Travel
“I’m GH’s travel expert and this is my favourite Christmas market”
Traditional wooden huts draped in red and white cloth line the cobbled main square, fairy lights twinkle on a giant Christmas tree and the sweet smell of spiced gingerbread lingers in the air. Wrapped up warm in bobbly hat, scarf and gloves, I sip on glühwein in a special festive mug and enjoy shopping for gifts you can’t find anywhere else. That’s because I’m not in one of the hundreds of crowded so-called ‘German Christmas Markets’ that pop up around the UK at this time of year, but in the original and best one of all – the Christkindlesmarkt in Nuremberg.
Dating back to at least 1628, this magical Bavarian market, known as the ‘little town from wood and cloth’, is now open and is better than any of the hundreds of others in the UK and Europe I’ve been to.
Why? It has the most authentic atmosphere for a start (I didn’t hear Mariah Carey once); sells delicious, reasonably priced food; and prides itself on traditions I’ve never experienced before. It starts when the Christkind, a local girl aged between 16 and 19, opens the market dressed in white with a golden crown and pair of glittery wings. She’s chosen for the role (the ‘Christ Child’ brings gifts to children on Christmas Eve in the Lutheran tradition) by locals and appears at the market in front of the gothic Church of our Lady every day until the market shuts on Christmas Eve.
There are 180 stalls selling beautiful handmade glass baubles, wooden nutcrackers, miniature ceramic houses, straw angels, lebkuchen in Christmas tins or dangling from ribbons and slightly bizarre toy people made from dried prunes and a walnut (I kid you not). Nuremberg’s ‘prune people’ are said to bring good luck if you display them in your window and, for £5, make a quirky souvenir or funny secret Santa.
There are other markets along side streets, including a ‘Children’s Market’ with moving figures on top of each stall, as well as a vintage carousel ride and a ‘Sister Cities’ market, where you can buy nesting dolls from Kharkiv, honey cookies from Kavala and enamel goods from Limousin, as well as a variety of different mulled wines (the blueberry one is delicious).
Food-wise, local specialities include Bratwurst sausages slathered in mustard or pickled herrings in a bap (around £3.50). Go for the ‘Nuremberger’ (around £5), which is a roll containing three small sausages spiced with marjoram. They’re only given the original Nuremberger name if they’re produced within the city limits, weigh exactly 23g and are as long and thick as your little finger.
I also loved the decadent, warm Eierpunsch (eggnog punch) topped with whipped cream for £4.50. And if that’s not enough to make you feel festive, taking a clip-cloppy ride in the snow on a 1930s horse-drawn postal carriage will make all your Christmas market dreams come true.
GET THERE: British Airways (britishairways.com) flies direct from London Heathrow to Nuremberg from £108pp each way. Expedia (expedia.co.uk) offers three-night packages from around £400pp including flights, and Uniworld (uniworld.com) offers seven-night Classic Christmas Markets cruises, including Nuremberg, from £3,199pp. For more information, visit christkindlesmarkt.de/en/.
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