Christmas day - Vienna or Salzburg?

Our favorites -- Christmas in Salzburg, New Year's Eve in Vienna. Many Salzburg hotels have Christmas dinner. Not so much for concerts -- we just take a walk.

Munich - Salzburg - Hallstatt - Vienna - Prague - Budapest

Too many places: You must consider that moving from one to another will cost you roughly half of a day. Daylight is short at that time of the year; the period between sunrise and sunset is about 8 hours, only.

My suggestion would be: Salzburg - Hallstatt - Vienna

If all else fails on finding a place to eat, go to a major train station.

More concerts in Vienna than just about anywhere. One that we found unique was Xmas Morning Mass at St Stephen's Cathedral. A chorus and orchestra in the balcony and the priests down front at the alter alternated performing the parts of the Mass. A Bruckner Mass with lots trombones from the balcony, standard mass from the priests. This was a very long service, but we noticed that the natives came and went throughout the service so after we got our fill, we left too.

In Austria, everything starts shutting down on Dec. 24 around noon and everything will reopen on Dec. 27. Note that families in Austria celebrate Christmas on Dec. 24 at home with family. That entire week will be exceptionally quiet. The Vienna tourist board will publish a list of restaurants open on Dec. 25 closer to the holidays. A few Advent markets in Vienna convert to New Years markets after Dec. 26, but not the best ones. If your focus is the Advent markets, then it would be best if you were in Austria by Dec. 23 or earlier. Waltzing at midnight on NYE is fun, but Vienna features a street party rather than a massive fireworks display. The street party can be rough but can also be fun. People buy and shoot off their own fireworks which can be scary. I prefer to celebrate with friends on a rooftop, as do most Viennese.

In general most larger Christmas markets end the evening of 23 December. The forth Advent is 22 December this year. Smaller markets usually will be held during the first three Advent, and only one or two weekends. Surfing the net you can find most Christmas market times for 2019. So if your focus is Christmas markets, then you need to plan earlier in December. Just guessing the probability for snow 24-25 December will be higher in Salzburg and the Salzkammergut. Might be hard to find, but there are Christmas concerts held in barn like settings with traditional music, animals and Nativity play. Kind of a round robin presentation. If you find one book early as they are usually packed. Maybe a tourist info office can help? These too are usually held the first-third Advent.

Thank you very much all! Most helpful.

Lots of tourist activities are up and running on Christmas. We did the Sound of Music tour on Christmas.

My husband and I did a Christmas Austria trip in 2015. We enjoyed the Christmas Markets in Vienna and noticed that most packed up on December 24 (although a few stayed open.) We ate on Christmas Eve at EF16 https://www.ef16.net/ in Vienna and went to a Christmas service right before dinner at St. Peter's. It was a memorable evening! We traveled to Salzburg on Dec.25 since we knew it would be very sleepy. Many Salzburg restaurants were not open on December 26, but tourist sights seemed to have regular hours. We were able to tour the Mozart Geburtshaus and visit the fortress. We stayed at Hotel Auersperg https://www.auersperg.at/en/ and were happy they had a restaurant that day (and also impressive breakfasts!)

This year, we are are returning for Christmas, but planned our time differently. We are in Vienna over the Christmas holiday. We made sure to find accommodations that have a kitchen. We loved visiting the Naschmarkt and plan to buy provisions for Dec 25 and 26 to make ourselves.

You'll have a wonderful time! Austria in December is magical.

Thank you for your response eschroeck! That's all very helpful. Can't believe it's August tomorrow - Christmas will be here before we know it.

In the beginning of December a list will be published showing the restaurants in Vienna which will be open on Christmas day.