After an impromptu visit to the Munich Marienplatz Christmas market, or Weihnachtsmarkt, I think I can definitively say that the Weihnachtsmarkt in Stuttgart is really the best in southern Germany. The market spreads out along the downtown core of the city centre, takes up three big squares, is filled with folksily decorated stalls heavy on the fir branches, and has made drinking alcohol at 10 in the morning not only socially acceptable, but seasonally appropriate for women, children, and grandpas of all ages. As I have visited the Weihnachtsmarkt at 10 in the morning three times this week, I can confirm that thanks to the abundance of Glühwein, a mulled wine Christmas drink served in hideous collectible mugs, the crowd is almost as boisterous on a Monday morning as on a weekend afternoon. And unlike the Munich Weihnachtsmarkt, which has more than its fair share of plastic Weihnachtmänner (that's Santa to you) and snowmen, the decorating team at Stuttgart really dug deep into their Martha Stewart back catalogue to pull out some fairy tale scenes, including toy trains that chug along the roofs, a giant Three Wise Men Weihnachtspyramide, a carved nativity scene or two, and enough pine cones, berries, and boughs to fill a forest or two.
And, although the amount of Glühwein guzzling that is going on might lead you to believe otherwise, it's not even cold. There is nary a snow bank in the dioramas of typical German winter scenes that perch atop the stalls. No snowflakes, plastic or otherwise, dangle from Christmas trees or lampposts. The middle school kids bringing their recently acquired clarinet skills to the outdoor market in the form of repeated squeaky renditions of O, Christmas Tree steer clear of songs that even mention the word snow, let alone ask for it. The only place I've seen any representation of snow is on the Weihnachtmarkt's website, where some over-zealous web designer has animated some snow onto an image of Stuttgart's city hall square. (They've also included the only two standing pre-19th century buildings in the downtown core in their composite image, so the idea that the image represents Stuttgart's reality should be taken with a grain of rock salt.) It's actually all quite autumnal, if it weren't for the (artificially frozen) outdoor skating rink and the crowds, maniacally intent on purchasing wooden Christmas ornaments.
Aside from the Christmas ornament stalls, at the market you can buy literally everything in the arts-and-crafts gamut of Christmas giving. Knitted booties? Check. Beeswax candles? Check. Aprons embroidered with "Kiss the Cook" in Swabian dialect? Oh, yeah. There's even a whole aisle devoted to the kind of gadgets that you might recognize from late night infomercials. You can also get almost any kind of Swabian food here hot off the grill and straight from the hands of somebody's Oma - from Swabian ravioli, aka Maultaschen, to Alsatian pizza, or Flammkuchen. Last but not least, for those who really want to know what they're getting for Christmas, the Stuttgarter Weihnachtsmarkt has its own not-so-live webcam in the biggest of the squares. See for yourself exactly how not snowy it is here.
image via stuttgarter-weihnachtsmarkt.de
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