Christmas Markets in Vienna and Munich

‘Tis the Season

If you’ve spent even a few days in Germany or Austria around this time of year, you’ll have developed an opinion about the weather. Rain, sleet, mist. Steel-grey skies you could reach up and touch. What daylight there is fades all too quickly. It’s no wonder that festive markets sprung up in Central Europe to brighten peoples’ lives with good cheer.

By late November just about every town square in Central Europe has transformed itself into a dazzling collection of stalls selling nutcrackers, Christmas ornaments, and Lebkuchen. The sights are one thing, but it’s the polyphony of smells I always remember: toasted almonds and roasted chestnuts colliding with tangy sauerkraut, sizzling bratwurst, and pungent Käsespätzle covered in melted Alpine cheese and roasted onions. One ensemble of aromas floats above them all, the spicy fragrances of mulled drinks.

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Classic Christkindl Drinks

Glühwein is king of the winter warmers, its aromas of ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves wafting through every Central European Christmas market. But there’s also Jägertee (hunter’s tea), a potent elixir made from black tea and Austrian rum that originated in the hoary Alpine regions, and a whole panoply of drinks called “Punsch.” These drinks typically feature a base of red wine, white wine, or orange juice amped up by all manner of schnapps. Marillenpunsch (with apricot schnapps) is one of my favourites. If you’re daring, go for a Feuerzangenbowle, a Glühwein-style drink that involves setting a rum-soaked sugar cube alight atop the cup so that the caramelized sugar and rum drips into the drink.

With the plethora of heated alcoholic beverages featuring all sorts of wines and spirits, it’s striking that mulled beer is such a rarity at Christmas markets. I’ve seen it on only a handful of occasions.

You might find stalls selling “gestacheltes Bier,” which obliquely recalls the days when tavern keepers would heat warm beer concoctions with a fiery poker.* The red-hot poker froths the beer and caramelizes the sugar, leaving the beer pleasantly nutty. It’s a bit like drinking a Steinbier.

If you head to the Christmas market in Munich’s Haidhausen neighbourhood, you’ll find two kinds of Doppelbock brewed by Paulaner specially for the season. It’s not Glühbier, but it’s potent enough to put a glow on your face.

*I’m not sure if this practice common to the British Isles and Colonial America was prevalent in early modern Central Europe. I haven’t found any sources yet indicating that it was. If anyone knows one or the other, please leave a note in the comments. Thanks!

Vienna

Come advent, every corner of Vienna is awash with holiday season lights, from the narrow lanes of the town center to the Baroque palaces on its margins. You can’t go wrong at Vienna’s largest Christmas markets. The Rathaus “Wiener Weihnachtstraum” market is a lively affair with an outdoor skating rink, the ornate Karlskirche forms a stunning backdrop for the “Art Advent” market on Karlsplatz, and the “Weihnachtsdorf” market on Maria-Theresien-Platz spreads out between two of Vienna’s marquee museums. If you have a few days to explore, here are a few of my personal favourites worth seeking out.

The Weinachtsmarkt am Spittelberg is in an ethereal section of Old Vienna behind the Museum Quarter. Looking out at these cobblestoned lanes and narrow alleys with a Glühwein or schnapps in hand, it’s hard to believe that this once-dingy quarter was slated for the wrecking ball. Citizens’ groups intervened, and now it’s one of the most quaint neighbourhoods in central Vienna. It’s also one of the markets where you’ll find a number of stalls selling artisanal sausages, cheeses, jams, mustards, schnapps, baked goods, you name it.

The Adventmarkt Mariahilf is a small market that stretches out in front of the church of the same name. It’s an oasis of calm amid the hustle and bustle of one of Vienna’s main pedestrian shopping streets, Mariahilfer Strasse. You’ll find an array of mulled drinks, along with sausages and baked goods. *NB: This market is temporarily closed due to construction on Vienna’s new U2/U5 subway lines.

At a slight remove from the tourist crush, the Christmas Village on the University of Vienna’s campus is nestled in a beautiful courtyard near the Votive Church and the Schottentor transit junction. Students lend the market a youthful vibe, and the selection of mulled drinks is second to none. When you’ve had your fill of mulled wine and turbo-charged schnapps drinks, the Stiegl-Ambulanz outpost of Salzburg’s famous brewery is in the same courtyard a few steps away. You can also warm up there.

If you really want to get off the beaten track, make for the Weinachtsmarkt im Türkenschanz. This über-local market set amid woods and ponds is in an area of northwestern Vienna where the Ottomans set up their encampments during the Ottoman Siege of 1683.

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Munich

Munich’s squares and plazas also come alive with Christmas markets during the season of cold and gray. The Münchener Christkindlmarkt encompasses the whole of Marienplatz and spills over to the surrounding streets and lanes. Famous for its Christmas tree rising up in front of the Rathaus, it’s a kind of “greatest hits” of Central European Christmas markets: stalls selling everything from nuts and oranges to carved figurines for creches. You’ll also find “gestacheltes Bier” here.

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For a unique Christmas market experience, head to the Mittelaltermarkt (Medieval Market) near Odeonsplatz, a market that pulls off tongue-in-cheek fun while keeping the kitsch factor more or less in check. Stalls mimic medieval castles and towers, and the folks working the booths are dressed in period costume. This is the place to be if you want to try a variety of mead-based mulled drinks. They also sell the best Christmas market mugs around, weighty clay mugs that’ll make you feel like you’re drinking at a medieval feast. Speaking of feasts, the food, such as fire-roasted bratwurst or deer in a wild mushroom sauce, is suitably hefty. Those plying their trades here use wood to fire their stoves and drink kettles, lending the market a wintry, smoky air.

The low-key Haidhausen Christkindlmarkt is in a quieter residential area east of the Isar and offers numerous stalls selling candies and sweets. Keep an eye out overhead for the Santa riding a bicycle back and forth on a tightrope — sure to mesmerize you after a few strong mulled drinks. Beer drinkers are also well served here: the market features its very own beer, the Christmator. Brewed by Paulaner, this delicious Bock comes in two versions: a 6.7% heller Bockbier with plenty of honey, white nougat, and marzipan, and a 7.7% dunkler Bock, an amber-hued beer with wonderfully rich fig and pumpernickel bread aromas.

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Pro tip: The chill can really sneak up on you despite the warming drinks, especially at night. You don’t want an enjoyable session cut short by the cold, so wear plenty of layers and be sure to wear thick, warm socks under your shoes or boots. You’ll thank me for that bit about the socks.

Addendum

I started writing this article back in December 2020 as a kind of “light at the end of the tunnel” piece when I thought Covid would be a fading concern by December 2021. I returned to it this year after Vienna’s Christmas markets opened in mid-November. Just as I was finishing up, Vienna went into a three-week lockdown and Munich announced that it would be shuttering its Christmas markets again this year. I considered holding off posting this article till next year but then thought it might yet help spread some much-needed holiday cheer in these uncertain times. So here it is. You can even bake some Lebkuchen, brew up some Glühbier with the help of one of the articles listed below, and create your own holiday season flair wherever you are.

Edit, November 2022: Christmas markets are full steam ahead this year.

Happy holidays, everyone!

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#Glühbier #beer #Glühwein #christmasmarkets #Christkindlmärkte

All photos by F.D. Hofer.

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