As winter sets in, so does the holiday and celebratory mood in various European cities and towns. People light up their homes and decorate them with Christmas trees, faux presents, colourful tinsel balls, stars and garden gnomes. Public spaces are lit up and decorated, and Christmas markets start popping up.

All things Swiss

During my ongoing three-month trip to Europe as a digital nomad, the third week of November is when I started seeing the Christmas markets opening up in Switzerland. After coming across the ‘flying Santa’ videos online, we put Montreux on our list of Christmas markets to visit.

Almost every list of ‘Christmas markets to visit in Europe’ has this one. The Santa on his sleigh, of course, doesn’t really fly but hangs from a suspended cable. But at night, it sure does look like he is flying, much to the delight of the hundreds of kids and their parents in attendance.

Everyone at the Montreux Christmas market got ready and took the best spot they could grab much before 6pm

Everyone got ready and took the best spot they could grab much before 6pm, when Santa was scheduled to ‘fly’. The cable ran over the lake and most people lined up along the bank with their cameras ready.

And then he appeared, waving to excited screaming kids and Christmas tunes playing in the background. Midway through the journey, fireworks shot out of Santa’s sleigh, setting off more excited screams.

Buon Natale – the Italian style

Unlit Christmas tree before December 8 in front of Duono Milan

I visited Milan and Rome in early-December and found that public Christmas trees would be lit up, and markets would officially open on December 8 there, but the holiday mood had definitely set in. Public squares sported decorations and kiosks selling holiday treats and trinkets had sprouted everywhere.

Rome is now getting ready for the 2025 Jubilee. Taking place every 25 years since 1470, Catholics come to the city during this time to visit their holiest sites and ask for forgiveness for their sins. Most of Rome’s landmarks are therefore either under maintenance or construction now and behind scaffoldings.

‘We had a lot of fun walking around sipping on mulled wine (Vin Brulé in Italian), and munching on supli, essentially a fried rice ball’

Yet, we had a lot of fun walking around the city centre in the evening, sipping on mulled wine (Vin Brulé in Italian), and munching on supli, essentially a fried rice ball, a very popular Roman snack.

Back in Switzerland at the start of December’s second week, Christmas markets were now everywhere. In Lucerne, where I am based, there are two of them almost next to each other by the railway station, and a third one less than a kilometre away in the Alstadt, which is German for Old Town.

Rudolf’s Christmas market in Lucerne

Walk to Rudolf Christmas Market: ‘It was freezing but the atmosphere was celebratory and the experience was well worth our long walk’

It snowed heavily on our planned day of visit to the first Christmas market in Lucerne. With little experience of heavy snowfall, we still went out at the planned hour in the evening when the snowfall had decreased but the entire town was under almost a foot of snow. We realised that the snow had brought traffic to a standstill and we walked the three kilometres to the train station, next to which was our destination, named Rudolf’s Weihnachtsmarkt (Rudolf’s Christmas market). The walk was difficult because of the snow but we loved every bit of the winter wonderland around us.

The market constituted rows of wooden stalls selling all kinds of food, clothing, trinkets, food and wine. Wooden fires burnt at regular intervals for visitors to stand around and warm themselves. Bursts of fresh snow occasionally fell off the branches of trees.

It was freezing but the atmosphere was celebratory and the experience was well worth our long walk. We had assumed buses would start plying by the time we would want to head home. Unfortunately, the situation had hardly improved and we had to walk all the way back!

Among other things, we, of course, had delicious mulled wine (Glühwein in German).

Lucerne Old Market & world snacks

In mid-December, we visited another small market at the Luerne Alstadt (Old Town), which had several kiosks selling food of different countries. We tried the delicious ingera from Ethiopia, empanadas from Argentina and dolmas and baklavas from Turkey.

Off to Zurich

Around this time, we also visited Zurich one evening to check out the markets and holiday vibes. The first one right next to the train station was a regular one with the usual food and drinks.

A special feature of Swiss Christmas markets that I find are these cosy cabins with pretty decor for you to sit in. It doesn’t cost anything — if you find it empty, you go and sit. I’ve seen them both in Lucerne and Zurich and oh boy, are they lovely.

‘Singing’ Christmas Tree in Zurich

A short walk from the railway station and under ‘Lucy’ Christmas lights took us there and (right) we could hear the ‘tree’ before we saw it

Another market in Zurich I was interested in had something called the ‘Singing Christmas Tree,’ which is basically stage of singers on several levels decorated like a Christmas tree. A short walk from the railway station and under ‘Lucy’ Christmas lights took us there and we could hear the ‘tree’ before we saw it.

The ‘Lucy’ Christmas lights on Bahnhofstrasse (train station road) are switched on during late-night shopping to herald in the Advent season.

The Christmas nights get their name from the Beatles song ‘Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds’, says the Switzerland Tourism website. The ‘Lucy’ lights comprise some 11,150 glass crystals and 23,100 LED lights, illuminating the entire length of the 1,050-metre stretch from Bahnhofplatz to Bürkliplatz.

On the day I visited, a group of elderly singers entertained us with their singing from the Singing Christmas Tree.

Xmas market in Vienna

Ice Stock Sport in Vienna and (right) local people throng Vienna market

We came to spend Christmas in Vienna. Our train ride to the city passed through Innsbruck. Zurich to Innsbruck is considered one of Europe’s best train rides and the train passed through snowy mountains with the tracks hardly visible.

On my first evening in Vienna, I visited a Christmas Market frequented more by local people than tourists. After getting to know about it from my AirBnb host, I found this one on the campus of the University of Vienna.

You understand that this is a place frequented by more locals than tourists because there were people with kids in prams and toy train rides for kids. I didn’t see these in the markets I visited later in Vienna in the more touristy places.

A new thing I witnessed here was Eisstockschießen, of Ice Stock Sport, where members of two teams slide heavy flats disks with a handle so that it stops at a particular place. It has similarities to bowling.

Mulled wine being served in cups in the shape of red little boots

I loved how mulled wine was being served in cups in the shape of red little boots. They serve the drinks in the cups and return a deposit if you decide to return the cups. We decided to keep the cups as souvenirs.

In the following days, we also visited a couple of other Christmas markets in more touristy areas. A very common snack in Christmas markets around Europe is the roasted maroni, or sweet chestnut.