Germany (Munich area) over Christmas

We did Strasbourg, Rottenburg, Nurnberg, and Munich, and Prague at Christmas time a few years ago. The Christmas markets are great but beginning closing early Christmas eve and are complete gone by that evening. And completely shut down except for beer halls on Christmas day or at least that was our experience in Munich. Cannot address skiing.

The ski resort are open continuously, so long as weather permits.

Hope you like touring in cold weather, be sure to bring a heavy overcoat, warm boots or shoes, gloves and hat.
It gets dark at 4:30 in Munich that time of the year.

We lived in Augsburg for four years and always did a ski trip in either Germany or Austria. Some Christmases the snow doesn't come and skiing is only on glaciers up very high (not good skiing).

Both Garmish and Salzburg are great cities for a couple of days. You can go up to the glacier of the Zugspitze on the cog train or cable car. There you can ski or not.

Munich has much to see in the downtown area, visiting the Frauenkirche (Cathedral) and other historical sites. Don't miss the Hofbrauhaus, which is a beer hall. It is almost like going to a mini Oktoberfest.

There are sites like the Dachau Concentration camp, but not sure if you want to take your teens. If they are older teens, it would probably be OK.

Nymphenburg Palace is something you could see. Also, The Residenz. The site of the Olympic games in 1972 is north of downtown.

26 Dec. is also a German Holiday. I would recommend visiting during the first three Advent weekends picking Weihnachtsmarkt/cities you would like to see in and outside of Munich and enjoy the leadup to Christmas. Maybe go home for Christmas? There is no guarantee of snow in Germany in December (OK Zugspitz). If you want to ski, then I would plan in higher elevations in Austria and where manmade and natural snow will allow skiing. Maybe Innsbruck as it is a larger city with lots to do and skiing in the surrounding areas is possible. Mayrhofen is nice, but this December little snow in the valleys, but skiing in the higher elevations possible. Many many other ski villages, but with small or no Weihnachtsmarkt. They will be decorated for the Holidays though. The Christmas and New Years weeks are high season on the slopes with school holiday vacations, so book early if you visit then. Some hotels do not open until mid December in ski regions and do not except stays less than 7 days.

in 2020 Bavarian school holidays will go from December 24 till January 8.

https://www.schulferien.org/deutschland/ferien/2021/

As noted, this time will be particularly busy (and expensive) in any skiing destination. Also, as noted, the ski season may be very late. I have skied on the Zugspitze Glacier in mid December but it was not great. South of Innsbruck the Zillertal valley has the Hintertux Glacier for skiing. The Stubai valley also has a glacier for skiing. But, the worse the skiing is elsewhere the more crowded the glaciers will be.

I really like Garmisch-Partenkirchen as a base - maybe for skiing on the Zugspitze, maybe not. It has a cute small market until Christmas.

https://www.gapa.de/en

We too thought spending Christmas in Germany would be charming and wonderful. The problem is that the whole country seems to close down at 2:00 pm on Christmas Eve Day. The Christmas markets are closed as well as most of the restaurants and all of the stores. We were in Rothenburg on Christmas Eve in 2016 and were told by a shopkeeper that they could be fined for being open past 2. We were in Frankfurt a year later and again the shopkeepers, even the department stores were trying to get every one out by 2. St Stephen's Day (the 26th) is a bit easier. The cafes and pubs are open, but no shopping or museums.

The second trip we flew to Prague on Christmas Day and everything except museum and such was going strong.

If you are in Munich before the 24th and they like sparkly things, take them to the Treasury at the Munich Residez. Munich is great for shopping especially around the Marienplatz and the Opera House. The Christmas Markets are great fun for the people and the booths selling all sorts of holiday stuff.

Hope this helps.

We were in Germany for the Christmas markets for two weeks this past Dec. A magical time but no snow! We landed in Vienna and spent three nights. Then we trained over to Regensburg, Germany for one night, on into Frankfurt for two nights (day trip to Heidelberg From Frankfurt), trained to Cologne for two nights (day trip to Aachen), one night in Dortmund visiting friends, and trained back to Frankfurt for one night before flying home. We actually had a 5 day Eurail pass but ended up buying tickets for the short day trips to Heidelberg and Aachen. if you are planning to base in Munich, there are easy day trips by train to Regensburg, Salzburg and others. Regensburg is a lovely town and would be more affordable as a base than Munich. In planning, I pulled out a RS map of Europe and picked cities with recommended markets plus sites we had not visited. You will need something to do other than markets. The internet is a great resource for tourism info for the towns RS does not cover in his guidebooks.
Not sure what is open on Christmas Eve and Day since we returned to US on 12/15. Have a wonderful trip!