Christmas in Germany: The Best of Holiday Markets

It's Christmas time in Germany, and the main squares of most cities and towns have transformed into glittering shopping bazaars offering everything from hand-carved Christmas ornaments to Bob Marley T-shirts. The Christmas markets have been part of Germany's Yuletide celebration for hundreds of years and remain a tourist favorite.

One of the biggest and best-known is the Christkindlesmarkt in Nuremberg, where some 2 million people are expected to visit the market square in the heart of the city's old quarter from Dec. 1-23.

Dresden's Striezelmarkt, considered the oldest, dates back to 1434 and is home to Dresdner Christstollen, a butter-rich fruitcake topped with powdered sugar that has become a national holiday staple. Shoppers can find a bounty of carved wooden items such as schwibbogen, or decorative candle arches from the Erzgebirge mining region. There are also nativity figurines, hand-blown glass tree ornaments and blue-tinged pottery from the Lusatia region. Yet another favorite is the Christmas pyramid - an ornamental tower turned by a fan that catches rising warm air from candles.

In Frankfurt, the market covers the expanse of the rebuilt Old Town and counts thousands upon thousands of visitors daily until Dec. 24. Others, such as Rudesheim and Michelstadt, are more intimate affairs, off the beaten path and open only weekends.

At Erfurt's Christmas market - the biggest in the state of Thuringia in former East Germany and one of Germany's most beautiful markets - 200 stalls line the city's Domplatz, or Cathedral Square. Lights from the 80-foot high Christmas tree softly illuminate people slowly sipping gluehwein (warm, spiced wine) and eating Thuringian sausages.

Most markets have an array of food choices, including bratwurst sausage, gluehwein, deep-fried potato cakes, and chunks of goose or turkey fried in batter and smothered with creamy garlic sauce. Lebkuchen, or gingerbread, ranges from thin cookies enjoyed with a cup of hot chocolate to larger cakes, sometimes heart-shaped and iced with sentimental holiday messages - an edible Christmas card. In Koblenz, one teenager wore hers around her neck, with "I love my boyfriend" in strawberry icing.

Since it's Germany, there's also plenty to drink, most notably, Weihnachtsbier, which literally means Christmas beer and has a slightly stronger alcoholic punch to it. After a stein of this holiday drink, the winter cold will all but disappear.