The Best Christmas Market in Germany?

It is the oldest Christmas market in Germany with the first taking place in 1434. The market is called Striezel Markt in reference to the inescapable treat of the sweet Christmas cake called Striezl or Stollen. Though there are many markets, the main market is in the heart of Dresden's Baroque Old Town, with the Church of Our Lady making an impressive backdrop.


Each stand was so uniquely decorated with displays showing what they sold (like the baker below). Moving parts, funny little dwarves, and a little holiday cheer exceeded my expectations. Ian even saw the Weihnachtsbäckerei (Christmas bakery), the setting of a German song he sings with the kita at this time of year.  My heart grew 3 sizes this day.






When snow began to fall, we ohhhed & awed. It was magic.
And cold. By the end of walking around, or by the time we succumbed to the cold, we had take refuge in the Starbucks off the square. Still - it was perfect.

Ian models his beard warmth

I use my go-to stay warm method - hot food!

• Stollen Festival celebrates the Christmas cake and presents the world's biggest Christmas bread
• World's biggest Nutcracker 
• Christmas pyramid (pictured at top; climb for a great view of the square)
• Traditional toys, puppets, and wood carvings (though more of the same that you find in every market can be found, there are more individual crafts here)
• Santa Claus visits at 16:00 each day.
• Giant advent calendar
• Puppet show, movies, and live performances great for the kids.

The crew (with Jeff lurking in back)

The City

....with lots of eating and drinking in between

Goldener Reiter to Albertplatz Square Weihnachtsmarkt

There are a selection of other markets throughout the city. In the Neustadt, a market extends from the Goldener Reiter (Golden Horseman) to Albertplatz Square. A little more commercial and a bit random (a teepee?) it was still fun.

In the teepee

Market between the Terrace and Frauenkirche

Market Hours: 

• Sun-Thu 10:00 a.m. - 8:00 p.m.
• Fri-Sat 10:00 a.m. - 9:00 p.m.

Travel: 

The cities are only 120 miles apart and transport can be easily and inexpensively arranged by carshare, driving, or train (or plane, but I recommend the former). There are Intercity Express (ICE) trains (which extend all the way to Prague and back to Amsterdam) or EC (2 hours from Berlin), or regional rail. In general, tickets cost between $40 and 80 (depending on the type of train).

We chose to do the trip on the cheap  and the 6 of us took 2 Schönes-Wochenende-Tickets to Dresden. This allows 5 people to travel on one ticket which (currently) costs 44 euro. However, you can only travel on regional bahn so the journey takes over 2.5 hours. If you can travel early in the morning or wind down late at night, I think it's worth it. You can also invite other people to travel on your ticket if you don't have 5 and though not legal, you can often re-sell your ticket upon reaching your destination.I refer you to the Deutsche Bahn site as well as the mitfahrgelegenheit.de site for ride share and clear rail prices. 

For more info on transport within Berlin and how to get out of town, refer to my article on:


To find out more about the market, go to Dresden's Tourism Site. More pictures of our madness can be found on our facebook page. This time of year is also a great excuse to do a Christmas special so for work  I was able to round-up some expat Christmas stories to share with all of you.

In the meantime - hope you had a

Very Merry Christmas&

Happy New Year!