Wunderbar! Others copy German Christmas Markets, but Munich leaves imitators far behind

German Christmas markets are ubiquitous across England these days. It seems that every town has the same collection of wooden sheds, selling a suspiciously similar range of holiday products, with the same Glühwein stands and giant, wheel-shaped grills cooking bratwurst. Some towns … Birmingham is one excellent example … go the whole hog on their stage sets, with towering Christmas pyramids (Weihnachtspyramide), pop-up buildings shaped like Alpine chalets and market-specific collectors' mugs just like the ones on the continent.

So just how different would Christmas markets in Germany be? The 24th Annual Northwestern Girls’ Trip made it our mission to find out. (And to find the best wine bars in beer-sodden Munich.)

While the English take on the German tradition is authentic in many ways, it misses the local, small, community feel we encountered in Bavaria. While there were shops at every market, our Munich experiences seemed to be less about the shopping and much more about locals meeting up and hanging out over a drink. Music was a much bigger deal than at English offerings, and there was far more diversity across Munich’s different markets than anything I’d seen back home. Most of Munich's markets don't really hit their stride until after dark, and many don't even open until mid-afternoon. 

You’ll find abundant write-ups of Munich’s markets with a web search. Here’s mine to add to the well-deserved attention. If you want to do Christmas markets in Germany, it’s hard to imagine anyplace else with this much variety in a very compact area. We managed to time our visit with a blizzard that dumped 18 inches of snow on the city in less than 48 hours. All public transport other than the U-bahn (underground) shut down and walking quickly became perilous as snow turned to packed ice. We persevered and managed to fit all of this in with precarious slipping and sliding from Line 6 stations. Despite copious Glühwein, nobody fell over ... though there were some frantic near misses.

The Christkindlmarkt in Marienplatz square is the starting point for all tourists and, unsurprisingly, this is where you'll find the greatest array of Christmas ornaments. There's a magnificent range of glimmering blown glass options here, including those smaller gap-fillers it can often be hard to find. I was also delighted to find an enormous stand entirely dedicated to the straw ornaments so beloved of the Danes, but with more ornate designs than any I'd seen in Copenhagen. If you're looking for nativity sets, you'll find those clustered in the street leading off the square, opposite the clock tower. Tourists gather here to listen and watch the glockenspiel play at 11 am and noon; even better is if you get lucky enough to hear a live choir from the balcony of the town hall after dark.

There's plenty of food and drink at all of the markets, of course, but this one benefits from being next to the Ratskeller München, in the basement of the town hall, a wonderland of Bavarian decor and dirndl-wearing waitresses serving up traditional fare. If you need to sit down and get warm, have a meal here. The Hofbrau House, with similar decor but a more boisterous atmosphere and live traditional music, is a few blocks away. Note that in the latter you'll be expected to follow local norm and find a spot at communal tables. The appropriate etiquette is to say hello and goodbye, even if you don't speak or share a language. But you'll probably start chatting over your mugs.

If I were in town with children I'd make a beeline to the Christmas Village in the Kaiserhof of the Residenz (top photo), where the back quarter of this square inside the sprawling palace is dedicated to animated tableaux and photo ops. You haven't truly experienced Christmas until you've witnessed an audio-animatronic moose belting out a jaunty version of O, Tannenbaum to his friend the wild boar. This market also had the most diverse mix of shops, from clothes and artisan work to speciality food items. This is where we found our favourite lebkuchen stand (the ones filled with apricot jam are exquisite) and a wonderful range of kids slippers in Bavarian boiled wool, shaped into animals or jaunty elven looks. They had adult sizes, too, and it's only the fact that I have two perfectly good pairs of slippers at home that kept me from snapping up a fabulous version with long, upcurled toes like a medieval jester.

Speaking of the Middle Ages, just a few blocks over from the Residenz you'll find the Medieval
Christmas Market in Wittelsbacher Platz. Sadly, we hit this one between meals but I suspect it would have been my pick for best dining opportunities, with a broad range of sweet and savoury treats. The theming is fantastic, with plenty of people in costume and gothic-inspired market stalls that really do make it feel like you've tipped up in a 14th century town square. All of the shopping opportunities here fit into the theme: this is the place for you if you're looking for dragons, crystals, medieval cosplay clothing, repro weapons or anything in the goth world. The Medieval Market also has a more various array of entertainment on its stage, including period dancers and knights in shining armour, who start up earlier than many of the other markets. Another good one for kids.

If you'd rather be a dancing queen, head for the Pink Christmas Market, set up to celebrate Munich's LGBTQ community and now pretty much everyone's top "must visit" pick. This is less a market and more an outdoor disco with a Glühwein stand running down one entire side of the square. The rainbow glass mugs were the ones we chose to keep across all the markets. There are a handful of quirky shops (star sight: a collection of hunky mermen Christmas ornaments) but the focus of attention is the gloriously camp DJ in his central booth spinning a mix of club classics, German techno pop and dance versions of Christmas pop tunes. Serious fun beneath an aurora of pink light. 

And after you dance yourself to exhaustion there you can stumble into one of the numerous modern, ethnic restaurants nearby. We made a fortunate choice with Jack Glockenbach which, contrary to the expectations set by its name, serves up delicate and flavourful Vietnamese. 

If you want to go artsy and find some proper one-of-a-kind gifts, head to the Schwabing Christmas Market just above the Münchener Freiheit u-bahn station. There are jewellery stands galore. Wood turners. Fabric artists. Glass blowers. Painters. Potters. Plus an entertainment space next to an avenue of food and drink. We thought this was our best tasting Glühwein of the weekend, but that might have been because we were there at the height of the blizzard, when we were slowly being both chilled and soaked to the bone as steady, heavy flakes melted on impact. A fantastic blues band was also raising the temperature. Schwabing was probably the furthest away from my vision of a traditional market, yet the one with the crowd that seemed most resolutely local. 

And what about those wine bars? When you don't want your grapes mulled with spices, a local friend with fabulous taste recommended two:

Frank Weinbar is right outside of the Residenz Christmas market, has a deep list of local wines (and international), a cool vibe and a fantastic sense of humour. The wine-related sayings painted on their windows are worth walking by, even if you don't go in. (Hangovers are temporary, drunk stories are forever.) It's in places like this that you can discover that not only are German whites wildly under-rated, but they do some exceptional light reds. Try the Spatburgunder under the tutelage of the staff here. 

Or take advice from the team over at Weinhaus Neuner, over on the other side of the Marienplatz. The quality of the wine and the staff is the same, but the vibe is very different. They say they're the oldest wine bar in Munich and it certainly feels it, with architecture that makes it seem more like you're drinking in the crypt of a medieval church than a modern establishment. They also have a well-known restaurant and, had we been more organised, we would have booked. This is not a place you just pop into for a meal; they were reserved solid for weeks to come. And yet the wine bar was almost empty on a Saturday afternoon, a warm and quiet secret hidden from the crowds slipping across the pavements outside. 

This is just a short list of the markets on offer. I suspect you could spend weeks exploring. But if you're looking for a place that delivers a big holiday punch, with loads of variety, in an easy-to-cover area, Munich is for you.