Visit Christmas Strasbourg with TravelPapa Private Tour Guides!

And there’s no wonder – as this is the exact place, where one of the very first Christmas fairs was held in 1570! At first the event was intended for local craftsmen only, and then, step by step, various merchants, traders and other local producers started to join these festive fairs every year.
Nowadays, the Christmas market in Strasbourg is considered the most significant event of the whole city, as more than 300 different stores are joining the market to sell their holiday gifts, theme souvenirs, Christmas toys, local holiday dishes and traditional sweets. The whole city turns into one big festive fairy-tale with its special shows, free Christmas concerts, different performances, musicians, playing Christmas songs on the cozy streets of Strasbourg and a huge skating rink placed straight on the city’s square. And, of course, the main symbol of Christmas Strasbourg, which attracts hundreds of citizens and foreign visitors there every year – the Christmas tree of about 30 meters high, which needs two weeks to get decorated and which may be truly considered the proud Christmas sightseeing of the city.




So, if you are in Strasbourg this Christmas, you may probably wonder what are the main Christmas entertainments that you may find there? Here is the list of the things that certainly should be included in your “must-do” list:

• Buy some traditional wooden Christmas toys and hand-made tree decorations, made of colorful glass that were made in Strasbourg for the very first time in 1600 and since then are usually being sold on the local holiday markets. That would be a memorable souvenir from your trip or a nice little gift for your family and friends.
• Taste the delicious local cuisine and various traditional Christmas dishes, especially the hot wine with oranges and spices or vin chaud, as the local call it, the traditional Strasbourg pie, Flammkuchen or the “fire pie” (already got interested, aren’t you?) and the wonderful local sweets, like ginger cookies, called bredele, and männele, the sweet buns, cooked in the shape of little men.
• Visit the alternative fair, which combines the street-art exhibitions and the small market of the local designers and which will be held exclusively this year.
• Have a cozy Christmas dinner in Petite France – the most beautiful district of the city. Just choose the restaurant or café straight by the canal and enjoy your view!
• Visit Germany and then go back to France, as Strasbourg is situated straight on the border with Germany and is connected with the neighbor country with the special pedestrian bridge, so it is quite legal to explore the other bank of Rhine and then go back to your Christmas celebrations in Strasbourg.
• Taste the delicious local wines with the local private guide on the special “Wines of Alsace” private tour, held by one of TravelPapa’s private tour guides Pieter Smits, where you will have a possibility to follow the Alsace wine road, by visiting few local French wineries, tasting all official grape varieties and getting lots of interesting information and unforgettable impressions!