Eat, Drink And Be Merry

Experience the vivid and authentic Austrian Yuletide cheer of Salzburg’s twinkling Christmas markets

- John Malathronas

Christmas feels different in Salzburg. At first glance it oozes Yuletide perfection: baroque buildings covered in snow, full of brightly coloured decorations and twinkling fairy lights. A quick stroll reveals its half-dozen Christmas markets spread around town. They’re the Real Thing — seeming to spring up organically from the local inhabitants’ natural exuberance at this time of year and positively brimming with authentic festive cheer.

“The first recorded Christmas market in the Old Town was in 1491,” says Michaela Muhr, whose Salzburg Experience offers a special Christmas tour. “As the salt mines couldn’t operate in winter, the miners became traders as a way of earning some money. They worked leather and wood.”

She points at a stall in the Mirabellplatz market by Salzburg’s Town Hall displaying wooden boards. “These were our plates,” she says. “We used to eat out of those.” And such plates, as well as hats, boots, toys, wine and foodstuffs were bought and sold roughly two weeks before and after St Nicholas’s Day on 6 December.

“We start ordering in January for next Christmas,” says Christina Renzl, whose Blumenschloessl stall with its 400-odd decorative ideas stands in the Christkindl market under the shadow of the city’s imposing cathedral. “There are many different parts to a product. This toy, for instance, consists of a ceramic angel, a glass case, a cinnamon stick and two different kinds of holly. In the summer we start assembling everything and paint most of our items by hand.”