Vienna Schoenbrunn Christmas Market December 2022

Schoenbrunn Palace: built for the Habsburg Family as their ‘Summer Palace’ to get away from the Austrian court… back when the subway wouldn’t take you from the Hof at the center of Vienna to the ‘outskirts’ in a few minutes.

I’ve toured the Palace many times, and it’s gone from a leisurely stroll through the Kaiser and Sisi (the familiar name of his wife Elizabeth, the Bavarian Wittlesbach princess) apartments back in the 1990s to a timed-ticket, shoulder to shoulder, shuffle that has become pretty unpleasant.

However, the house sports truly massive grounds, complete with its own zoo and Palmengarten — a Franz Joseph-era iron-and-glass structure on the garden grounds which serves as a lovely, generally very quiet, period greenhouse with exotic species, with specimens dating back to the the Imperial era.

There’s also a carriage/wagon museum (though I’ve not visited it).

In the spring and summer I often come just to spend a couple of hours strolling around the gardens. At 2 square kilometers, it’s a nice back yard for the emperor’s ‘cottage’ — that’s roughly 2/rds the size of Central Park in New York.

For one house.

It was good to be King (and Emperor).

Franz Joseph was (by many accounts) an excellent administrator, and the city of Vienna that we see today is more or less the city of his construction. For example, he leveled the medieval wall surrounding the old town and replaced it with a the vast Ringstrasse boulevard. With world-class museums, a Parliament, a new city hall (Neues Rathaus) etc constructed along the freshly built throughfare.

Of course, he also started WWI, so there’s that.

But, most importantly for this article, the vast plaza in front of the Schoenbrunn is home to one of the best Christkindlmarkts (literally Christ Child’s Markets) I’ve visited.

We come to the Palace on most every trip to Vienna.

The specialty here is Austrian handmade goods, and this is often the market where my family buys the most stuff — not as many ornaments, but other interesting crafty sort of things.

This is the location of my wife’s all-time favorite Gluehwein — hot spiced wine — a local variation of which is called here Sisi-Punsch — a Gluehwein (or punch) supposedly favored by the late Empress Sisi. They also have a great Herren-Punsch — “General’s Punch” — and my favorite, Beeren-Punsch.

Beer in German means ‘berry’, not at all the same as English ‘beer’ —which is Bier in German. Confusing, I know.

Anyway, Beeren-Punsch is a Gluehwein with berry juice, alcohol (this varies by stand), and, at its best, also has various wild berries floating in it. And the Schoenbrunn Beeren-Punsch is, in fact, at its best.

The food is good too. I love the Knoedel — stuffed dumplings of various sorts served on sauteed cabbage.

There are a good number of stands selling ornaments (of course), but also custom notebooks/diaries, statuary, wooden goods of all sort, liquors, little gardening tchotchkies, knit goods, home-made specialty breads, dolls… lots of stuff you won’t find at Walmart.

We always finds something too cool to pass up.

So, I think I lost some photos somewhere along the way, but I think you can get the idea from the above.

It’s a lovely market. They’re all prettier (though also much colder) at night, and Schoenbrunn is no exception.

So come earlier, walk through the grounds or visit the old-time Zoo if you have a good coat, then go to the Palmenhouse (which is quite warm, what with all of the tropical plants) to take the chill off. And if you have a stomach for crowds, visit the Palace rooms and see how the .01% used to live.

Then, when dusk comes, wander outside, have a Knoedel or two, and get Sisi-faced.

TLDR —9 out of 10

Schoenbrunn palace is always one of our favorites — we often buy a lot, always drink way too much.

The only downside for families is that while the Zoo and Palemhouse are great for children, the market (and Palace rooms) probably won’t top your kid’s list, since there are no rides here. However, like most markets, there are plenty of candy and toys to bribe them with, if necessary.

We love it.