Rüdesheim Christmas Market is Canceled

We enjoyed Christmas Markets and hope they survive.

While the streets maybe narrower in Rüdesheim, the spaces between the booths are often limited and crowded in larger cities as well. Nürnberg's market is highly congested. One evening in München's Marienplatz three of us adults had trouble staying together in the crowd.

We are shooting for 2022 for our next Christmas Market visit. I hope it works for those going in 2021. It might be best to visit the actual markets during the day when the crowds are lighter.

Gosh - this makes me wonder if things will ever normalize again. I'm a nurse and just don't see an end in site. We were due to go to the Xmas Markets on a Tauck River Cruise in 2020, changed it to 2021, and have now changed it to 2022 (we go every other year) -I'm hopeful for 2022, but also was hopeful for this year. I do think it's smart to cancel this year, it's just awful for those who make their livelihood at these markets. Thanks for this post, I've been wondering about them.

The article Jo posted makes it clear that the R'heim decision to cancel was not a government mandate but an economic choice made by the family that runs the operation. The family decided they couldn't make an economic go of it if they had to surround the town with fencing, check vax cards, set up a separate eating/drinking area, etc., all of which the local government would have required, and all of which costs extra €s. Definitely a concern, I think, in a year when predictable visitor numbers, both domestic and international, are going to be elusive. I don't think there's much if any "science" behind the "narrow streets" factor mentioned in the article - Germany's extremely well-attended Nuremberg market and other large ones will certainly have the same sort of crowding that they expected in R'heim - or that "narrow streets" was a major factor in this decision. The family in charge expressed concerns that visitors would be prevented from strolling from stand to stand with their hot adult beverages because of the mask requirement that would be imposed on the event - they'd only be allowed too drink and eat in the separated zone. Sounds like it's more about the change-in-tradition elements, and maybe a concern that those would deter their regular visitors and their €'s.

Other states in Germany may or may not make similar demands on their markets. And other market organizers may or may not decide as R'heim has decided. If those decisions are economic ones like R'heim's, whether a market remains open will depend on what locals think is viable.

We just had our fall Dippemess in Frankfurt as well as our Green Sauce Festival. Both were fenced in, you had to show one of the 3 Gs (geimpft, genesen, or getestet - vaccinated, recovered, or tested) and at the Dippemess they only allowed 5000 in at a time and had all the rides and stands spread out. Other than standing in line, you could walk around without a mask. Large cities may do their Xmas markets the same way. In small towns, with tiny, narrow streets, you cannot spread out the stands like this and you cannot fence them in as this becomes rather dangerous.

Super helpful, thank you for posting. We will be visiting friends in NRW and we are hopeful that some markets will still run.

The market in Marienplatz (Munich) is said to continue this year, much as before 2020. This according to ZDF and the Muenchen.de website.

All of the large cities are having their markets. It is only the smaller towns. Presently, in Hessen, there should be some announcements this week as they are changing the Covid rules for businesses from 3G to 2G. This will be a game changer.

Thank you for posting, this is very helpful!

Many towns are now canceling - even larger cities like Munich canceled today.

Idstein just canceled today too.