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Post date: Jan 10, 2017 2:53:41 PM
I LOVE CHRISTMAS. In the US there is the pesky problem that there are two major holidays in the fall prior to Christmas. There is often a “Christmas too early” backlash against stores or people celebrating Christmas until after Thanksgiving. This is not a problem in Germany, because they don’t celebrate either Halloween or Thanksgiving. The Christmas stuff goes out around mid October. Which is GLORIOUS.
But by far the biggest perk are the Christmas Markets. Every town has one. Every city has multiple. They are a festival of lights, and food, and Christmas arts and crafts. They involve trees and happiness and fill you with the spirit of Christmas. I am OBSESSED with Christmas Markets. I am determined to visit every. Single. One. And to find the best one in Germany.
Because of the graduation for my PhD (Dec. 10) I wasn’t in Germany for the whole Christmas Market Season this year, but below you’ll find my synopsis of the markets I did see, as well as general rankings and plans for next year.
Halle:
The Halle market was a pleasant surprise. I watched it get set up for weeks before it opened, and yet when it opened it was a DELIGHT. And for the size of our city it was surprisingly large and full of good displays.
This was one of the center pieces. It’s hard to get scale, but this was 3-4 stories tall.
A staple of Christmas Markets is cute little stands that sell things. There was one in Halle that had obviously hand made ornaments like the one above.
Garmisch:
Garmisch is nestled in the foothills of the bavarian alps. Their Christmas Market wasn’t terribly impressive, but their town is kind of small. The food was good, and the gluwein was amazing, but this was the largest/only decoration worth photoing.
Hannover:
As part of my trip to Hannover, I went to the Christmas Market with Wendy and Cynthia. It was interesting in that they had a “medieval” Christmas Market, in addition to the usual Christmas Market staples.
By far the coolest thing about the Hannover Market, was the “Christmas Forest” they erected in the center of a random square. It was complete with pine trees and plenty of places within the “forest” to drink gluwein.
Great lady friends drinking gluwein.
Leipzig: The thing I liked most leading up to Christmas was the Leipzig train station, which gets DECKED OUT for Christmas. For example, the merry go round below… which is right next to the ticket counter.
Let me tell you about these planks of salmon. I had seen them in a number of Christmas markets, but finally tried it in Munich. The salmon was AMAZING. Might have been my favorite Christmas market food.
Leipzig is a musical city, and so it was no surprise that this group was playing Christmas music near the market.
The Leipzig market was impressive, and sprawled across a number of city streets in the pedestrian center of the city.
The Germans aren’t particularly religious, but they love Christmas so much that they use advent calendars and advent wreaths. Actually noting the lack of religious affiliation of most Germans caused me to look it up, the advent wreath is religious and it was originally Lutheran, so it figures the Germans like it. Other religions (like the catholics) adopted it from Lutherism. And now we know.
Munich:
I flew in and out of Munich to go to the US for Christmas so I took the opportunity to stop in at the Christmas Market. And it was the most impressive one of this season, but this may be due to Munich in general being an impressive city. I noted in my trip to Garmisch: Bavaria is the richest state in Germany, and Munich is the richest city. So walking around the city you get an idea of it’s sheer wealth. And walking around the market you get that impression as well.
Finally summary: The biggest problem with picking “bests” this year is that I attempted to try different foods at each market. So the “best” food could simply be because the dish was really good at that market but could have been awful at the other ones. So I’ll make a list of all food tried, and give you a synopsis of other superlatives.
Foods
Halle:
Garlic Cheese Bread-I don't know how they did it, but this was one of the best things I've ever eaten.
Potato pancakes- You can have these either sweet or savory (what?!). I opted for savory, with a garlic cream sauce, but my date had his with powdered sugar making it a dessert.
Garmisch:
Kasefalle- SWEET GOD IN HEAVEN THANK YOU FOR THIS FINE FOOD! It was Raclette cheese on a bun. It's like fondue to go. It was like happiness and angels and cheese got together and decided to make bread great again.
Waffle- One of the better waffles I've ever had. I don't really love waffles though...
Hannover:
Kasespaetzel- this is sadly a mostly western German dish, which is a shame because I really like it. It's spaetzel (german egg noddles. It's like if a noodle and gnochi had a love child) with melted cheese. It's the closest Germans get to mac and cheese, and it's usually damn good. This was not the best example I'd ever seen... but it wasn't bad.
Chocolate cake- this was mostly an excuse to sit for a little while. But it did have a cute little Christmas tree on top... so that was nice.
Leipzig:
Kase crepe- This was one of my favorite things I tried, but I'm pretty sure it was because of the quality of that particular stand rather than a reflection of the quality of the market. I've since tried crepe with kase and it wasn't as good (who puts nutmeg in their kase crepe?!?!)
Munich:
Plank salmon- See above photo. It falls off the plank onto bread with a little bit of mayo and tastes like it fell from heaven. So juicy...
Roasted chestnuts- These were present at every Christmas market, but I didn't try them until Munich. I have regrets, they were delicious. Next year... I will try these more next year...
Garlic cheesy bread-This was the only thing I tried at two different markets. It was better in Halle. By a lot.
Gluwein
I wish there were competition for this category, because I tried a lot of gluwein. The gluwein in Garmisch had a lovely set of spices, and was going to be the only category that Garmisch was hands down the best. But unfortunately, there was a gluwein in Munich that blew everyone else out of the water. It had a cherry flavor to it, and was… magical. Really above and beyond the best gluwein. Also, I discovered that my preference between red and white gluwein is largely dependent on whether I’m hot already. Overall, red was consistently better, because it takes the spices a little better all around.
Gluwein mugs
Germans abhor trash and waste. So gluwein is served in ceramic mugs that you pay a deposit for (2 euros), and can either return or keep. Each town has unique mugs, and they change every year. Halle’s always feature two reindeer, which is pretty stinking cute. Munich’s looked the most elegant, but I’m going to have to give this one to Halle. It was more consistently adorable.
Christmas Tree
Munich. The size of the tree was hard to photograph, or really describe properly. But it was… well it was just stunning. It was so pretty I took photos of the base of the tree (see above). Close second was Garmisch.
Decorations
Surprisingly, Hannover takes this category! Not just due to the medieval market, which was very different than the rest of the markets, but overall it had more of a Christmasy feel than any other place I visited. Plus the Winter Forest really put it over the top.
Train Station Decorations
I added this category so Leipzig wouldn’t feel bad about itself. It’s market wasn’t bad, the mugs were cute but not too cute, the gluwein good but not too good. The cheese crepe was amazing, but the sprawl of the market made the whole thing decidedly meh. But the train station was decked. out. Which made coming to and from Leipzig (which I do fairly frequently) awesome during the entire Christmas season. Well done Leipzig!
Quality of Gifts Sold
Tie between Hannover and Halle. I got the cutest gifts for friends in the market at both places, and each one had a lot of “original gifts” that you wouldn’t necessarily find at every market. Hannover definitely had more options, but the Halle gifts had a lot more charm.
And I’ll end this with my own “Christma tree”. Like everything else in my apartment, I got it from IKEA, and it makes my place feel a little more like home.
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