Four Ways to Christkindlmarkt
Travel
Audio By Carbonatix
By Kevin McCullough
There are two kinds of Christmas shopping. One involves a parking garage and a list you’d like to be done with. The other involves gingerbread and forgetting, for a little while, that you had a list at all. I know which one I’d rather build a weekend around.
Start in Nuremberg, Germany. On November 27, the Christkind will step onto the balcony of the Church of Our Lady and deliver the prologue that opens the Christkindlesmarkt. Below, red-and-white awnings fill the Hauptmarkt, and the stalls sell handmade decorations and Lebkuchen, the gingerbread you’ll want to buy twice: once to take home and once to eat before you’ve left the square. The market runs through December 24. If I were planning a trip around one moment, it would be that opening.
Closer to home, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, opens its Christkindlmarkt this weekend, November 13–15, with more dates through December 20. Here, German ornaments and American artisans share a market beneath the old Bethlehem Steel blast furnaces. Those furnaces are the first thing I’d show a child before heading for the stalls. The next question practically asks itself: What did people make here before they made Christmas ornaments?
Then there’s Chicago, a city that helped raise me in radio. Inspired by Nuremberg, the Christkindlmarket at Daley Plaza celebrates its 30th anniversary this year and runs November 20–December 24. My plan would be simple: bratwurst first, something hot to drink second, and a souvenir mug if I can persuade myself there’s room for another one in the cupboard. The anniversary designs include a pearl-white mug and one shaped like a Christmas tree. That cupboard argument may be over before it starts.
For a long weekend, I’d pick Québec City. Its German Christmas Market runs on select days from November 19 through December 23. Start with the stalls, then spend the rest of the evening walking Old Québec. A German market in a French-speaking city gives you two traditions to enjoy before you’ve even decided where to have dinner. Check the market calendar before picking your dates.
You can go a long way for Christmas, or you can get in the car this weekend. Either way, bring someone who likes to linger. Buy one ornament you’ll be glad to unwrap next year. And get the second gingerbread. You already know what happened to the first.
