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DISCOVER GERMANY

8 unmissable events in Germany this December

From the world's biggest advent calendar to a parade of monsters - here are Germany's must-visit events for December 2022.

Published: 29 November 2022 09:22 CET
Updated: 3 December 2022 08:42 CET
All the windows on the Advent calendar at Gengenbach town hall are illuminated on the evening of December 23rd, 2016.
All the windows on the Advent calendar at Gengenbach town hall are illuminated on the evening of December 23rd, 2016. Photo: picture alliance / Patrick Seeger/dpa | Patrick Seeger

1. ChocolART Festival, Tübingen, November 29th to December 4th

If you have a sweet tooth, then you don’t want to miss Germany’s largest chocolate festival in Tübingen, southwest Germany.

The open-air market in the Old Town offers chocolate delicacies from around the world as more than 100 top international chocolatiers and manufacturers from Africa, South and North America and Europe present their wares.

Shoes made of chocolate at one of the numerous stands at the chocolate market “chocolART” in Tübingen. Photo: picture alliance / Christoph Schmidt/dpa | Christoph Schmidt

Chocolate lovers can take part in chocolate tastings, creative praline courses, artistic cocoa paintings, chocolate-making classes, chocolate massages and chocolate art exhibitions.

Entry is free, meaning you can spend more money on the tasty delights on offer.

2. Cologne Christmas Circus – December 2nd to January 8th

The Cologne Christmas Circus is returning to its magnificently decorated palace tent at the Messekreiselfor in Köln for its seventh year this December.

More than 40 artists from all over the world will put on a dazzling show of daring feats, acrobatics, ballet and classical circus acts in a two-and-a-half-hour show for the whole family. 

Similarly, the Roncalli Christmas Circus will return to Berlin’s Tempodrom this year, from December 17th to January 2nd.

3. Dresdner Stollenfest – December 3rd

Veronika Weber, the 25th Dresden Stollen Girl, and the bakers of the Schutzgemeinschaft Dresdner Stollen present the first piece of the giant Stollen at the Striezelmarkt for the 26th Dresden Stollen Festival in 2019. Photo: picture alliance/dpa/dpa-Zentralbild | Sebastian Kahnert

The people of Dresden take things pretty seriously when it comes to Stollen – a German fruit bread coated in sugar and traditionally eaten at Christmas. So much so, every year, the city celebrates Stollenfest on the second Saturday of Advent.

READ ALSO: German Advent word of the day: Der Stollen

A special attraction this year will be the show bakery at the Striezelmarkt, where Dresden Christmas Stollen will be baked live in front of an audience. There will also be the traditional parade, led by the Dresden Stollen Girl as the representative of the Dresden Christstollen brand and patron of the festival. Sadly, there will be no giant Stollen featuring in the parade this year, but instead, 588 copies of a special edition one-kilo Stollen will be auctioned.

4. Gengenbach Rathaus Adventkalendar – Novmber 30th to December 23rd

With its 24 windows, the Rathaus (town hall) in the town of Gengenbach, Baden Wurttemberg is transformed into the world’s largest advent calendar. 

READ ALSO: How do Germans celebrate Christmas? 

Up to 120,000 visitors descend on the town every year to watch the ritual of the window opening – as each evening a new artwork is unveiled in one of the backlit windows. The unique spectacle is accompanied by music and games, and visitors can also take a stroll through the Advent market and to the Museum Haus Löwenberg, where exhibitions are presented to match the artworks in the Advent calendar.

5. Krampuslauf, Munich – December 11th

If you want to see a centuries-old German tradition in action, then make sure you go to the Krampus run in Munich on December 11th.

A Krampus holds a woman during the traditional Krampus run at the Christkindlmarkt in Munich in 2016. Photo: picture alliance / Andreas Gebert/dpa | Andreas Gebert

Niklaus – the feast of St. Nicholas, is celebrated all over Germany on December 6th, but in many regions in the south of the country, the evil Krampus figure comes out to punish naughty children the evening before. 

Many towns and cities have a Krampuslauf – a Krampus run – in which performers dressed in scary costumes with carved wooden masks, huge horns and long hair parade through the streets. 

The most famous of these takes place in the Munich Christmas Market in Marienplatz and, this year will take place from 3 pm to 5 pm on December 11th. The Krampus and his entourage might look scary, but the parade is actually a lot of fun.

6. Christmas Markets

No list of things to do in December in Germany would be complete without a mention of Christmas markets – and this year, there are around 3000 taking place up and down the country, from late November to the end of December. 

Some highlights include the Aachen Christmas market – where the air is filled with the scent of mulled wine and Aachener Printen – a special type of gingerbread. For the four weeks before Christmas, the squares and lanes around Aachen Cathedral and the town hall are transformed into a Christmas village.

The Christmas Market in Mainz, Rhineland-Palatinate, is another highlight. Set against the historic backdrop of the 1000-year-old St. Martin’s Cathedral, the Mainz Christmas Market has been shining with festively decorated stalls for over 200 years. The colourful Renaissance facades of the historic market houses are particularly beautiful to see at this time of year. 

People crowd around the Christmas market in Mainz. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Hannes Albert

You can read about more of our top Christmas market picks for 2022 here:

7. Christmas Carol Concerts

Nothing can get you in the mood for Christmas quite like a Christmas Carol concert and there are plenty to choose from up and down the country. 

On December 18th, the Düsseldorf Police Choir puts on a mix of traditional, classical and modern Christmas music in its traditional Christmas concert at the Tonhalle in Düsseldorf. 

READ ALSO:  Five Christmas songs to improve your German language skills

On December 22nd, the Berlin Rundfunk Choir will put on a special programme of Christmas choral works from Ukraine in the Berlin Cathedral. 

On December 24th – Heiligabend – the Cologne Cathedral Choir, the Girls’ Choir at Cologne Cathedral and the brass section of the Cologne Cathedral Orchestra will out on an atmospheric and contemplative musical programme for the whole family.

8. New Year’s Eve parties, December 31st

After two years of Covid, New Year’s Eve in Germany is set to be back with a bang this December – especially as the ban on fireworks will be lifted. 

However, the New Year’s Eve party at Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate will take place without fireworks this year – instead, there will be light projections made with the help of the producers of the “Festival of Lights”.

New Year’s Eve Fireworks in Marienplatz, Munich, 2018. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Matthias Balk

The number of visitors has also been limited, and only around 2,400 people will be able to attend with a pre-booked ticket. These will gon on sale on December 1st.

READ ALSO: Will Berlin bring back fireworks after two years of New Year’s Eve bans?

Fireworks are set to make a return at the public celebrations in Munich this year and can be seen from Olympiaberg, Friedensengel and Marienplatz. The Tollwood New Year’s Eve party, which starts at 7 pm, has live music performances.

Public fireworks displays will also be in Stuttgart and on the Islands of Usedom and Rügen this year.

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CULTURE

Seven unmissable events happening around Germany in May 2024

The weather is heating up and it feels like summer is just around the corner. Here are some events you can check out around Germany in May.

Published: 29 April 2024 16:46 CEST
Updated: 4 May 2024 08:19 CEST
Seven unmissable events happening around Germany in May 2024

There are interesting happenings to be found in Germany all year around, but for most of us living in the Bundesrepublik, there is something magical about the late spring season. 

With April’s last cold snap now firmly in the rearview, Germany seems to come alive again as the weather heats up and the trees fill out with fresh green foliage. With folk festivals on, beer gardens and restaurant patios opening up, and local parks filling up with picnickers and day-drinkers, it feels as if the whole country is emerging from hibernation. 

Here are a few events from around the country to keep you entertained this May.

Starting off with dancing into May and Germany’s Labour Day

To properly start off the month of May, many Germans start dancing in April.

Tanz in den Mai, or to ‘dance into May’, is a German tradition that is celebrated at folk festivals and dance parties around the country. Many of these events start on the evening on April 30th and last until the early hours of May 1st so that attendees can quite literally dance into the beginning of the month.

April 30th also happens to be Walpurgisnacht, which historically was a night for scaring away the witches, but in modern times is more often a night for dancing around open fires and related festivities.

May 1st, which falls on a Wednesday this year, is Labour Day in Germany – a national holiday. The German Trade Union Confederation (DGB) will be hosting a rally in Hanover, and Berlin’s annual Revolutionary May Day demo will be taking place in Neukölln and Kreuzberg.

READ ALSO: ‘Tag der Arbeit’: What to do on May 1st in Germany

For those who would rather party than rally on the holiday, there will be abundant opportunities for daytime dancing and drinking to be found.

May 1st to 5th – Baumblütenfest Werder

The 145th Tree Blossom Festival in Werder, on the Havel River about an hour outside of Berlin, is a celebration of the blossoming fruit trees and includes a carnival for five days at the start of May.

The focus for most visitors is on trying a number of locally produced fruit wines, and taking in the views of blossoms by the riverside.

Tours of blossoming trees in Werder’s courtyards and gardens begin at the end of April, and then the city’s carnival opens on May 1st. From May 3rd the carnival is expanded into a folk fest including larger live music stages and a large market.

The festival’s grand finale takes place on May 4th with a parade through the city centre, from 11am, led by the Tree Blossom Queen, and a fireworks display planned for the evening.

fireworks over the Rhine

The “Rhine in Flames” fireworks spectacle takes place along the most beautiful stretches of the Rhine every year from May to September. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Andreas Arnold

May 4th – Rhine in Flames in Bonn

The Rhine River Valley is commonly listed among Germany’s most scenic locations. 

Rhine in Flames, or Rhein in Flammen, offers visitors a chance to see the World Heritage Site of the Upper Middle Rhine Valley under the red glare of a magnificent fireworks display.

The entire Rhine in Flames event actually takes place over five nights, each at a different city on the Rhine River, with the dates spanning from early spring to autumn. But this year’s event will kick off on May 4th with a fireworks display that will be visible from the shores of the river between Bonn and the neighbouring town of Linz.

More information can be found at the event’s website.

May 9th – 12th – Hafengeburtstagsfest in Hamburg 

Hamburg’s Port Anniversary fest amounts to a colourful celebration by the water, complete with a beautiful firework display.

The best views of the Port of Hamburg and the Hafengeburtstagsfest are found along the Jan-Fedder-Promenade. Here stalls are set-up along the harbour mile, selling foods and local delicacies.

From the Landungsbrücken, you can watch the event’s top attractions including Friday evening’s ‘Elbe in Concert’ with a fireworks show and Saturday’s ‘magical light illumination’ presented by AIDA cruises.

There are also water parades, including the world’s only tugboat ballet, where guests can witness a pirouette performed at 3000 horsepower.

May 12th – 19th: International Dixieland Festival

Jazz fans might be surprised to learn that Dresden’s International Dixieland Festival is Europe’s oldest festival for old-timey jazz music.

This year’s lineup is full of both German and international (mostly European) bands and soloists, including: the Brass Band Rakovnik from the Czech Republic, the Louis Armstrong Celebration Band from the Netherlands, and Mama Shakers from France, among many others.

The Dixieland Fest website does note that the event overlaps with several other large events in Dresden, so affordable accommodation may become scarce. 

Festival attendees are advised to make bookings early, and to look at accommodation options around the city along major S-bahn lines. (Which is actually a good tip for travelling in Germany in the summer in general.)

Visitors hold up their beer mugs at one of Germany’s many beer festivals. Photo: Christof STACHE/AFP

May 16th – 27th: Erlangen’s ‘Der Berg’ Fest

If you’re already dreaming of Oktoberfest, May has a number of spring beer fests in villages across Germany, and especially in Bavaria.

One such fest is Erlangen’s Der Berg (The Mountain), so named because it takes place on the town’s tallest hill.

Erlangen is a small town in central Germany near Nuremberg. It happens to be the German village that is furthest from the sea, but that doesn’t stop Der Berg from having some fried fish sandwiches on offer.

READ ALSO: Five reasons foreigners should move to Nuremberg

Der Berg is certainly significantly smaller than Munich’s world renowned Oktoberfest, but it offers similar attractions – including carnival rides, jubilant sings and dancing, and of course local beers served up in a big litre Maßkrug.

May 29th-June 6th: Würzburger Weindorf

For all the aspiring sommeliers and oenophiles, Würzburg’s annual ‘Wine Village’ offers a pleasant way to end the fifth month in 2024 – or to drink your way into June.

It may be little known beyond Germany, but Würzburg is proud of its centuries-old winemaking tradition, which dates back to the Middle Ages. If that’s news to you, then the Würzburger Weindorf is among the best events for an introduction to Franconian viticulture.

Here you can try wine varietals that you may not have heard of before, such as the Müller-Thurgau or the sparkling Scheurebe, and you can pair your tastings with hearty Franconian faire, like Würzburg bratwurst or local dumplings.

This year the festival kicks off on Wednesday May 29th at 5pm, and then is open daily from 11am to 11:30pm.

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