Xmas Markt the Spot

Christmas in Wien & Nürnburg 

The holidays were upon us! Which meant homesickness, international traditions, and Christmas markets. 

Luckily we have some friends in Europe to stave off our homesickness, and they happen to live in some of the greatest Christmas market cities in the world.  So we decided to have an alliterative advent with Edgar and Eva then Josh and Julia for Frohe Fest. 

When we visited Edgar and Eva in October, they'd suggested we come back in December to experience their Christmas in Vienna. Christmas markets were a completely foreign concept to us before our trip to Europe. It's a staple tradition in all the Western European countries - a tradition that draws tourists from around the world.

Every country has markets transforming town square into rows of vendors selling ornaments, gifts and traditional holiday candies, cakes and alcoholic drinks. Hot Wine was present in every market we saw, called Vin Chaud (literally hot wine) in France, Vin Brûlée (for some reason) in Italy, and Glühwein in Germany and Austria. Edgar treated us by making his own homemade version for us without alcohol for the mother to be. Of course, David demanded liquor be added to his portion.

Vienna had several different Christmas markets throughout the city, but our first stop was the largest one at city hall. The plaza, which had housed a traveling circus on our first visit, was now packed with literally hundreds of stalls selling wooden and glass ornaments and toys, wool socks, and glühwein and punch, with an entrance marked by a glowing Wiener Christkindlmarkt sign. Each tree surrounding the the square had different shaped christmas lights. Some were just red balls, others had snow men, hot air balloons, and santa clauses. Eva told us they've been lighting the trees with different shaped lights since she was a child. The rest of the streets in the historic center were strung with lights, each street with a different motif. The whole city twinkled with the Weihnachten spirit. 

We learned a lot about Austrian Christmas traditions from E&E. In Austria, it isn't Santa Claus that brings the gifts, but a Christ child angel. This angel brings the gifts unwrapped and ready to play with on what we celebrate as Christmas Eve. Parents have the task of assembling all the gifts ahead of time so they're ready to go, and Eva told us about her parents staying up late at night assembling Legos. Also, along with the gifts, the Jesus Christ angel brings the tree, fully decorated, on Christmas Eve afternoon. Usually, the kids are whisked away for some all day activity so the parents can bring in the tree that's been hiding out on the balcony or at a relatives house and decorate it. (As a result, movie theaters are extremely busy on Christmas Eve day). 

We left Edgar and Eva to spend their Christmas day with their families, and we set off to Nüremburg to spend the holiday with our American friends Josh and Julia. David and Julia met in college, and hadn't seen each other since. We thought it might be weird, but it was a Christmas Miracle; we all had a great time. (Josh and Julia, if you disagree, please send us a private message instead of a scathing comment so you don't ruin the blog for our reader(s).) They have an amazing apartment in Nüremburg where they both work for Adidas World headquarters. After learning so much about European Christmases, we were greeted at Josh & Julia's by an American style tree (already up!), an American flag hanging on the wall, and a stuffed and mounted eagle to round it out. While Nüremburg was full of American tourists searching for the authentic German Christmas, we had found our slice of home away from home. 

We celebrated Christmas Eve with delicious home cooked Korean ribs and Irish Whiskey. With the Js, we all felt the need to watch a traditional Christmas movie: National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. We huddled around the TV with a box of Trader Joes cookies and watched a more stereotypical, over-the-top American Christmas story than we'd remembered, [spoiler alert] which ends with the Star Bangled Banner. We were Americaning in style.

Best times: 

Rock climbing with Edgar in a converted 

17th century building, rekindling the memories 

of how they met almost a decade ago in San Jose.

Playing a Spaß (fun) game of Settlers of Catan.

Hopefully a new Weinachten tradition.

Touring the Adidas Factory with J&J, attempting to hide David's offending Pumas. And finally ending David's winter boot search at Rockport, now owned by Adidas. Das boot!