Christmas markets, and the case for going on a Tuesday
The markets of Central Europe are genuinely worth the cold. The single biggest variable in whether you enjoy them is which day you turn up.
The Christmas market is a Central European institution with a long history, concentrated in German-speaking countries and their neighbours, and now widely imitated elsewhere with varying degrees of conviction.
The originals are worth the trip. They're also, at the wrong moment, unpleasantly packed.
Tuesday, early
This is the whole tip and it's worth more than any list of which markets to visit.
Weekend evenings in December in a well-known market square are extremely crowded — shoulder to shoulder, long waits at stalls, nowhere to stand. A weekday afternoon and early evening at the same market is a different event: you can move, you can see what's being sold, and you can find somewhere to stand and drink something hot.
The atmosphere people go for — lights, woodsmoke, spiced wine, cold air — is entirely present on a Tuesday. The crush is not.
Why they're better in the smaller cities
The most famous markets are famous, which means they carry the largest crowds and the highest concentration of visitors relative to locals.
Smaller cities and towns across the region run markets that are meaningfully more local in character, often in a handsome old square, with the same food and drink and considerably fewer people. A trip built around two or three smaller markets frequently beats one built around a single famous one.
This also plays well with the rail networks in the region, which make short hops between towns straightforward.
What's actually there
Drink. Hot spiced wine is the centrepiece, usually served in a themed ceramic mug you pay a returnable deposit on — you can keep it or hand it back. Non-alcoholic hot fruit punch is the standard alternative and is served everywhere.
Food. Grilled sausage, potato fritters, roasted nuts, and a lot of regional baking. Gingerbread in various forms is close to universal.
Craft stalls. Wooden ornaments, carved figures, candle arches, glass, and the regional woodcraft traditions of the mountains. The quality range is wide — genuine workshop pieces sit alongside imported filler, and it's usually not hard to tell them apart once you've looked at a few stalls.
The practical bits
Dress for standing still outdoors. Same principle as aurora-watching. You'll be stationary in cold air for hours. Warm boots matter more than a warm coat, because you'll be on cold stone.
Carry some cash. Card acceptance has improved a lot but small stalls in smaller towns are still frequently cash-only, as are the mug deposits.
Check the dates. The season runs for a defined period, and many markets close before or immediately after Christmas Eve rather than running to New Year. Arriving on the 27th expecting a market is a common and avoidable disappointment.
Weekday, and daylight into dusk. Arriving mid-afternoon lets you see the stalls properly, then watch the lights come on — which is the best moment and is over before the evening crowd builds.
The leave calculation
This is a short-trip season. Three or four days is plenty for two or three markets, and it falls in a period when many people are saving leave rather than spending it.
If you're travelling from somewhere with holidays late in December, the arithmetic is unusually good — a couple of days either side of an existing public holiday can produce most of a week. German public holidays are here if you're building around the region's own calendar.