Bundled up in colorful scarves, people of all ages and nationalities milled about the wooden stands that displayed Christmas crafts and seasonal delicacies. It was a cold December day in Strasbourg, France, and a blanket of fresh snow muddled their footsteps. Appetizing smells of glühwein, pain d’épices, nougat and macaroons, colorful wares and pleasant chatter gave warmth to the chilly air.
“Everyone was glad to be there and was just enjoying the general atmosphere, even though it was sleeting on them and everything’s outside,” said senior Hannah Brown, who studied abroad in France.
Christmas markets like the one in Strasbourg were originally a German tradition, though they are becoming popular in major cities around the world. Lecturing Fellow in French Germain Choffart grew up in Saint Avold in France’s Lorraine region. He remembers that in the mid- to late-1980s, when he was a kid, Christmas markets were only a tradition in German countries including Austria, Switzerland and Germany, as well as Germanic regions in France—Alsace, of which Strasbourg is the capital, and Lorraine.
Today, Christmas markets have spread around the world and become more commercialized. They can be found in Paris on the Champs-Elysées, southern France and even the United States. In Chicago, the 18th annual Christkindlmarket Chicago, a “traditional German-American holiday market,” will open Nov. 26.
Although the crafts sold in newer Christmas markets have become increasingly standardized, unique arts and crafts can still be found in Strasbourg and Metz, two of the biggest and oldest markets in France. There, shoppers can still find Christmas ornaments, nativity scenes, Russian dolls, scarves and hats made by people from Eastern European countries who come to sell their crafts, Choffart said.
“It’s a place where you can buy things... that you could[n't] find at a supermarket. It’s also a place for local artists to come and sell their paintings and… their ornaments and crystal figurines or clay things and puppets and all of these cool things. Only the biggest [markets] nowadays still have that,” he said.
Because Christmas is so commercialized in the United States, the street markets are one of the traditions that Choffart looks forward to when he returns to France for the holidays.
“Christmas feels more magical there,” he said. “It’s especially the social thing.... It’s a place where everyone is, so you’re bound to run into somebody you know…. Even when you’re in Strasbourg or in Metz or in a big Christmas market, you’re gonna run into someone you know at some point, because everyone is there.”
The food, shopping and convivial atmosphere of traditional Christmas markets is sure to put even the most Scrooge-like market-goers in the holiday spirit.
“It’s so appealing for the eyes, all these colors and crafts,” Choffart said. “It puts you in the mood for Christmas.”
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