Winter can get long. The lack of sunshine and spending a lot of time inside can get old in a hurry. So when the weather gets chilly and the sun goes down early, it’s time for Christmas lovers to start looking forward to Market Season!
Over the past 5 years my family has eaten our way through many a Christmas Market. I’m going to let the pictures do the talking, and hope that some European Christmas festivities can help help you in the holiday mood!
Along the Champs-Élysées you’ll find all sorts of deliciousness being served up from what look like giant frying pans.
And it wouldn’t be Christmas in Paris without crêpes; most likely dripping in Nutella. If crêpes aren’t your thing, don’t worry there’s plenty of other choices to please your sweet tooth.
It wouldn’t be a Christmas Market in France without piping hot vin chaud!
We had more than our share of Bratwurst in the chilly, but beautiful markets of Berlin.
In France we call it vin chaud. In the UK it’s mulled wine. In Germany it was something I couldn’t pronounce, with a shot of hard alcohol added to it. Whatever you want to call it, it’s a great way to stay warm walking through a cold Christmas Market. Some places will serve you in a disposable cup while others take a 2€ deposit for the festive mug your drink comes in, and you can decide later if you want to return the mug for your deposit, or keep it for a souvenir. We’ve gotten ourselves quite a little collection along the way.
Vienna seems to have their Christmas Markets down to a science, and it’s not surprising, considering how many they have! The market in the picture below was full of your standard stalls outside, and inside they had all kinds of well organized and supervised activities for kids to do while their parents had a little break(many enjoying the hot wine I spoke of earlier). There were many activities offered, from Christmas baking to birdhouse making.
If you’re looking for treats to take to-go there’s great specialty items; my favourites being loose tea, chocolate and dried fruit.
And for those of you that have a little room left in your stretchy pants, how about sampling sweet treats, candied nuts, giant pretzels or cheese!
Europe is a wonderful place to explore, and after living here for many years now, I’ve discovered most people do their European exploring in the spring and summer. As great as Europe is during the warm seasons, don’t be too quick to shy away from winter in Europe. You’ll save yourself hours of lines at tourist attractions, and discover that there’s plenty of reasons to fall in love with Europe, even in those cold winter months.