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Overview of German/Austrian Christmas Markets (or, How a Poor Kid Got to the Christkindlmarkt)
When I was 10, after my grandfather died, my grandmother took in a German nun named Margaret who worked for the Catholic parish church he had attended (even though Grandma was a Methodist).
The ancient nun was meaner than a dyspeptic wolverine and smelled like Limburger cheese kept in an outhouse, since her generation apparently considered bathing verboten.
Oh, and she was a Nazi. Veeeery unhappy about the whole WWII thing. Especially the ending. Not sure, but she might have lit a candle every April 20th.
(Note: this says zero about Germans in general — in my 30 years of travel to Germany, I’ve never met anyone over there I’d call a Nazi — many wistfully delusional Communists, but no unrepentant NSDAP members. A tad too far left and overly regulated for my tastes, but I still love the country.)
However, Margaret had pride (if little else), and tried to pay her way. So, one year, she bought Grandma a massive tin box filled with Lebkuchen (a particular style of German gingerbread) and other Weihnacht treats. I knew neither what a Lebkuchen nor a Weihnacht was, nor (as I know now) that the box came from Lebkuchen Schmidt in Nuremberg. I just knew I loved it.
The box had a painting of the Cologne Cathedral and market square, with some sort of historical tale told in pictures around the side containing legends in German Gothic script which could have all been magical incantations in Aramaic, for all I understood them.
We were quite poor, so with the cookies, cakes, etc, the tin is the most wonderous object I can remember from my childhood. I spent an unconscionable amount of time staring at that thing since Grandma kept it around for years after the Lebkuchen had been consumed.
BTW — Lebkuchen Schmidt’s is still my favorite Lebkuchen shop, I stop in to their main Nuremberg location at least once a year and fill a suitcase. Try some — if you don’t like them, you aren’t human. And they still sell the cakes in massive (or small) illustrated souvenir tins.
A Bit o’ Learning Changed My Life
A few years later, I took my high school’s required Humanities course, which did not excite me.
At first.
But the teacher, Ms. Bigham — coincidentally also my art teacher, and weirdly her parents were very good friends of my Grandma — loved what she did so much she made me love the art and buildings she presented as well.
Gothic architecture did and does still fascinate me, along with late Gothic and early Renaissance painting. So when we got to studying the Cologne Cathedral (amazing — and the tin was still on Grandma’s fireplace ledge a decade later) I made the decision that poor or not, before I died I was going to get inside that Dom.
Thank and God bless you Ms. Bigham, RIP. A good teacher can make a difference.
So a bit later, five years into my accidental software consulting career (see how that happened here), when searching Usenet only I found a contract to work with the Italian telephone company — Telecom Italia, at that time — I grabbed the opportunity with both fists, both feet, and held with my teeth until they gave it to me. One year of Sybase DBA and C++ object-relational mapping in Italy at $70/hr — not great pay for the time/skillset, but did I mention — ITALY.
Embarrassing side story — as a young man in the early 90s I knew nothing of Italy: Johnny Marzetti (a peculiar form of leftovers) from our school cafeteria, John Gotti, and the guy from the Ragu bottle topped the list of Italians I knew of.
My images of the country were isolated pictures of churches from art class, scenes of shot-up buildings out of the ubiquitous WWII movies I grew up on, and from Clint Eastwood.
Yes, that Clint Eastwood.
Because as a kid, I knew Clint’s early movies were called ‘spaghetti Westerns’, and since many of the funnily dubbed actors spoke no English, I assumed the films were all shot in Italy (and not their true location of Spain).
I was soooo surprised when the town we moved to, Trento, did not look like an updated version of High Plains Drifter.
My wife and I moved to Trento in November, and based solely on the recommendation of a friend we made Salzburg, Austria our first side-trip over the holiday break. Neither of us had ever seen or heard of a Christmas market and so the Salzburger Christkindlmarkt came as a huge surprise. And the town itself was/is a jewel, as well.
Side note: the Salzwelt salt mine tour outside of town is a blast. Totally worth it.
Even after we moved back to the States, when possible we made point of going back to the Weihnacht- and-Christkindl-Markt — not just Salzburg, but we seek them out all over Germany, Austria, and Czechia. No slight to other countries, but our business takes us to these places many times a year, so I know them fairly well.
In fact, I’m far more comfortable in Vienna than in Denver, despite having lived in Denver for years. Since it’s veeery hard to get a decent Schnitzel in the Mile High. And absolutely no Krapfen anywhere I’ve found in Colorado. Or public transport that doesn’t smell like pee.
And of course, the beer.
I’ve stopped drinking our lemon-peach-watermelon, over-hopped, hint of coriander, Rocky Mountain spring water gathered by vestal virgins pretentious bullsh*t ‘craft’ brews here.
In Germany and Austria and Czechia, you get beer.
It’s beer.
It’s fresh.
It’s incredible.
If it’s not truly great, they go out of business. Because the Deutsch don’t tolerate people who eff up their Bier.
And so now, this brings me (finally) to the actual point of this article.
The best (and occasionally the very-not-so-best) Christmas Markets of the German-speaking world.
Now, since best is subjective, I’ll walk it back and say my best, for a particular purpose. Some are great for Gluehwein, some are great for handcrafts, some for their food, and others for the whole family experience with ice-skating and kiddie rides.
My list will never be comprehensive because practically every town of any size has its own, and there are only so many travel days (even over decades) to be had. For example, last year departed for our first comprehensive tour of the Saxony and Thuringia markets, only to be surprised with the entire region shutting down for Covid while we were in the air(!!!). We had to turn around and come back 2 days later.
That was an expensive boondoggle.
But over the years we’ve visited a large number of the biggest, as well as some not so big, always returning to one or the other of our favorites on each trip.
And this will be the place where I will link to the individual markets as I get to review them, starting with this year’s two-week adventure.
I will give each location we visited as a placeholder, and as the articles are finished each listing will become a link — no link, no posting — yet. The bulk of each piece will be photographs, along with a short intro listing the high and low points of the venue.
TLDR; The 2022 Christmas Markets
My favorite city for Christmas markets is… Vienna. Definitely the best we saw this year.
Because: there are so many different locations, each with a different flavor and (generally) different items for sale along with the staple Gluehwein und Wuerstel. And the ‘main’ market at the Rathaus is as much pop-up amusement park as it is a market. The best Gluehwein of our trip was, as always, at the Schoenbrunn Palace market.
Chris loves her some Sisipunsch. Gets absolutely Sisi-faced every year.
Best newcomer (to us) — Stuttgart. For 2022 the hands-down surprise. I’ve been to the city dozens of times, but never for Christmas. I always thought the Stadt a little boring (sorry Stuttgarters), most probably since all I did there was work (usually in a suburban township). But this year I discovered their fantastic market. A real surprise and I hope there are many more such gems awaiting us in the years to come. A family fun place with good food and lots of interesting things to peruse, along with some rides for the kids. Decorated well. Just lovely.
Honorable mention: Leipzig. A really cool little Altstadt and some great Blaubeerenpunsch (blueberry punch with a kick).
Overall second (and sometimes first) favorite from years past —the tie goes to Salzburg and Nuremberg, though we didn’t stop in either this year.
The loser was another first-time visit for us, Zurich. Their ‘alive’ markets were tiny, and just weren’t much fun (to us). The best such as it was, was inside the main train station (Hauptbahnhof). And the scattered handful of unattended booths at the utterly ‘dead’ market at the main church was simply depressing. I think maybe the Calvinist tradition is just not conducive to Christmas frivolity.
Berlin was also disappointing, though 50% of that might have been the abysmal weather.
Anyway, this year we visited these markets:
Vienna (Wien)
Rathaus
Stephansdom
Spittelberg
Museumsplatz
Karlsplatz
Michaelerplatz
Stuttgart
Zurich
Berlin
Leipzig
Dresden (Altmarkt and Neumarkt)
I hope you have the opportunity to visit some (or all!) of these, and if so, that my posts are at least somewhat useful for planning your own adventure.
More from my workshop…
The Missing Course (all free here on Medium)
If you are into software development articles and are in the earlier phases of your career (or still studying), you might find my series on the principles of software engineering of interest. I developed it after witnessing the — shall we say ‘uneven’ — level of material in my daughter’s CS curriculum.