Even if you can't get there, check out the German Christmas Markets. The best and most famous (in my opinion) are the Nürnberger, Rothenberg (where the year-round Cathi Wolfhart Christmas Village is located) and the Stuttgart Weihnachtsmärkte. There's nothing like walking around, enjoying the festivities, eating Wurst, brezeln, and drinking a few nice hot glasses of Gluhwein (hot, spiced red wine) to keep warm! These are a few of the larger ones that we went to while living in Stuttgart.
Stuttgart (Lived in Stuttgart, Vaihingen, for three years; great people, delicious food, and fantastic traveling & lots of fests) Click on "Alles uber Stuttgart", then click on Erlebnisangebote/Feste, then click on Weihnachtsmarkt - couple of pictures of the Stuttgart Weihnachtsmakt (it was one of the largest in Germany).
Nürnberger Christkindlesmarkt (English version available), and another good site for Nürnberg. This is where the famous Christmas Nürnberger Angels are made.
Vienna Couldn't locate a Christkindlesmarkt page but great info on their world famous Operas - the opera houses in Vienna are some of the most magnificient I've ever seen.
Berlin Weihnachtsmärkte No English translations available, (USE TRANSLATOR BELOW) but a good site. I was there a year before the wall came down and it was a beautiful city, both East and West.
Rothenburg Weihnachtsmärkte (Rothenburg is a beautiful walled city.)
Rüdesheim am Rhein (Info in German only/USE TRANSLATOR BELOW) Another good site for Rüdesheim - this is THE wine region and this site also has an English version.
Aachen Beautiful town on the Dutch Border - spent many weekends up there. Christmas market is beautiful, as is the whole town.
Heidelberg was about an hour from Stuttgart.
NOTE: This site has external links to non-English speaking sites. As a courtesy, I am providing a link to an Alta-Vista Translator. To read these links in English, you can "cut and paste" that URL of that page into the translator and it will translate it into English for you.
URL: http://geocities.datacellar.net/bettyannet/cmasmrkt.html
Date Modified: 05-17-01