Left: Dresden’s Striezelmarkt Christmas market is a visitor highlight and as atmospheric as it gets. © Silvio Dittrich Below: Christmas dreams in the Ore Mountains: The Christmas market in Annaberg-Buchholz is a perfect showcase for the region’s festive traditions and handicraft. © Dieter Knoblauch
Special Theme
Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt & Thuringia
Where Christmas is at home There are a myriad of fantastic places in Germany to get into the Christmas spirit. No news there. However, if you want to get to the root of things, the neighbouring regions of Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia are the place to go. Christmas decorations, the tradition of public Christmas trees and not to forget the stollen Christmas cake all originated here. Add to that Germany’s oldest Christmas market in Dresden, and this special German festive cocktail is complete. TEXT: TOURISM BOARDS OF SAXONY, SAXONY-ANHALT & THURINGIA
In Saxony, the Ore Mountains are home to a centuries-long tradition of handcrafting Christmas toys and decorations. The towns of Annaberg-Buchholz and Seiffen are famous for the production of wooden Christmas pyramids, distinctive nutcrackers and incense smokers that are part and parcel of many a German home in the festive season. Saxony’s capital Dresden draws visitors from around the world to its so-called Striezelmarkt Christmas market, dating back to 1434, where every year the world’s biggest stollen, Saxony’s famous Christmas cake, is on display. The Stollen Festival is traditionally celebrated on the Satur-
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day before the second Sunday of Advent. The bakers of Dresden’s Stollen Association get together a week before to prepare a giant cake that is then sliced up and shared out by the Royal Master Baker and the Dresden Stollen Maiden on the day. Definitely not something to be experienced anywhere else. The region is also full of romantic towns where historic market squares provide charming backdrops for atmospheric Christmas markets such as in Görlitz or Radebeul. Saxony’s many beautiful palaces and castles also undergo an enchanting
transformation during the festive season and re-emerge as locations for Christmas markets and festivities. Lovers of historic surroundings should also put neighbouring Thuringia on their list where arguably the most famous German castle, the Wartburg towering above Eisenach, is putting on a historical Christmas market in the run-up to the festive season with artists, craftsmen, knights and many colourful stalls. Thuringia is not short of ‘conventional’ Christmas markets either. Pretty Weimar, where the first public Christmas tree was erected on the market square in 1816, features one of the region’s favourites and it has the added benefit of running until early January. The most famous Thuringian market takes place in the capital Erfurt where the Cathedral Square with the impressive St Mary’s Cathedral and St Severus Church provide a perfect setting for more than 200 stalls, a huge Christmas pyramid and a big Ferris wheel. For something a bit more off