Weekend trips from Munich with young kids during Advent

Innsbruck, Salzburg, Vienna, Nuremberg, or Strasbourg.

Why so many big cities and so far away? Maybe for weekend overnight trips, but for day trips? There are so many neat things to see in Bavaria (Mittenwald, Oberammergau, Oberstdorf and the Kleinwalsertal, Herrenchiemsee, Nördlingen. Since those are day trips, you don't need overnight bags, just the stroller. I'd take the train and not have to worry about navigating.

I would do Rothenburg as an overnight trip. Rothenburg at night is to good to miss.

For the weekend overnight trips, I assume you would have your husband's help, so again I would consider the trains. I'm a natural venue person; I'd go to Berchtesgaden (beautiful) for a weekend, rather than Salzburg).

Salzburg can be done as a day trip midweek from Munich for only 25 EUR. Unless it is a holiday, you have to leave after 9 am M-F. To get an early start, leave from Munich Ostbahnhof, there is a train at 9:05 to Salzburg. It is called a Bayern Ticket and takes 1 hour 37 minutes from Munich Ost. The ticket will include your return to Munich on any of the hourly trains. Kids will ride with you for free, just write you and their names on the back of the ticket. Nuremberg could also be a day trip with regional trains.

Make it a weekend for Vienna, Rothenburg or Strasbourg. You can also do Rothenburg using a Bayern Ticket, but you may want to do advance nonrefundable tickets for Strasbourg or Vienna. There is a reasonably priced way to do Vienna without advance tickets, using the Bayern Ticket to Salzburg, then the Westbahn train to Vienna.

Strasbourg is way to far for weekend trips from Munich imo. How about Tegernsee?

For a weekend, I would not call Strasbourg too far away. Its 3 3/4 hour with a single train change in Stuttgart. The problem seems to be that DB is not showing any discount tickets when I check Friday Dec 6.
Vienna is 4 hours on a direct Railjet and 2 adults and the kids is 59.80 EUR bought today.

3-4 hours on a train (let alone a car) with small children: "Are we there yet?" The novelty of riding a train wore off pretty quickly for my daughter when she was two and we went from Nürnberg to Augsburg.

There are family oriented Christmas Markets in Freising and Landshut just north of Munich. Both are scenic small towns. Freising had a merry-go-round that was parent powered. Landshut had circular child's train track and interesting displays for small children. Landshut also has a castle if your 5 year old would understand that.

Places like Rothenburg have a certain charm at this time of year but I am not sure children that small would understand the charm of it. You could probably turn it into a fairy tale with Imagination.

Nürnberg is a mob scene on Christmas Market Evenings. It would be fine to visit with small children during the day but plan to carry them if you go at night. Adults can have trouble sticking together. You often have to push through crowds at night. You will see enough of that in Munich's Marienplatz.

Because weather can be iffy I'd personally travel by train at this time, but I don't like driving the Autobahn in rain/sleet/snow.

I'm quite fond of Innsbruck and it's a nice train ride (in a fairly old EC train usually). It's great to go from city to mountain in 30 minutes, and there's the "World's highest christmas market" a ways up the mountain. Salzburg and Innsbruck are both good choices for a weekend trip.

I don't always recommend Stuttgart, but as a weekend trip from Munich, Stuttgart provides one of Germany's best and largest Christmas markets, with a lot of activities aimed towards children, as well as the medieval market in Esslingen and the baroque market in Ludwigsburg. It's easy to get to from Munich as well by train.

Look into a German Rail Twin Pass for these trips - you could save significant amounts of money and have the flexibility of taking whatever train you want, which can be a godsend when you have tired kids. The 5 day twin pass is a good deal, although I have no idea how it works for children. You can use the extra day as a day trip, or supplement it with a separate one-way ticket for your last weekend. It covers Innsbruck and Salzburg. Also consider a Bamberg/Nurnberg trip.

Thanks so much for the suggestions! Lots of great options.

The GRP won't help you with Vienna, but it is good to Innsbruck on the EC trains. For Strasbourg it will get you as far as Kehl, then take a tram from there into the city, or the local train.