The Christmas market in Alsace
Strasbourg has hosted its own since 1570, one of the oldest in Europe. Here is what to taste, and where to go.
20 products · 5 rendez-vous
It always begins the same way: a scent of gingerbread and mulled wine that drifts in ahead of the chalets, somewhere between two narrow streets. In Alsace, the Christmas market is no mere seasonal backdrop. In the Middle Ages, people gathered around 6 December for the Saint-Nicolas fair; the Reformation, which banned the veneration of saints, had it outlawed. In 1570 the market reappeared under different patronage and a different name — Christkindelsmärik, the market of the Christ Child. Four and a half centuries later, Place Broglie and Place Kléber set out the same chalets in the very same spots, and people still come here to eat on their feet.
What to eat on your feet
Nothing here is eaten sitting down. You hold your cup in one hand, your portion in the other, and move at the crowd's pace. This is street food: savoury, hot, held at chin height so as not to drop it. In the north, in Haguenau, dampfnudle is added to the offering — a steamed ball of yeast dough, a speciality of the Outre-Forêt that can be recognised from afar by its aroma.
Vin chaud d'Alsace
Bretzel alsacien
Flammekueche
Knack d'Alsace
Cervelas obernois
Dampfnudle
Choucroute d'Alsace
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Advent sweet treats
These are made only at this time of year, and visitors leave with bags of them. Each family keeps its own repertoire of bredele and its baking schedule; the biscuit makers, meanwhile, line theirs up by the tinful. This is the part of the market that travels best. The schneckekueche, for its part, has left the chalets: its origins are said to date back to these markets and patronal feasts — in Mulhouse, it once appeared for Saint-Nicolas — but today it is the afternoon coffee cake, picked up from the baker.
Bredele
Mannele
Le Stollen
Kougelhopf
Pain d'épices d'Alsace
Leckerlies d'Alsace
Linzertorte
Schneckekueche
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What to bring home for the table
At the end of the aisle, the market ceases to be a stroll. This is where you stock up for the festivities: what gets sliced, what gets cooked the following day, and what waits in the larder for the evening of the 24th.
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When the chalets close
They do not all close on the same evening: some pack up in mid-December, while others carry on until New Year's Eve. What you bring home from them, however, outlasts the market itself — a berawecka keeps for weeks, the bredele wait patiently in their biscuit tin, and there is always a little fir honey left at the bottom of a jar somewhere in the cupboard, long after the garlands have been packed away.