German Christmas : five special attractions

Germany celebrate Christmas, in its unique way. From Christmas tree and cake to Christmas Eve celebration the country follow its special tradition. Here is the list of five such things, that rest of the world would like to know.

Stollen festival, Dresden(December 9th)
Dresden, the oldest Christmas market in Germany, also plays host to the annual ‘Stollenfest’. The fest is dedicated to Germany’s favourite fruitcake. The giant Stollen is not baked in one piece but instead is crafted from more than 200 individual Stollen trays by master bakers. The cakes are prepared according to the traditional Dresden recipe.
The festival began in 1994 and takes place on the Saturday before the second Sunday of Advent.

ChocolART chocolate festival, Tübingen(December 5th-10th)
It is Germany’s biggest chocolate festival. The festival has everything imaginable to do with chocolate, including chocolate art, chocolate theatre, and lots of tasting and chocolate-making workshops. With more than 100 exhibitors from Africa, North and South America and Europe, the festival has a large range of chocolate on offer.

Christmas Markets
According to the German Christmas Market website, there are 1,551 markets to choose from this year. That is wherever you go you can find at least one to shop. Anything and everything for Christmas is available at this market.

Christmas Garden Berlin(November 16th- January 7th)
Berlin’s Botanical Garden takes on a whole new quality this season with the Christmas Garden. The Garden’s two kilometre walk is decorated with lights 1,500,000 lights to be precise. The entire garden is in festive glory with special Christmas scenes. The walk has 30 individual installations, each themed related to Christmas. ‘Santa Clause’ restaurant, fire pits to warm up etc. are other attractions.

Krone Circus Munich (December 25th- January 31st)
Circus Krone is coming to their home turf this December, as they present their winter programme at the Krone building in Munich. Circus Krone was established in 1919 by Carl Krone. Krone who was a renowned lion tamer at the age of just 17, performed at Munich’s Oktoberfest in 1902 and developed a full circus show by 1905. They holds the title of Europe’s biggest circus.