Whether or not you made plans for winter holidays, we invite you to admire a selection of the most beautiful Christmas markets in Europe.
You've probably heard a ton about European Christmas Markets lately. And if not, well, I'm here to tell you that they are pretty much the greatest wintry thing ever invented. In a nutshell (nutcracker?), they are outdoor festivals home to little wooden ...
Winter in Europe is a wonderful time to visit the most beautiful Christmas markets . If you are looking for Christmas gifts and fir dream of smell or sound wonderful Christmas carols, we invite you to brainstorm selection of the most beautiful in Europe, the perfect destination for winter holidays. Christmas Market in Strasbourg - ChristkindelsmärikThe first Christmas market was held in 1570 in Strasbourg, under the name " Christkindelsmärik " (market of the Child Jesus). Starting this year, Strasbourg has continued the tradition by organizing a traditional Christmas market, authentic and rich.
One of the European Christmas Market veterans is Christkindelsmärik in Strasbourg, also known as Marché de l'Enfant Jésus - one of the oldest in Europe, the first edition being in 1570. 300 wood chalets, spread over 11 thematic areas of the city center (the main square coincides with the Place de la Cathédral), extend their craft products, decorations and seasonal varieties - boiled wine (wine chaud), biscuits wrapped in peanuts, orange, cinnamon or praline flavors. No, I did not convinced you? Then add some assorted assorted stew to cabbage and bon appétit!Christmas ViennaChristmas Markets in Vienna truly an ancient tradition. Forerunners current events dating from the Middle Ages, when in 1298 I gave Albrecht Vienna citizens the privilege of holding a market in December or "Krippenmarkt". Since then, nature and prevalence of these markets have changed considerably. Currently, more than 20 Christmas markets sell a wide range of seasonal gifts and delicacies.In the second plan there is an impressive church that looks right in the eye a medieval castle perched on top of a hill.
The 95 stands, divided into 6 different sectors, sell about anything that would go through your head, from flowers, to textiles, handicraft products, toys and brilliant ornaments. In order to find the most delicious dishes, you only have to let yourself guided by the olfactory sense, which rarely fails, and you will see how you get directly into the food section, being immersed in the roasted almond stew, defining Christkindlmarkt. We can put our hands on the fire that you will not go without cooking the boiled wine, the baked apples (Bratpfel) and the sweet peppercorns.From mid-November to Christmas, Vienna's prettiest squares transform into magical Christmas markets. The aroma of Christmas bakery items and hot punch creates a pre-Christmas atmosphere.
One of the most well-known Christmas Markets is the traditional " Vienna Magic of Advent", which turns the City Hall Square into a shining fairytale land. Christmas gifts, tree decorations, sweets and warming drinks are awaiting you as well as a carousel and craft fun Christmas Workshops for kids. The trees of the surrounding City Hall park are festively decorated and radiate in a sea of lights - a Viennese experience, you'll definitely don't want to miss!
Another hot spot before Christmas is the cultural and Christmas market in front of Schönbrunn Palace. It offers sheer romance in front of an imperial backdrop, and is converted into a New Year's market after Christmas. The atmospheric market offers traditional handicrafts, hand-made Christmas decorations, Christmas concerts and an extensive children's program, including Christmas workshop.
Christmas Fair in Helsinki, Finland
Ask any Finnish will get in your way and will proudly answer that Santa Claus comes from Finland and is found at the Helsinki Christmas Fair that takes place in the Senate Square. You'll probably find him busy up to his head to fill the wish lists of everyone. Once you have expressed your wishes for it, serve yourself with some gloggi (boiled, of course). If wine does not do its job, brass music groups, Christmas lights and a visit to the old Dutch carousel should complete the experience. Examine carefully the 133 stands and fill your despair with everything your heart likes, from handicrafts, to traditional ornaments or local goodies.Birmingham has the largest authentic German market in Europe outside of Germany and Austria, with 5.5 million visitors in 2014. Consisting of the Birmingham Frankfurt Christmas Market and the Craft Market, the market has grown from just 24 stalls in 2001 to 180 this year, covering New Street, Victoria Square and Centenary Square. The Frankfurt Market offers a wide range of products, including Christmas decorations, handcrafted jewellery, carved wooden toys, sausages, beer and pretzels, while Christmas Craft Market will offer handmade crafts, soaps and candles by local artisans, as well as a wide range of unique and quirky items imported from around the world. Additionally, visitors can enjoy the popular ice rink and big wheel.
Let's go to Colmar, a city where the magic of Christmas can be experienced in its purest form for six entire weeks, since 17 years. Your way will be drawn by illuminations linking to the city's five Christmas markets , in a labyrinth of small streets lined with century old half-timbered houses.
Nestling in town squares with their own special architectural features, these islands of togetherness are like the city itself: intimate and authentic. Each market is a mini-village, highlighting passionate and enthusiastic craftsmen. Most of them are from Alsace and have been chosen for the quality and the uniqueness of their products.
Next to that, you are invited to participate to a wide range of activities, making the Christmas in Colmar an uncommon experience: guided tours, wine-tastings, children animations, exhibition of traditional toys, as well as many shows and concerts.
The, original, biggest and - arguably - the best Christmas market in the country, Manchester Christmas Markets is the ideal destination for a festive outing.
Arriving in the city in 1999, the first Christmas market in the UK has grown every year since, now attracting more than nine millions visitors each year.
Some 300 beautifully crafted stalls offer mouth-watering international food, drinks and finely crafted Yuletide gifts in the heart of the buzzing city centre.
Spread across 10 individual sites - each with distinctive own distinctive character - Manchester Christmas Markets has something to offer every festive visitor.
This year the market will also introduce a designated family site for the first time with fun rides and entertainment throughout the season, including: LED light performers, magicians and street theatre - with spectacular views of the Manchester Cathedral and National Football Museum.
London's spectacular Christmas destination - Hyde Park Winter Wonderland returns on 20th November for six exciting weeks of winter festivities with FREE admission and even more entertainment than before. With more than 100 rides and attractions on site, there's something for everyone.Open from November 22 to January 6, Angels Christmas Market takes the Christmas Market to a different level and turns into an irreversible magnet for anyone crossing the threshold. You are offered here the opportunity to climb up a rope ladder, follow the artisans, be blacksmiths or sculptors, in full inspiration, or take in all the delightful stalls (from Belgian goats, hot chocolate, boiled wine and until salmon on the grill). Careful! More than 200 wooden sailboats will try relentlessly to tempt you with all sorts of Christmas gifts and decorations and so will the carousels or the ice rink. Something hard to find elsewhere will be the Ice Kingdom - a huge sculpture, a forest, an ice castle, and a host of fantastic creations.
For those Christmas shoppers, there's the traditional German Christmas market with over 200 chalets. The Angels Christmas Market offers unusual and handmade gifts and crafts, including ceramics, candles, jewellery, wooden toys, nativity scenes and Christmas decorations .
Christmas Market in Dresden, Germany - Dresden Striezelmarkt
Like a sequoia tree, the Dresden Fair goes for 600 years, and the nearby craftsmen give a lift, raising 250 stands, ready to serve you with whatever you want (wooden ornaments, nut breakers and traditional pyramid candles ). And because we are sure you have already tried to name it to see if it comes out, it also tells you that it draws its origins from Strüzel or Stroczel, a fruit cake weighing 3 tons. Among the other jams and soups are already the usual Glühwein (boiled wine) and Pulsnitzer Pfefferkuchen - jam with chocolate covered chocolate, Rahmklecks - baked bread filled with cheese and German specialties Bratwurst (slices) hand-made with pretzels (pretzels) .If you like Christmas , you'll love Dresden. A grand total of eleven completely different Christmas markets, from the by no means Dark Ages to the après ski charm of alpine huts, makes for wonderfully conflicting decisions.Holiday sounds fill the air throughout the city. From the many oratorios, Advent, organ and gospel concerts, Dresden's churches brim with festive insider tips. Christmas tales also come to life in the city's theatres whilst museums host special exhibitions and boats bejewelled with lights glide along the Elbe. If only Christmas could last more than just a few weeks...Aachen
Every year before Christmas, markets and streets around the Cathedral and Aachen City Hall is transformed into a paradise of lights and colors, festive sounds and smells. Christmas Fair fascinate both the young and the old ones.
Christmas Market in Stockholm - Stortorget julmarknad
The Stortorget julmarknad, in its understandable name, is the Stockholm Christmas Fair and takes place in the heart of the Old City Center. Seeing the light of the day in 1837, Sweden's oldest Christmas fair, along with all 40 small red stands, is set as a glove in this historical context. Come here, warm yourself around a hot cup of red wine seasoned with aromatic spices (you will identify it, either by smell or by the name of "glögg"), and you are always looking for some traditional Swedish Christmas delicacies: Gingerbread (" pepparkakor "), saffransbullar (corn-shaped martini) and, why not, reindeer, reindeer and smoked sausages.
Whether you enjoy a traditional or contemporary Christmas , Stockholm has something to offer you. Experience a Christmas market, have some glögg and ginger bread and go shopping under the beautiful Christmas decorations that light up the city every year. For a genuine Stockholm Christmas, the Old Town's Christmas market is a must. This market has been held in Stortorget since 1915, and the little red stalls sell warm "glögg", gingerbread, cheese, candy and craft.
Come and see for yourself why is the Croatian capital visited by an increasing numbers of tourists during the time of Advent; get to know its idyllic side and partake in themed programmes which take place on the streets and squares around the city centre.
During the time of Advent, Zagreb offers a special atmosphere which simply must be experienced. An ever growing number of tourists choose the capital of Croatia as their destination at that time of year as good fun is had by all literally every step of the way. The city streets and squares invite you to let your hair down and partake in singing, dancing, and other kinds of entertainment with family and friends. You can also sample traditional delicacies alfresco or enjoy themed programmes which take you down memory lane.
Welcome to Tallinn Christmas Market ! The fairy-tale atmosphere of the Christmas market, which is held on the Town Hall Square in Tallinn, makes anything possible! At the heart of it all - apart from Santa and his reindeer, who are eternal favourites with the kids - is Estonia's most famous Christmas tree, surrounded by little huts selling their wares. Here you will find handicraft specialists with their work, and seasonal Estonian food and drink.Tallinn's Medieval Old Town takes on an especially magical quality during this time of the year as a fresh powdering of snow covers its gabled rooftops and outdoor candles fill its cobblestone lanes with a flickering glow.
Tallinn is also the home of the world's first Christmas tree. This tree was erected on Tallinn's Town Hall Square and was the focal point of a ritual, that began in 1441, and involved unmarried merchants singing and dancing with local girls around a tree, which was then burnt. The tree was the first public Christmas tree ever put on display in Europe by the Brotherhood of Black Heads guild. The tradition has now been revived.
Christmas Market in Sibiu - Great Square
If you do not want to spend Christmas out of carpathian-danubiano-pontic space, nor do you get any wax, do yourself a favor and go to the Great Square in Sibiu. Take it among the 70 wooden houses that are rich in pottery, furs and wooden toys, and regardless of the problems you have with the slopes, do not overlook the skating rink or the children's park. Many mouths say that Sibiu would be the most place in Transylvania, and if for foreigners it is obligatory to visit it at least once in life, for us this obligation turns into "once a year". All the chances of stunning stories, and a show of carols and lights is something to turn your back on. And not that we're worried about hungry, but we're also reviewing traditional goodies: boiled wine, cake and roasted chestnuts, Hungarian couscous and curt.
Tale of Copenhagen - Tivoli Gardens
The Danes have a word - "hygge" - and we would like to give you a synonym, but we can not find anything shorter than "an inner, profound and absolutely good state." Well, the Copenhagen Christmas Market, organized in the world's second oldest amusement park, has everything it takes to blow up a whole planet with "hygge". Aligned with rows of fir trees in which hundreds of lights glow, Tivoli Gardens embrace an air that smells of the smell of roasted almonds, and if you put in the landscape and frozen lake and turned into a skating rink, you only have to start writing stories with fairies. Do not let go of one of the stalls crafted with handmade art, nor the lips of the jam with jam and sugar. Do not get drunk until you refuse without leaving the sandwich with roast pork and red cabbage. But do it before and after you get into The Star Flyer, a 80-meter tower (the highest in northern Europe) where you can overlook the entire Danish capital.
Christmas Market in Moscow - Red Square
Against the backdrop of the majestic St. Basil's Basilica and the imposing walls of the Kremlin, the winter of Winter, Red Square and one of the most beautiful Christmas fairs are to be seen. However, unlike the enormities we have talked about so far, this market sums up 20 stands selling Christmas decorations and local souvenirs (matryoshka dolls and Khokhloma toys are pampered). The market somehow surrounds the largest ice rink in Moscow, and here you can also happily take the younger family, taking them in small bands. Among the traditional Russians are baked potatoes with mushrooms and pickles or caviar pancakes. And for the taste of Christmas that melts in your mouth and slips on your throat, you find boiled wine and sweet Russian cake. The Russians celebrate Christmas on the 7th of January and, in order to be in line with the Christian tradition through this part of the world, the fair remains open until its end.
Christmas Market in Prague - Old Town Square
When it comes to Christmas fairs, Prague has a hard word to say because the city is full of markets and holiday mood. But the cake on the cake is undoubtedly in the Old Center. Here, rows of sympathetic wooden huts scattered around the giant Christmas tree, sell souvenirs: jewels, candles, crystals, all the wonders of glass-made objects and wooden toys. The culinary offer begins with the traditional pork grid and sausages served in the blood, and for the Czechs. Turn off your thirst with a mouthful of mead - a refreshing wine with honey added.
Discover the 8 gastronomic cities of Extremadura Extremadura is the land os small towns of a thousand flavours and of creative home cooking with "slow food" tradition (before the term was invented) deriving from local high-quality seasonal products. In these hospitable and integrating towns taking things easy allows you to immerse yourself in gastronomy with [...]
Top places to dine while in in Rome, Italy Perhaps you've been to Rome countless times, or perhaps this will be your first visit. The awe-inspiring fountains, the marble sculptures and of course the pristine ancient architecture. The sights and sounds of Rome are utterly amazing. Perhaps one of the most pleasurable experiences while in [...]
Unique and Cultured Eateries In Pier 39 San Francisco Pier 39 Eateries, San Francisco Some eateries globally offer common services. At Pier 39 San Francisco, this is precisely the opposite. Most of the eateries have won top awards for best service and dining experience. The many eateries available offer an A-plus dining experience. This article will [...]
