What are some of the best Christmas markets worth visiting in the EU? [AskEurope]

46 comments

As someone who's been to a few:
Vienna - very popular, very commercial but beautiful
Budapest - beautiful, but most people just go to Vienna instead, even Hungarians
Szeged - nothing to write home about
Debrecen - nothing to write home about
Pécs - beautiful
Zagreb - beautiful scenery and location
Hamburg - nothing to write home about, but I've been to it in over a decade
Leipzig - I did not like it, but it was the whole city
Krakow - holy shit this place is gorgeous, but I'm willing to bet it got commercialized a lot in recent years. I'd be willing to give it a another go.
Brno - this place is an absolute banger. The main square is closed to traffic except for the rickety festive tram going through during waning daylight hours. But as soon as the sun sets, it's a non-stop party of going from one Most bodega to the next with your reusable mug.
- Krakow is a lovely city to visit any time. You can see distinct periods in architecture. A beautiful medieval core and castle. USSR tenements, Modern "Western" Ikea and Starbucks scattered about and a countryside that would not look out of place in The Witcher III. (CD Project Red being Polish)
  Bars and restaurants to die for.
  A++ experience. Would do again.
  
  I concur. I have fond memories of that city. I've visited there at the height of couch surfing and "free walking tours" tourism, hopping from one commie block lodging to the next with nothing but spare underwear in my backpack. Was well worth the 11hr bus ride from Budapest.
- I am biased because I lived in Brno for 8 years. But Brno all the way. I have been in Vienna, Dresden, Krakow, Prague and Brno is just best of them all in every way in the recent years.
- Hamburg - nothing to write home about, but I’ve been to it in over a decade
  Have you been to the "official" one in front of the City Hall or the one in the red-light district? The latter can certainly be an experience.

Aachen, Germany
The city alone is always worth a visit and during christmas time it’s even better.
- Don't forget to try and buy some Printen, when you're there. Also, if you like chocolate, you can find a factory outlet by Lindt in Aachen (and some others for cookies and other sweets near Lindt, too).
  
  When I was a kid I couldn't resist eating out a whole package whenever we had printen. I guess the family wasn't too happy with it. I'd probably still do the same to be honest.
- This will be my first christmas since moving to Aachen, looking forward to it! Hope it's not too crowded :)
  
  It's always been choc full when I visited.
  Don't enjoy the market so much, love the sauna complex though.

Dresden, Germany. It has the added benefit that there are three separate christmas markets all within walking distance of another.
The classic Christkindlesmarkt at the Altmarkt
A larger market at the Neumarkt stretching to the Elbe
A medieval christmas market in the Stallhof

Cadolzburg / Germany
It's relatively tiny, but has a lot of unique stalls located in a largely intact medieval town centre with a huge castle directly attached.
Prefer this to nearby Nuremberg at any time!
General recommendation:
Go to the markets in small historic towns.
They beat the big ones on mystic fairy-tale athmosphere alone...
Another example for that:
Bernkastel-Kues / Germany

Strasbourg, France
- Prepare for massive amounts of people though.
- If you're coming from Germany and want to go there via local train: Don't even think about it. That train is too full even on normal days and is extremly horrible when everybody wants to visit the christmas market

Ignore the big cities and the popular markets. You want to visit one in a small town, where local groups have set up their stands to support the local sports team, where the football club is selling bratwürste and everything has a kind of uncommercial vibe. It's better than just having bigger commercial vendors selling stuff.

Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Germany

pretty much Anywhere, Germany

(IT) San Candido/(DE) Innichen or (IT) Merano/(DE) Meran, both in (IT) Alto Adige/(DE) Südtirol, in Italy. They're quite small, but they are in a beautiful setting.

Having been to a few over the years in different places, the Germans just do it better. Any of the main cities will get you the experience

There's quite a few inside Vienna, most of them really nice and pretty.
- Can you expand on this if you have experience? I’m visiting in a few weeks.
  
  Winpunch already listed some, but my favourites are at Karlsplatz and Altes AKH inner yard and highly recommend those. There are quite a lot of christmas markets and I don't know all of them.
  A tip: bring cash and go during the day. The markets get quite packed in the evening.
  
  The ones I know exist are
  Schloss Schönbrunn (biggest one probably)
  Stephansplatz
  Maria-Theresienplatz
  No rating from my side, because I personally don't quite understand the appeal, I just get invited sometimes.

I'd go for historical surroundings (edit: many already offered these, at least for Germany), but I'd also try to figure out beforehand if the organizers have limitations and strict rules for the stalls. Because however historical the town square is, if you fill it to the brim with cheap candy & bric'a'brac sellers, it's going to suck anyhow.
Also certain locations are pretty much guaranteed to be overcrowded every fucking evening. 1st hand experience: Cologne Cathedral. I'd go for smaller markets if I were you.
IIRC some actively try to create a historical athmosphere, e.g. within the constraints of a medieval castle.
- I’d go for historical surroundings…
  Okay, and those would be? You described the what, but don’t offer any “where’s”. You only negatively mention one place. The question was where to go.
  
  Plenty other people had already offered historical places when I wrote this; my comment was in addition to that. Maybe I should've made that clearer.
- Cologne has more than just Domplatte which is very full, although it is hard to find any that are not at least somewhat full just because the city already has 1M and there's maybe up to 2/10 of that in visitors around that time as well. I'm of the opinion that none of these are worth it at night because it's too crowded for me. On a weekday earlier than about 4pm they can be quite enjoyable.
  Domplatte : right next to the Dom and very full almost always, skip-able unless you need Dom specific merch
  Heumarkt - Alter Markt : Center of the old city often with quite cute stall design and ice skating on the Heumarkt this is where I'd go first because after the Dom it's the first to get crowded. The stalls are good and the location is nice so I'd say take a peek.
  Schokoladenmuseum: Quite nice and on the water has the ferris wheel typically, not that coordinated but still nice. And not that central so a bit more bearable in terms of crowds.
  Neumarkt and Rudolfplatz: I end up hushing through these mostly Can be nice but they are both smaller and more geared towards food
  There is at least another 5 in the city I've never been to
  
  The gay winter market at Schaafenstraße, close to Neumarkt is fun to visit. It's pretty over the top with lots of tourists but the local community is there as well
  The Stadtgarten market is a lesser known, more intimate market next to the train station Köln West
  They're all crowded though and try to sell stuff you don't need. But everyone knows that. :)

Christkindelsmärik from Strasbourg is the biggest and oldest in France
Colmar, Kaysersberg, Ribeauvillé, Riquewihr, everywhere in Alsace.
Even Metz.
- Paris/les champs is nice IMO too.

Nürnberg (Bayern), Germany
- I have to disagree with you there. The Christkindlmarkt in Nuremberg is big with tons of people but not especially beautiful. I like Nuremberg, but recommend a visit at another time of the year.
- It's to full of people, to much people. It's big, so probably worth visiting because the viarity of things you get there, but don't go there on the weekend. If possible try from Monday to Thursday.
  
  you’re right, it’s packed with people.
  There’s another one with less people in Waldwipfelweg. I find that also cool because you can walk on that huge platform and admire a nice sight from up there.

Being from Belgium, I can recommend Ghent, Bruges and Antwerp personally.
They're not on the same level as many German ones, but the historical background makes for a nice day out.

Close by Heidelberg in Germany there is a village called Dilsberg, built within the walls of a medieval castle on top of a hill overlooking the Neckar River.
On 13/14 December there is a Christmas market where the residents open up the historic cellars under their houses to the public and sell spiced wine and handicrafts.
Probably not worth a long trip just for this since it's rather small, but it's right around the corner from Heidelberg, in one of the most beautiful regions of Germany IMO.
- On the other hand, the Heidelberg Christmas market is really nothing special.