As I have told you before during December, we have more than 300 Christmas markets in Munich. Each one has its specialties and charm. But the one that is a MUST for every local is the Tollwood Christmas Market! It is the biggest one in the whole city.
Here you have a Picture from above to get an idea of the size of this market 😎
To be exact it is not only a Christmas market but a festival in Munich that takes place every six months in the Olympic Park (summer) or on the Theresienwiese (winter).
The winter festival takes place at the Theresienwiese - the same place where you find Oktoberfest in September. - So you see it's quite big!! To get an idea about the crowd that is waiting for you: they have around 600,000 visitors in winter.
It starts shortly before the first Sunday of Advent and has its own Christmas market that lasts until December 23rd which is even ranked among the 10 most beautiful Christmas markets in Bavaria.
I am not a bit fan of big crowds so I tried to avoid the weekends.. but we didn´t manage to go there and then the last weekend arrived so we had no choice. Last Saturday we finally found some time. We went there by train and arrived early afternoon (in the dark it's always nicer with all the lights) and of course, there were already a lot of people waiting, but from the outside, it still looked pretty calm. I like the light installation that they project on the tents outside when you come from the train or the parking space.
At this Christmas market /Festival you can find four different categories of things:
1. Market of Ideas
Outside at the Christmas market and in the two big tents "Mercato" and "Bazar" you can find a total of 200 artisan stalls that sell all kinds of things.
Some of the things you can find there are all kinds of cloth, handmade jewelry, lampignons, candles, Flower Tea and normal tea, cooking things, herbs, liquids, self-made signs, clocks made out of music records, world maps, paintings, art things, skill games, and many more.
So we all love it for shopping. It is the perfect place to get some really cool Christmas presents, souvenirs, or just new things for yourself.
As Elena is a big fan of Gin, we tried out the local things they sold at one of the stalls. First pure and then with tonic water. I really loved the Christmas Gnomes packaging. <3 So cute!
Since its founding, the festival has seen itself as a forum for ecology and environmental awareness. On the one hand, it wants to serve as a platform for important topics in this area and, on the other hand, as a source of inspiration for ecological projects.
That's why all the things you find here are sustainable, handmade, and fair trade!
2. Food & Drinks
The sustainable attitude of course is also linked to the organic certification of the festival gastronomy since the winter of 2003 as well as the Organic for Children campaign, which was launched in 2006 together with the Department for Health and Environment of the state capital of Munich and teaches children in schools and public care facilities to use food sustainably to introduce a healthy diet.
Also together with the German Animal Welfare Association, Tollwood is campaigning for an end to industrial factory farming.
I mean tt wouldn´t be a festival and/or Christmas market without a lot of food and drink offers, right?! So that is why there is also a whole tent: "The Food Plaza" offering all kinds of food. I guess 
We didn´t go inside but still shopping made us very hungry. So we decided to walk around the outside market and grab some food there. Of course also outside you have a wide range of different food.
The stalls are very well-known and epic. As food you can find Käsespätzle, Schupfnudeln, tarte flambée, Crepes, Kebab, Duck Kebab, Chimney Cake, Langos, Raclette, Burger, Pizza, Churros, Reiberdatschi, Hot Potatoe, Burritos, sausages and many more.
Whatever you do. DON´T GO TO HANSWURST BRATWURST, because that is what we did. There was a big line waiting for a sausage in bread, and we didn´t do BBQ all summer... so we thought it was a great idea to eat one there.
Elena had a Käsekrainer - Sausage with cheese inside and I had one with chili... damn even thinking of it I get bad again 😫 The moment we ate it it tasted very well... and we still felt great for a few hours.. that´s why we still smile on the picture...but the next two days we went through hell - full program of food poisoning!! From exploding until fever 39,5!! So DON´T GO THERE! 😤😱
I mean except if you want to lose 2 kilos right before Christmas and like taking risks hahaha
Ok so let´s change the topic really fast! After we had filled our stomages we took a walk and checked out the Christmas market a little bit more. I liked the decoration and lights a lot (even though it´s nothing compared to the other ones I have seen all over the world 😉) - I guess it´s just not sustainable enough for this place to do that as it takes a lot cost and energy to install them and they take those things very serious! 😅
Now walking over to the market we got thirsty and decided to get some drinks. The range of offers here of course was also very high. There was mulled wine, hot Gin, hot Mai Tai, hot Caipirinha, hot Planters Puntch, hot Coconut, hot Amaretto, hot Mojito, Feuerzangenbowle, beer, wine, liquors, punch, juices, baked apple punch, coffee and many more.
We decided to drink a hot Caipirinha to fight the cold and heat up a bit before walking further. Some of the drinks are served with flames even - That is very typical for our Christmas markets.😎
3. Curling
All warm again we kept walking and I suddenly saw something that I had never seen there before. Honestly, I don´t know if it always had been there and I just never knew or if it was a new thing. But I think it´s a cool thing. People were playing curling! A very German thing to do.... NOT hahaha. Elena even asked me about the rules as she had never seen it before 😅.
Some were playing others watching but all had fun as it seemed. And as all the money is for a good cause I thought it's a great addition to the market.
4. A cultural program of music, various forms of theater, performances, and visual art.
In addition to all the stalls at the market, there is also the festival part. It offers a broad musical spectrum from rock, pop, singer-songwriters, jazz, and blues, as well as theater performances and artistic performances. Most of the cultural events are free of charge.
Since 1988, each festival has had a different focus. The organizers aim to combine a cultural offering of music, theater, cabaret, and art with ecological awareness.
Feel free to check out this year's website to see what kind of performances you can find here: https://www.tollwood.de/en/
The market ends on the 23rd of December. The cultural events take place up to and including the New Year finishing up with a big New Year party.
I have never been there myself on New Year, but I had heard that it must be great there.
Of course also this time we took some videos for you to give you a complete image of the place and share all the vibes with you:
As many of you know after that we went home because I still had to curate that day 😉😅 - In the end a wise decision because hours after we took over both of our bathrooms 😰😜
This time a not-so-perfect ending to a quite nice evening haha
I hope you enjoyed it as much as we did!
Cheers,
Liz