Christmas Markets in Europe are special

As winter sets in, so does the holiday and celebratory mood in various European cities and towns. People light up their homes and decorate them with Christmas trees, faux presents, colourful balls, stars, and garden gnomes. Public spaces are lit up and decorated, and Christmas markets start popping up.

The third week of November is when the Christmas markets in Switzerland start opening. After coming across the “flying Santa” videos online during my Europe visit in the winter of 2025, visiting Montreux for its Christmas markets seemed like a good idea.

Almost every list of “Christmas markets to visit in Europe” has this one. The Santa on his sleigh, of course, doesn’t really fly but hangs from a cable. But at night, it sure does look like he is flying, much to the delight of the hundreds of kids and their parents in attendance.

Get ready and take the best spot before Santa is scheduled to fly! The cable runs over the lake, and people line the bank with their cameras ready.

And then he appears, waving to excited, screaming kids and Christmas tunes playing in the background. Midway through the journey, fireworks shoot out of Santa’s sleigh, setting off more excited screams.

The hype is worth it.

I visited Milan and Rome at the beginning of December and found that public Christmas trees would be lit up, and markets would officially open on the second Sunday there, but the holiday mood had definitely set in. Public squares sported decorations and kiosks selling holiday treats and trinkets had sprouted everywhere.

Rome was a lot of fun walking around the city center with friends in the evening, sipping on mulled wine (Vin Brulé in Italian), and munching on supli, essentially a fried rice ball, a very popular Roman snack.

Back in Switzerland at the start of December’s second week, Christmas markets were now everywhere. In Lucerne, there were two of them almost next to each other by the railway station, and a third one less than a kilometre away in the Alstadt, which is German for Old Town.

It snowed heavily on my planned day of visit to the first Christmas market in Lucerne. By the evening, the intensity of snowfall had decreased but the entire town was under almost a foot of snow. But no matter, I walked the three kilometres to the train station, next to which was my destination, named Rudolfs Weihnachtsmarkt (Rudolf’s Christmas market). The walk was difficult because of the snow, but I loved every bit of the winter wonderland around.

The market constituted rows of wooden stalls selling all kinds of food, clothing, trinkets, food and wine. Wooden fires burnt at regular intervals for visitors to stand around and warm themselves. Bursts of fresh snow occasionally fell off the branches of trees.

It was freezing but the atmosphere was celebratory and the experience was well worth the long walk.

Among other things, I of course had delicious mulled wine (Glühwein in German).

In mid-December, I went to another small market at the Lucerne Alstadt (Old Town), which had several kiosks selling foods of different countries. I tried the delicious ingera from Ethiopia, empanadas from Argentina and dolmas and baklavas from Turkey.

Around this time, I hopped over to Zurich one evening to check out the markets and holiday vibe. The first one right next to the train station was a regular one with the usual food and drinks.

A special feature of Swiss Christmas markets that I find are these cozy cabins with pretty decor for you to sit in. It doesn’t cost anything — if you find it empty, you go and sit. I’ve seen them both in Lucerne and Zurich and they are lovely.

Another market in Zurich I was interested in had something called the ‘Singing Christmas Tree,’ which is basically stage of singers on several levels decorated like a Christmas tree. A short walk from the railway station and under “Lucy” Christmas lights took us there and we could hear the “tree” before we saw it.

The “Lucy” Christmas lights on Bahnhofstrasse (Train station road) are switched on during late-night shopping to herald in the Advent season.

The Christmas lights get their name from the Beatles song “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”, says the Switzerland Tourism website. The “Lucy” lights comprise some 11,150 glass crystals and 23,100 LED lights, illuminating the entire length of the 1,050-metre stretch from Bahnhofplatz to Bürkliplatz.

On the day I visited, a group of elderly singers entertained us with their singing from the Singing Christmas Tree.

I spent my Christmas in Vienna. The train ride from Zurich passed through Innsbruck. This Zurich to Innsbruck route is considered one of Europe’s most beautiful train rides and we passed through snowy mountains with the tracks hardly visible.

On my first evening in Vienna, I visited a Christmas Market frequented more by local people than tourists. After getting to know about it from my AirBnb host, I found this one on the campus of the University of Vienna.

You understand that this is a place frequented by more locals than tourists because there were people with kids in prams and toy train rides for kids. I didn’t see these in the markets I visited later in Vienna in the more touristy places.

A new thing I witnessed here was Eisstockschießen, or Ice Stock Sport, where members of two teams slide heavy flat disks with a handle so that it stops at a particular place. It has similarities to bowling.

I loved how mulled wine was being served in cups in the shape of red little boots. They serve the drinks in the cups and return a deposit if you decide to return the cups.

In the following days, I went to a couple of other Christmas markets in more touristy areas. A very common snack in Christmas markets around Europe is the roasted maroni, or sweet chestnut.

I landed in Ljubljana on December 26 and saw the end of the Christmas market in front of the city’s famous pink church. The atmosphere somehow reminded me of Durga Puja Ekadoshi in West Bengal.

(All pictures by author)