Train trip in European winter

If that is what you want to do, go for it. Some 2-nighters, some 3-nighters, and maybe a couple of 4 nighters.

What are your dates? The German Christmas markets begin closing a day or two before Christmas and completely closed by Christmas eve. Prague is open through New Years.

We are leaving our last city on December 23 and returning to Bonn
Thanks for that little reminder Frank.
Margaret

There is a nice collection of markets in/around Stuttgart. The Stuttgart market is huge and most of the vendors decorate the roofs of their stands festively. The Esslingen market, IMHO, is one of the best Christmas markets anywhere due to having both a traditional Christmas market and a really cool medieval market. The medieval town itself is gorgeous, full of half-timbered buildings. Its manufacturing center is on a nearby river, away from the city center, so the city center avoided bombing during WWII. Finally, there is the baroque Ludwigsburg Christmas market.

I visited some friends in Nuremberg on a Thursday through Sunday a few years ago and went to the market quite a bit during that time. I enjoyed it during the day, but it was absolutely miserable on weekend nights -- so packed with people, that movement was almost impossible.

Going to Jena and Dresden...good choices. I did a day trip to Jena from Berlin a couple of years ago, absolutely did not have enough time and will plan for a revisit.

Thank you so much for your helpful responses. I’m sure we’ll have a great time
Margaret

Start in Budapest, dont buy the next train ticket till you are tired of Budapest.

I'm sure you've got enough on your plate with your list of desired destinations, but I have to second the suggestion to not miss Berlin's Christmas markets if you get a chance. There's a good variety of them, and the city itself was exquisitely decked out when I visited in December 2016.

Dresden is a great choice, by the way. The wooden ornaments I found there are definitely my all-time favorite ornaments.

Thankyou so much to you all for such helpful tips. I’m enjoying planning now.
Margaret

The purpose of the trip is to experience some of the wonderful European cities in winter (hopefully some snow somewhere) and to take in some Christmas Markets.

Other than Christmas markets, which are obviously time limited, the question to me would be what can you do on your journey in December that you couldn't do at another time of the year. One might look at local music opportunities since that will be the height of the concert season. Opera in Vienna for example. Other concerts in Prague, etc.

What I really miss about European travel is less the museum exhibits I missed than the cafe's I missed by hurrying too much. December has highly variable weather... maybe snow, maybe slush, maybe cold rain, maybe sun... The coffee and the cakes are a constant. Culinary delights without summer crowds would be a big draw for me.

Note: If you go to the industrial scale Christmas Market in Nuremberg and have time, take the U-Bahn north for Furth which has a wonderful local Medieval Christmas Market (Mittel Alter = Middle Ages) near the Hauptbahnhof ... Filled with... Germans.... Gluhwein makes everyone friends.

Enjoy!