the southern highlands to sell the small, intricate, deeply local objects of an Andean Christmas. Families come not as tourists but to shop — to choose the figures for the home nativity, to buy the Christ child a new robe, to stock up on the ceramics and ornaments that mark the season.

For a traveller building a December trip around Machu Picchu, Santurantikuy is a small piece of luck. It costs nothing to wander into, it happens in the very square you'd visit anyway, and it shows you Cusco doing what it has done at Christmas for centuries rather than performing for visitors. The trick is simply to be in the city on 24 December — and to plan the festive squeeze on hotels, trains and tickets around the date, which, unlike Easter or Corpus Christi, conveniently never moves.

Santurantikuy at a glance

The market in one card. The pattern is evergreen and the date is fixed, but the city's festive logistics tighten around it — verify hotel availability, train schedules and any street closures before you commit.

• When: 24 December (Christmas Eve), every year — a fixed date, building through the day into the evening.
• Where: the Plaza de Armas and surrounding streets in central Cusco.
• Season: wet season — green, cool, frequently rainy by afternoon; cold at night at 3,399 m.
• What's sold: Niño Manuelito Christ-child figures, nativity sets, retablos, ceramics, textiles and ornaments.
• Crowds: very busy with both visitors and Cusqueños shopping for Christmas.
• Cost: free to wander — it's a market, not a ticketed event.

What you'll find on the cloths

The star of Santurantikuy is the Niño Manuelito — Cusco's beloved image of the infant Christ, sold in every size and dressed in robes you can buy separately to clothe the figure at home. Around him spreads the whole world of Andean Christmas craft: tiny hand-painted nativity figures, animals and shepherds for the home crèche; retablos, the little wooden boxes that open to reveal painted scenes; ceramics and pottery from the villages; carved and moulded ornaments; and the textiles and small goods that fill any Cusco market. Much of it is genuinely handmade by the artisan selling it, and many makers carry techniques handed down through families.

It is, in short, an exceptional place to buy meaningful souvenirs — the kind with a story and a maker rather than a factory label. If you're shopping rather than just browsing, this is the moment: prices reflect real craft, the selection is at its widest of the year, and buying directly from the maker puts your money where it belongs. Bring small denominations of cash, since stalls rarely take cards, and handle the finer pieces gently in the press of the crowd.

• Niño Manuelito Christ-child figures — the festival's signature buy — plus robes to dress them.
• Nativity sets, retablos, ceramics, carvings, textiles and ornaments, much of it handmade by the seller.
• Bring small cash — stalls rarely take cards — and browse gently in the crowds.
• One of the year's best chances to buy directly from Andean artisans.

The weather and the crowds

Santurantikuy falls in the heart of the wet season, so come ready for green-season weather: cool days, a strong chance of rain by the afternoon, and a genuinely cold night once the sun drops behind the mountains at 3,399 metres. A waterproof, warm layers and footwear that copes with wet cobbles will make a long evening among the stalls far more pleasant than a token jacket. The market runs rain or shine, and the festive crowd — visitors and Cusqueños together — fills the square shoulder to shoulder, so move slowly, keep a hand on your bag, and treat the press as part of the atmosphere rather than a frustration.

Because the date is fixed and the market is free, the planning here is less about the event itself and more about everything around it. Christmas Eve sits inside a high-demand festive stretch for Cusco hotels and for the trains and tickets down to the citadel, so the squeeze is real even though the market costs nothing.

• Wet-season cold and rain — pack a waterproof, warm layers and grippy footwear.
• Very crowded after dark — move slowly and keep your valuables close.
• The market runs rain or shine; the night air at altitude is genuinely cold.

Fitting it into a Machu Picchu trip

Santurantikuy slots neatly into a Cusco day, which makes it easy to fold into a December citadel plan — but the festive season puts the usual pressure on the moving parts. Hotels in central Cusco, the trains to Aguas Calientes and the timed-entry citadel tickets all see strong holiday demand around Christmas and the New Year, so book early and in the right order: the citadel ticket first, then the train and your night in Aguas Calientes, then your Cusco hotel for the festive nights. Keep your Christmas Eve in the plaza on a different day from your citadel visit, so a late, crowded night among the stalls doesn't collide with a pre-dawn train and a fixed entry slot.

A natural shape for the trip is to spend Christmas Eve in Cusco for the market, with your acclimatization days doubling as festive days, and to slot the citadel either side. That keeps the altitude ladder sensible — sleep low-to-high-to-low, give the city its due before climbing — while letting you catch one of the Andes' great Christmas traditions on the way.

• Book the citadel ticket first, then the train, then a festive-week Cusco hotel — all well ahead.
• Keep Christmas Eve in the plaza separate from your citadel day to avoid an early-train clash.
• Let your Cusco acclimatization days double as festive days before you head for the citadel.

The Santurantikuy verdict

If you're in Cusco on Christmas Eve, give the evening to Santurantikuy. It's free, it's genuine, and it fills the Plaza de Armas with the small handmade treasures of an Andean Christmas — the best souvenir shopping of the year wrapped inside a centuries-old tradition. The planning is gentle because the date never moves: pack for wet-season cold, bring small cash for the stalls, book your hotel, train and citadel ticket early against the festive demand, and keep the market night separate from your entry slot. Do that, and a single cold, candlelit evening among the cloths becomes one of the most quietly memorable parts of the whole trip.