Seven countries, one winner: The best Christmas market in Europe

After years of sweating through summer festivities in Australia, one family swapped sunscreen for snow – and found festive bliss in an unexpected European capital.

Timber chalets were festooned with twinkling lights, a merry-go-round twirled gracefully and the smoky scent of grilling sausages drew us deeper into the town square. It was Christmas market season and our family of four was ready to indulge.

Every year, we celebrate Christmas in blazing heat, downing roast dinners and plum pudding with slicked brows and sticky backs. With the festive season squarely in the middle of the Australian summer, we have little choice. While the thought of such warmth might appeal to some, we had long hankered for a wintery Christmas. With our eldest offspring now officially an adult, it was now or never. We packed our winter woolies and boarded the long flight from Melbourne to London.

The plan: a train journey through seven countries and eight cities, with time to enjoy every Christmas market along the way.

Finding the feuerzangenbowle

To travel is to eat. It’s a motto our family lives by, and one that often dictates where we go. Christmas presented a particularly tasty opportunity. We wrote down lists of regional dishes we wanted to try in each city and never tired of tracking them down.

Each market dished out delicious seasonal snacks. We munched our way through kartoffelpuffer (potato pancakes) in Mainz, devoured klobása (Czech sausage) with mustard and bread in Prague and loved langos (deep fried flatbread) in Budapest. Our kids could not get enough chocolate-covered fruit sticks. It was not the time to count calories.

Of course, all that delicious food needed washing down, and mulled wine was the obvious choice. We discovered endless variations – cherry, apple and blueberry – but it was a version from Nuremberg that stole our hearts: the feuerzangenbowle.

Feuerzangenbowle is steeped in history – and rum. Burning blocks of sugar laced with the spirit sat above a 9,000-litre punch bowl, slowly dripping sweet, toasty goodness into the wine. It seemed socially acceptable to imbibe at any time of day, and we dutifully complied, finding frequent excuses to stop at the riverside stall for our fix.

Beyond filling our bellies, we delighted in sights and sounds unlike anything back home. Carol singers drew us towards the 1,000-year-old cathedral in Mainz, where we discovered a nativity scene of hand-carved, life-sized figures. While too old to join in the fun, we still appreciated the tinkling tunes from ornate rides each time we passed the dedicated children’s market in Nuremberg.

Beautiful crafts abounded in Budapest and Bratislava, and we wished for more luggage space to carry home the delicate watercolours, jewellery and ceramics proudly displayed by artists. Some concessions were made, however, and we steadily built a collection of Christmas decorations, adding one in each city that will forever serve as a reminder of our adventure when affixed to our tree back home.

As magical as the markets were, some were more mobbed than merry, and the old adage "there's no rose without a thorn" came to mind on more than one occasion.

Swamped by the masses

In London, we abandoned plans to have dinner at festive markets in Leicester Square and Covent Garden. People were cheek by jowl, with entrances blocked by the seething throng. We had survived being part of the biggest Eras tour crowd when Taylor Swift performed at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, yet it did nothing to prepare us for London Christmas markets on a Saturday night. Jet lag did little to aid our patience, and we quickly retreated to quieter streets.

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It was a similar story in Prague, where all manner of humanity was gathered in the Old Town Square. The double whammy of the astronomical clock and huge Christmas market was too much to bear. The crush of people left us feeling claustrophobic and we escaped towards slightly less chaotic stalls near Charles Bridge.

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We soon learned to arrive early, knowing how busy markets would get as the night wore on. Realistically though, who wants to eat dinner at 17:00 while holidaying in Europe? Not us. We'd divide and conquer – splitting into two groups to collect different dishes from busy stalls. Once reunited, we often struggled to find a table, spending many meals balancing plates and cups on top of bins or standing in corners to avoid the hordes.

Tired of contending with crowds, we longed to find markets where everyone else wasn't.

Europe's overlooked – and standout – Christmas city

We were drawn by the unknown (and the intrigue of a Riesling-laced pork pie) when we added Luxembourg City to our itinerary a few months before departure. It turned out to be a smart move. At a time when overtourism plagues much of Europe, this little gem tucked between France, Belgium and Germany felt like a secret hiding in plain sight.

Sabino Parente/ Luxembourg City Tourist Office

Stepping out of the central railway station, we instantly noticed a slower pace and absence of crowds. Our room at the City Hotel, just metres from the station, felt palatial compared to the accommodations we had just left.

The tiny, Unesco-listed capital revealed itself as we explored on foot. Riding the free 71m-high panoramic lift was the perfect way to move between its two levels, and our jaws dropped as we took in views of deep valleys, steep cliffs and rippling rivers. Once darkness descended, we headed off to explore the Winterlights festival – a city-wide winter wonderland that was everything we hoped to find in Europe at Christmas.

The streets were decked out in lights. Trees dancing with fairy lights guided us from our hotel on Avenue de la Liberté and carried us along the main thoroughfare. We moved from one lit-up sculptural work to the next until we reached the closest market. Here we found delightfully decorated timbered stalls: snowmen carved from local trees adorned with hand-knitted beanies and scarves sat on counters, and giant giftboxes swung from eaves. Sellers smiled and beckoned us forward, keen to share their wares and chat about how far we had travelled. We took photos in Santa's sleigh, bobbed our heads in time with a mechanical, red-nosed Rudolph and craned our necks to take in the endless lights strung above.

We whizzed between Winterlights' five market locations on the free tram network. Queues were short or non-existent, and we easily gathered goodies to graze on. There were plenty of places to perch with local specialties, and while still mindful of our belongings, we didn't experience the same edge of caution we'd felt elsewhere. The true joy though? Getting to experience it all without elbowing our way through crowds.

We admired the city's giant Christmas tree as we savoured plates of kniddelen (Luxembourgish dumplings with bacon and cream) that were more indulgent than any mac and cheese; and devoured gromperekichelcher (a traditional Luxembourgish Christmas dish of potato cakes served with applesauce). Crémant de Luxembourg (local sparkling wine) was the perfect accompaniment to upbeat music and happy squeals of children on a chair swing. We roasted huge marshmallows over open fires and chatted with stall holders.

As we wandered the markets, we happily snapped shots, realising we had done so without a single stranger in the frame. It was easy.

And for the first time all trip, we were truly relaxed.

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