Lucy is holding the football again and this Charlie Brown is about to kick.

For the third year in a row I'm starting to work on a Christmas Markets trip with grandkids. Because son-in-law has work responsibilities until close to Christmas I'm looking at Alsace as the place to go because they seem to hold theirs open later into the month than others--beyond actual Christmas. Thinking to take up residence in a hotel in Strasbourg and do day trips by train to Nancy, Colmar, Mulhouse, Obernai, and possibly Egusheim, all of which either have posted late month dates in the past or are advertising them already. Information is, however, scarce and somewhat uneven so I'm wondering if any of you in that area or at least in Europe rather than US have better info than I've been able to find about actual dates. I'd also appreciate information on good websites with info on the markets. I've been on Brunnvalla and Christmasmarketsineurope.com as well as christmasmarketguides.com. Am I missing some better sites?

Are some towns holding off trying not to repeat the problems of needing to cancel as in previous years. When should I really expect good solid info about dates so I can maybe stop fretting and just wait 'til it's time to really and truly plan this year with some reasonable assurance that the football won't be gone again when I get there? Thanks for any help you can provide this Nervous Nelly/Charlie Brown.

Actually, Alsace closes their Christmas markets quite quickly after December 25th, unlike the rest of France. Or at least they did in the past.

We have had our 7th wave of covid in France already. You only need to worry if there will be an 8th or 9th wave in December, and nobody can predict that.

Thanks Kerouac.

From years past I am finding Colmar open through 29th, Nancy through Jan 3, Obernai through 31 Dec, Metz--if they open at all--through Dec. 30, Mulhouse through 27th, though Strasbourg closes on 23rd Dec.

But aren't the markets usually all planned and opening dates known by this time? Is it reasonable to assume that some/many are just not even planning them lest they run into a wave and have to cancel everything again? Or am I just being a Nervous Nellie and getting too far ahead of myself? Maybe they don't announce definite dates until closer to Christmas. I'm already finding flights from US to Paris filled for comfort seating at that time of the year.

Eguisheim close their festival on the 15th Dec https://www.visit.alsace/253000413-m...l-authentique/

But Colmar's festivals vary in different villages
pass your mouse over each square to see

https://www.noel-colmar.com/fr/

avoid the English websites as they don't maintain them as well as the French

I think you might look at the town's own tourism websites. Nancy and Metz are not in Alsace.

The Nancy website says, both in English and French, that they will be open until early January, they don't give a date but at least you know that probably means a few days into the month. Last year the third was a Monday after the NY holiday. This year the holiday is on Sunday so conceivably could be only Jan 2 if they close the Monday after NY's. That's what I would assume at this point.for planning.

Obernai is through 12/31/22.
https://www.tourisme-obernai.fr/Fr/V...l-Obernai.html

Mulhouse is through the 27th or the 23rd, I've seen both


this site seems to have pretty recent info and says Strasbourg is the 24th
https://www.noel.alsace/223012607-st...itale-de-noel/
https://www.tourisme-mulhouse.com/FR...-mulhouse.html

Thanks bilboburgler and Christina for the info. Wish I'd taken more French in high school. It would come in handy right about now.

Julie - I have nothing to add, but as someone who loves spending Christmas in Europe and has had to cancel holiday trips in 2020 and 2021, I sincerely hope you can pull it off this year. Ever the optimist, I've booked a trip to Germany, Austria and Italy for Christmas. Good luck to both of us

Language solutions for French:
1. Use Google Chrome. It will offer to translate web pages for you. The translations are usually a bit squiffy but as French > English is a common language pair that has had a lot of work done on improving translation tools it is about as good as it gets.
2. A Google Translate app for your phone. You can hover your phone over text and it will just translate it (again, not great, but to me this is pretty good magic).
3. www.systran.net has a page where you can paste the French into the left-hand box and in the right hand the English translation comes up. There are many language pairs but French > English is the best on this tool. As with all these things, caution as to what you paste in the box. These tools are designed to use every example of text to improve their translations and so your personal details, if that's what you paste in, will become part of their database. They offer this service for free so that if you are doing large quantities of translation, you might like to invest in their paid products. For you this free box should be fine.

I speak (poor) French in spite of having studied it at school and university but I have used these tools extensively for reading contracts, etc (helpful because my husband is just starting his French journey and if we both want to read something, this saves me working through text for him). You do sometimes get a word missed or mistranslated here or there but combined with what I know, I can usually work out what is meant.

Lavandula

Is there a wave in October ? How bad is it

a wave of what?

Hi Simply, welcome to Fodors. It is often easier to start your own thread than jump into other peoples and try to make you questions clear and in as international English as possible, have a great time here.

I always thought French was fairly easy to read being often similar word roots or even words themselves to English (and Spanish, of course), but I know French fairly well having studied it more than that. I belong to a French book club right now where we read an discuss in French. Anyway, the important things are dates which are fairly clear.

Also, you don't need a translator for those.
As a tip, most websites like that which are related to events/tourism have pages in various languages in a lot of European countries. All of those links posted by me and bllbo have an English page. You choose on an upper banner usually. Either a flag icon (like on the Colmar one) or all the ones I posted, you click on the language indicator and it gives you options, usually at least French, English and German. (for example at the top of the page FR is shown, click on that to see choices).

have a nice trip

Again, thanks for the help with this. Latest thinking has us in London and then Paris. Getting good info on closing dates still somewhat difficult but with all the search help provided, I should be able to make it through to some useful info. Thanks.

Just dropping in as we love the European Christmas Markets, in fact out first ever going back some 20 years ago were Strasbourg and Colmar. We just booked flights into Milan on Dec 26 and flying out Jan 7. Having been to so many markets ever since we now go to enjoy the over all buzz of the holiday season, the crisp, chillled weather, and the upbeat mood of all the folks, the beautiful buildings all dressed for Christmas. The markets themselves we spend very little time in, as the foods, spiced wines, crafts, etc are pretty much the same. And the crowds (I’m talking before Covid) we’re just not enjoyable. We kind of walk along the outsides of the market watching the fun and the crowds. So this year it’s 3 nights in Verona, 5 nights in Bolzano (this gem is supposed to be amazing amongst the backdrop of the Alps) and then 3 nights in Milan. All of the aforementioned Christmas Markets are open until Jan. 6 and I would expect significantly fewer crowds.

Actually, it is odd when I look at the link for Eguisheim that bilbo posted, at the top it says until 12/15, but then under that, it lists other events and has the same thing as until 12/30. And then if you open that, you are back to the page with 12/15 BUT if you look at the calendar, it has dates marked for it until 12/30, with a few days off around Christmas itself.

so who knows

It is really too early to worry about some of the precise dates. So many other factors can come into play before December, including the price of energy in Europe.

I was looking to stay in strasbourg but it seems out of my budget I was thinking of mulhouse or frieburg

Some of the markets have now shortened their dates to save energy. Metz was the latest city to make an announcement.

What are the dates of the Metz market?