Does anyone know why the Christmas market dates In Germany and Austria have shortened by one week? The past years I've gone, the markets always started around 11/25 and this year, almost all of the dates are 12/1 except for Salzburg.

I did a quick search and had trouble finding sites that listed 2006 dates.

I did find a few however:

The dates for the Munich Christmas markets won't be determined until fall 2006.

The Rothenburg Market will run from Dec 1-23, 2006.

The Augsburg Market will run from Nov 23 - Dec 24, 2006.

I couldn't find a date for the Nuremberg market or several others.

I was in Rothenburg for the 2003 markets and the opening date was Nov 29.

You may aleady know this, but smaller towns sometimes have markets only on the weekends, or only on a specific weekend.

Where specifically do you plan to go?

The reason is that the Christmas Markets open (by tradition) after a religious holiday called Totensonntag (the last Sunday before 1st Advent).

And this year all the holidays are quite late.

Mystery solved. Thanks Ingo.

Thanks everyone! I thought I read where Munich's opening was 12/1, but I hope you're right that they haven't decided it yet. We are scheduled to leave Munich on 12/1, so it would be a big disappointment to miss the mkts. We were planning on Munich, Rothenberg ob der Tauber,Baden Baden and Heidelberg.
Kimberly

I've been trying to decide whether and where to spend the Christmas holiday in Germany this year, and came across the website for the Rudesheim Christmas market. It will be held 11/27/06 - 12/23/06. http://www.weihnachtsmarkt-der-nationen.de/

Here's a great website for dates and links to the individual markets.

http://www.germany-christmas-market.org.uk/index1.htm

We planned our entire last vacation based on the listed Christkindlmarkt dates I found on the Internet. We flew to Munich on 22 December because the market ended the 23rd. It was great. Huge and packed with people. And we added Strasbourg, France to our itinerary because their website (http://www.strasbourg.fr/Strasbourgfr/GB/Tourisme/) said that there's ran until January 1. We enjoyed that one on 30 December. It was nice but not nearly as lively as the Munich version. The food was fantastic but it lacked the Christmas ornaments and hand-crafted gems that Munich had.

However, all the other information I could glean on the Internet made it seem like the rest of Germany and Austria ceased all Christmas Markets before Christmas. We were pleasently surprised to find that Salzburg's was still operating on 24 and 25 December (even though the city's official site said it ended on the 23rd), a tiny 3 stall market was open in Mondsee, Austria 26 December and Innsbruck's was still going strong on 27 December.

By 27 December Garmisch-Partenkirchen's was being disassembled, on 28 December Rothenburg was gone. Instead of a Christmas Market Trier had some sort of marathon on 31 December where many of what I assumed had been Christmas Market booths were then open just to sell food and libations (Gluhwein and hot chocolate).

The Christmas season (and Christmas spirit) continues past Christmas Day and New Years and doesn't end until Three Kings'Day on 6 January. Snow everywhere combines with the tasteful decorations of live greenery and white lights to make it seem like Christmas that entire period. No inflateable yard ornaments, no colored lights and no Bobbing-head reindeer.

Yes, some Christmas markets now run right up to New Year's Day.