christmas markets in germany

We were assigned to Nürnberg (Nuremberg) for a two years near Christmas. It has a very nice market, very large market. For me the best thing about a Christmas Market is the atmosphere after sunset (about 4:30 pm)with colored lights, food stands and hot spiced wine.

Equally important for me is what there is to see during the day. Looking at booths of Christmas items is nice for a few hours... then.

We have visited Christmas markets at Augsburg, Salzburg and Rothenburg as well as Nürnberg. All were nice markets and beautiful tourist locations.

This year we are visiting Aschaffenburg, Bamberg, Regensburg and Würzburg in December. The main purpose of the trip is to visit some smaller towns in the off season. The Christmas Markets are frosting on the cake.

Regards, Gary

One of the Christmas markets I have always wanted to go to is in Buedingen. It is held in the dry moat that surrounds the castle and is supposed to be really wonderful and quaint, even down to using lanterns. I am going to try and finally make it this year. If you Google Christmas markets in Germany, you can peruse the great variety, considering large against small, and dates too. Our Frankfurt one is huge, but also offers a wide variety. It is also one of the oldest ones. Lots of people go to different ones as the ones in the larger cities usually run for the 4 weeks before Christmas and the smaller ones may just run for 3 days.

i find them to be most quaint at night when all the lights are on and people who work in the day are also out and enjoying the atmosphere. People jam into the areas where Glühwein - spiced wine - is sold and enjoy sipping and chatting. You pay a deposit in addition to the regular price of the drink, so if you want to keep the mug after drinking, it can be a nice souvenir. The mugs are usually made each year and say the town name and year and some sort of Christmas design on them. Some are cheesy looking and some are classy looking and some are just goofy. Some people like to collect them.

Tiny, tiny villages will have them run short, as Jo mentioned. Most places will have at least 2 weeks of a markt, with decent sized towns, think large enough to have 4-6 grocery stores+ will have them run all month.

Most small towns tend to offer the same stuff, so I'd do what a pp suggested and try to hit several large towns and any small towns that are known to be unique in some way.