Our favourite Christmas Markets

It smells like the holidays are coming and there’s no better place to get into the Christmas spirit and get your Yuletide celebrations under way than at the European Christmas Markets. Also known as also known as Christkindlmarkt, Christkindlesmarkt, Christkindlmarket, Christkindlimarkt, and Weihnachtsmarkt bypass crowded shops and searching the internet for bargains and get your shopping under way at our favourite Christmas Markets.

Christmas Shopping

Forget about department store crowds and the joyless chore of trawling the web for a good deal. Combine some travel with your search for the perfect gift at the Christmas markets in Europe. There is nothing better than shopping for creative gifts and quality items for your loved ones in a festive setting and the love for Christmas markets is growing stronger. Don’t forget your hats, its cold outside but the icy scenes, snowy sights and winter wonderment will warm your heart.

This is the season for bright lights and shiny packages and is a wonderful time of the year. The aroma of cinnamon and fir fill the air. Christmas bells ring, dazzling lights line the streets and people stroll in search of Christmas pleasures. Shop windows are filled with animated displays, the most stunning decorations decked out in magical colour for the festive season.

Good old Christmas magic of the skating rink is seen at many of our favourite Christmas Markets and invokes the inner child in us all. You’ll feel like you’ve stepped straight into a scene from a Christmas card.

What can you buy?

Familiar at most markets are the quaint wooden huts where local craftsmen sell their wares, handmade arts and craft, wooden toys, handmade soaps, scented candles and the most beautiful decorations and handcrafted baubles.

Magical Christmas Markets

Be dazzled by the fairytale ambiance of twinkling fairy lights and glittering tinsel while sipping a mug of warm Glühwein at some of the best of Europe’s Christmas Markets. You’ll feel giddy like a child as you ride the carousel and enjoy the sounds of the church bells chiming. Each market is unique and you can embrace the Christmas spirit and pay homage to Kris Kringle, Saint Nicholas or good old Santa Claus. The atmosphere will enchant you as you enjoy the Christmas carols playing, concerts, festivities and parades.

Visiting a Christmas market is leaving reality behind and entering into an enchanting Christmas fairytale. The first thing that gets you is the smells. The mulled wine, sauerkraut and bratwurst. Decked in colourful festive lights against the backdrop of an Old Town Square, the sights of the delicate ornaments and things you don’t see in a department store draw you along many of our favourite Christmas Markets.

Recommended Christmas Markets

Strasbourg is the capital of Christmas touched by the magic of festivities with one of our favourite Christmas Markets that dates back to 1570 and the town’s great Christmas tree is said to put the tree at New York’s Rockefeller Center to shame. We’ve been part of the two million visitors from around the world who have enjoyed the magic of European Christmas markets and been delighted by the goods on sale at Strasbourg’s cathedral square or Christkindelsmärik.

Many German cities sparkle at Christmas time when their Christmas markets become the star attraction. Stroll through the iconic Römerberg square in Frankfurt and you’ll not only be in one of the oldest markets in Europe, dating back to 1393, but also one of the best.

We’ve been to Brussels, Winter Wonders at Grand Place, Vienna’s Karlsplatz, Stephensplatz and Schönbrunn Palace, Budapest’s Vörösmarty Square, Paris’s Marché de Noël on Champs-Elysées, and enjoyed roasted ham and Trdelnik at Prague’s Old Town Square and Wenceslas Square.

With its 500-year tradition, the fairtytale town of Colmar’s Christmas Market are amongst the most attractive and atmospheric Christmas markets in all of France and rates as one of our favourite Christmas Markets.

Salzburg is the home of Silent Night, and the Christmas markets located near the Cathedral Square has lots of traditional stalls with homemade children’s toys, a skating rink and of course Glühwein.

Other markets we’ve visited were at Bruges, Antwerp, Luxembourg, Cologne, Frankfurt, Obernai, Mannheim, Heidelberg, Zurich, Bern, Basel, Lucerne, Chur, Salzburg, Ljubljana and Belgrade.

Christmas Market food

With so many beautiful Christmas markets in Europe, you will find everything from illuminated markets stalls and classic Nativity scenes, and of course food. Don’t forget to go with an empty stomach as gastronomy is a strong part of the Christmas markets. You will sample many local delicacies like bretzels, currywurst, metwurst, bratwurst, pomme frites, langos, reibekuchen (potato pancakes), flammkuchen spiced nuts, waffles, crepes, strudel, roasted chestnuts, honey biscuits and my favourite chimney cake, locally known as kürtőskalács, baumkuchen or trdelnik. Made with dough wrapped around a pole, cooked over coals and coated in sugar and cinnamon, these are like a large donut cone.

Another speciality is lebrucken, pfefferkuchen or gingerbread. These luscious baked goods are flavoured with ginger, cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon and honey. There is a lot of variety baked as a crisp biscuit (ginger snap) or a soft, moist cake, gingerbread men and gingerbread houses. Stollen is a German fruit bread with nuts, spices, marzipan and candied fruits traditionally eaten during the Christmas season. It might be named Weihnachtsstollen or Christstollen but is always delicious. Speculaas are also very popular, not just in Netherlands, but also Belgium, Germany and Austria. There’s a lot of food to choose at the Christmas markets and the best thing is it is all reasonably priced so you won’t break the bank sampling the culinary delights of each region.

Visit a different market over the 12 days of Christmas, each with its own speciality, whether it is the best food, the tallest tree, the oldest market or the largest market.

Brave the harsh winter, don your scarf and mittens and be sure to keep warm with a hot chocolate or spicy Glühwein. There is Christmas music, arts and craft, Pop up bars, street food stalls, and ginger bread decorating for the kids. But its not just the kids eyes that light up as the aroma of roasted chestnuts and gingerbread fills the air along with spicy mulled wine for the adults.

The town square, with a generous dusting of snow makes a visit more magical. Buildings transform into giant advent calendars and spectacular window displays, the walls are a great backdrop for light shows.

Christmas pyramid

And who couldn’t fall in love with the German made Christmas pyramid? Watching in awe as they gently turn, they are beautiful, authentic and honour the folklore and customs of the region.

Fairy lit squares, huge decorated fir trees and the sweet scent of Christmas fare will melt even the biggest Scrooge and bring some Christmas cheer to any Grinch.

Location of Christmas markets

Train stations, city halls, shopping arcades, even palace grounds are all beautified with bright, shiny Christmas decorations ready for the crowds who are drawn to the Christmas markets. Spectacular locations, like historic cathedrals are transformed with projected light displays. These illuminations enliven the streets, offering an enchanting journey along the cobblestoned streets. The sparkling projections and luminous arches embellish the prestigious character and architecture in the main square.

You’d be hard pressed to find a more perfect place to escape the winter chill and enjoy the wonderment and grandeur of a yearly Christmas spectacle. A must see is the display inside Galeries Lafayette in Paris. Each and every year a stunning, giant display glittering under the huge Art Nouveau glass dome invokes the inner child in us all.

It is mesmerizing strolling under chestnut trees decorated twinkling lights, the sound of children laughing and Christmas carols playing. Walking around the Christmas markets on a cold winter’s day was so cold and despite wearing our gloves and scarf we found the best remedy was to get some warm Glühwein into our bellies.

Glühwein is like magic in a cup, warming our hands and our souls. The heady aroma of sizzling bratwurst cooking over coals, melting raclette cheese and spicy sweet treats fills the air. Our noses, almost numb from the cold still lead us around so we could satisfy our appetites.

This is a wonderful time of the year and Europe has so many Christmas markets to experience. We are drawn the markets but there is so much more, winter in Europe has to offer, glittering Christmas lights, Christmas shows (who can resist the Nutcracker?), checking out the store window displays and buildings with giant red bows. It is busy and you can’t avoid the crowds, but it is worth it for the music, the lights, the decorations. We even spotted a newly married couple riding the carousels at one of our favourite Christmas Markets.

The atmosphere of the Christmas magic is wonderful with childhood memories of longstanding traditions.

Let yourself be delightfully swept away with traditional customs, along with the wonder and creativity of imaginary creatures. Extraordinary stories and old style narratives reflect the prism of childhood memories. Exquisitely beautiful memories where the trees are higher, the lights are brighter and the strings of stars came in many colours and sizes.

The Christmas markets have flickering fairy lights, glittering snow laden Christmas trees, tinsel and shiny baubles, even singing moose. You will be bedazzled by the glitz of precious keepsakes and infused with a feeling of comfort and joy in a place where families bond and traditions are born.

At any of our favourite Christmas markets you can not only feel the nostalgia of the festive season, you can see it, hear it and definitely taste it.

A visit to the Christmas markets is one you’ll never forget and one you should visit at least once in your life. For those who don’t like this most wonderful time of the year, a visit to some of our favourite Christmas markets is bound to change your mind. There is such a variety in the markets that the season for some, seems too short to take it all in.

Where is your favourite place for Christmas lights? And which store draws you in with the best window display?

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