Christmas markets

What kind of recommendations or information are you looking for and when in December. Many towns have their markets on just one weekend unless they are a medium to large city.

Have you thought about flying into one city and out of another? If you are up by Berlin, I would think going to Dresden, Seiffen, Hamburg, Lübeck, Quedlinburg, or Erfurt, any of the cities up North and towards the East would be good.

Looking for opinions on the different markets. (It's easiest for us to fly in/out of Frankfurt and we're happy to take the train between two other cities.)

Nuremberg (Nürnberg) has the most famous and probably the biggest Christmas market, called the "Christkindlesmarkt". It also has a nice old town which makes a 2-3 day stay worth it.
Dresden's Strietzelmarkt is nearer Berlin and is the oldest one, it was first held in 1434. Strasbourg's is also famous.
There are many, many Christmas market's, including my own city, Basel.
The market's usually run from the last weekend in November to Christmas eve. They continue into the evening (picturesque) EXCEPT on the last day (Christmas eve) when they end early. In big cities they are daily. In small towns they are on one or two specific days only.

Germany has so many Christmas markets.
The following towns host beautiful Christmas markets in Germany:
Annaberg-Buchholz, Augsburg, Bamberg, Berlin, Bonn, Braunschweig, Bremen, Celle, Cologne, Dortmund, Dresden, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Freiberg, Heidelberg, Lubeck, Ludwigsburg, Luneburg, Maulbronn, Mechernich, Munich, Nuremberg, Rothenburg, Schneeberg and Stuttgart. From Berlin it would be easy to reach Dresden. One of the most famous ones is the one in Nuremberg. Or head to one closer to Frankfurt in order to fly home-Rothenburg. Frankfurt even has one. You really can't go wrong.

Most Christmas markets will close on the 22nd or 23rd at the latest. There are very, very few that will still be open on the 24th.

Basing in Frankfurt, which dates its' Christmas market back to 1393, you would have access to quite a few markets, Mainz, Wiesbaden, Heidelberg, Seligenstadt, Marburg, Rüdesheim, Darmstadt, and if you are there on the right weekend, you could go to the markets in Idstein, Büdingen, Gelnhausen, Bad Homburg, Kronberg, Königstein, etc.

There are literally 100's of Christmas markets as every town and city has one, the big cities have smaller ones in their neighborhoods or with various themes. Best is to pick a town or city you want to visit so that if the weather is nasty, you have something else to do. Concerts, famous churches, museums and tours can add to your experience of visiting these locations.
This website pretty much lists all of them, but you often have to go to the website of the city or town to find the dates for 2014.
http://www.weihnachtsmarkt-deutschland.de/

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll continue my research :)