Christmas market Grinch
Happy St. Nicholas Day! If you can’t get yourself a dough man, I hope you treat yourself to some chocolate, oranges, or maybe an adult beverage.
In 1999, I spent my first Christmas since infancy in Switzerland. My mom, brother, and I left my dad in Houston, spent the holiday with my grandmother, and flew back on New Year’s Eve, really playing it fast and loose with all those Y2K threats.
That trip introduced me to a few Christmas and winter firsts: first lit candles on a Christmas tree, first Christmas Eve gift opening, first falling face-first off a sled, and, relevant for today, first Christmas market.
The Basel Christmas market opens on the last Thursday in November each year. It started in 1978, when it took place in Claraplatz, across the river in Kleinbasel. That first one was privately organized; the following year, the city began organizing the market and moved it across the river to Barfüsserplatz, which is where it was when I visited that first time. This is what it looked like then.
The only memory that lived beyond this picture is what I bought: a five-inch tall, purple and navy candle with gold strands painted onto it. That candle met its end in Houston, when I forgot that I’d started burning it and either came home or woke up to a purplish puddle of wax spread across my night stand. Thankfully it was just the candle that ended that night.
After expanding to Theaterplatz in 2007-2010, the Basel Christmas market seems to have settled on three main locations: Barfüsser, Münsterplatz by the cathedral, and a third, food-focused market across the river. What started with 35 stalls in 1978 has grown to roughly 181, and there’s now a 13-meter tall “Christmas pyramid” at Barfüsserplatz. I thought this was just a funny name, but now I realize that’s what these wooden Christmas decorations are called (might have to do a deep dive on those later). All these efforts led to the Basel market winning “Best Christmas Market” of Europe in 2021 by European Best Destinations, a site that could be clearer about its methodology.
I made it back to the Basel Christmas market in 2014, when Gabe and I had our first Swissmass. We ate chestnuts and sausages and drank mulled wine. We also took the train up to Strasbourg, which bills itself as the capital of Christmas, where I returned this Tuesday to meet a friend. Last year, we went to Colmar, another Alsacian market. Colmar is a pretty town, as friends repeatedly told us, but it’s less enchanting when you’re shuffling through the cold with half of humanity.
Because I’m a Grinch, that’s unfortunately my Christmas market take: overcrowded, overpriced, all kind of the same, and cold. I’m not that into the hot wine (vin chaud in France, Gluhwein in German). It seems impossible to stay warm – the hot wine probably helps, but it won’t return heat to my toes. The Basel Münster will close over the weekend because too many visitors disregard the rules and have even verbally and physically abused the staff.
Nothing says holiday cheer like being rude to workers!
And yet, if we’ve got visitors, or someone wants to meet in Strasbourg (or other semi-close spots), I’ll go to a Christmas market. I like the lights — I love seeing the stalls and the pyramid at Barfüsserplatz from the tram. I like how Strasbourg aggressively incorporates teddy bears into their decorations. I like how focused people become on getting winter sangria in mugs.
Underneath the Grinchiness, I might be harboring some kind of love, because I was the one to suggest an after work Weihnachtsmärt visit to my colleagues.
Sources
Basler Münster schliesst wegen aggressiver Touristen am Wochenende
Der Basler Weihnachtsmarkt – eine 40-jährige Tradition
The Christmas Season in Basel
Love this, as usual. In 1991 I was on a project in France that involved visiting pan-Euro institutions ... so we were treated to Weinachmarkt in Luxembourg (very amazing but maybe b/c it was my first - it set the bar realllly high); Brussels, I think, and Strasbourg? I just remember the vin chaud and the iced gingerbread St. Nick cookies made to become Xmas tree ornaments, which is really just a desecration of the idea of a cookie. SO many of them - I wondered how can these possibly all get purchased? Maybe there's an underground aftermarket for St. Nick's cookies and they end up in the Vermont Country Store catalogue for xmas?