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Munich town hall with the Christmas tree ornated with more than 2500 lights
This year’s Christmas is less than 5 days away. Traditionally in Germany, there is a Christmas market in every human settlement. In the capital city of Bavaria there are over 24 Christmas markets, or in German Christkindl Markt where Christkindl means baby Jesus.
Today I will present you two of the Christmas markets.
The biggest one in Munich is the one in Marienplatz, the main square where the world famous Munich town hall lies.
The best impression one can get is coming from the Tal Street as one can see the most well-known landmarks of Munich, the Frauenkirche and the town hall, which are all beautifully lit in the evenings. The market is open this year from the 27th of November till Christmas Eve.
This Christmas market is historically dated from 1310 and is one of the oldest in the world.
Yearly the around 140 stalls are visited by over 3 million people. Speaking of stalls, here you can find everything that is traditional for a Christmas market.
As an example, gingerbread in different shapes or taste. Bio or gluten-free, for every gingerbread lovers heart, wish.
For the ones who like to decorate their gingerbread with edible gold, there is also a stall for that. It is called Gold Sünde which translates to gold sin, quite a suggestive name.
This glass Christmas balls are hand painted in Bavaria. One thing that I like is to buy local, it helps the area and encourages sticking to the tradition.
This stall is selling stars made from paper. In Germany they are named Herrnhuter Stern coming from the town of Herrnhut in Saxony. They are used the whole advent period till the 6th of January. This tradition is specific for eastern Germany and has a history of almost 200 years.
Being near the mountains, woodworking has a long tradition in Bavaria.
But besides the stalls, one of the main reasons people go to the Christmas market is to drink a mulled wine. One goes there with friends, drinks a mulled wine...
... or a Jäger Tee ;). For the little ones, there is always fruit punch or normal tee available.
We had a normal, but very tasty mulled wine. Take care not to drive after that. When the mulled wine was drunk, we took off to the second Christmas market featured in this post.
This Christmas market is in the Christmas Village at the Munich Residenz. The Munich Residenz is the former Bavarian seat of government.
As it is placed in a closed yard this market is more intimate and has a familiar atmosphere.
The organizers recreate every year a farming village inside the court.
Also, some German stories are featured like the ones from the Grimm brothers.
Like said the atmosphere is very warm and people tend to like it more than the bigger one on the Marienplatz square.
Even the trash cans are Christmas themed.
I hope you enjoyed this travel to one of the oldest Christmas markets in the world. Until next time on 
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