By Sam Reeves in Berlin
It has become an annual ritual. Just as the first snow begins falling at the end of November -- right as cities across Germany start decorating their Christmas trees in the middle of the town square -- hordes of tourists begin making their way toward the country.
It’s a different breed than the summer crowd, and there aren't quite as many of them. But they all come for a single reason, Germany's famed Christmas markets. Indeed, it was just such a tourist invasion in Cologne in the late 1990s that led Edith Lovegrove to spot a sure-fire business opportunity. Why not bring the markets to the tourists?
Before long, she had set up a stall in London's Covent Garden market, where she sold Glühwein, that Christmas market staple that is similar to mulled wine. Now, seven years on, the 59-year-old's family-run Christmas market empire has mushroomed from its humble beginnings. The company is running five fairs this year from London to Scotland selling everything from traditional Stollen cake to jewellery and children's toys.
"There were a lot of coaches going to Germany from England, taking people on short breaks to German Christmas markets," said Lovegrove. "When you live in Cologne, you can't really miss them. That made me think it would be much easier to take the German Christmas market to England and save them sitting in coaches for hours."
Lovegrove's business is adding on average one new market each year. "It's very positive," she said. "What I find the most positive is how the public reacts."
Cologne Goes to London
Born in Germany, but married to an Englishman, Lovegrove had the perfect background to act as a bridge between German traders looking for new markets and a United Kingdom in search of a continental Christmas. Soon her son, Marc, joined as company secretary, and now her daughter Alessa, her niece Emma and nephew Gilles have all thrown their weight behind the venture, called XmasMarkets. The company began making a profit in its third year and now generates tens of thousands of pounds each holiday season.
The latest project for Lovegrove and her clan is the premier of a Cologne Christmas market in London, where it is hoped the city's mayor will be guest of honor. The family are working with the regional tourism agency in the German city, which is sponsoring the event.
But the Lovegrove's business isn't the only one that has spread the German Christmas market outside the borders of Germany. There is, in fact, a burgeoning market for such fairs the world over. The clusters of treat-filled chalets have sprung up everywhere, from Chicago to Edinburgh, with chefs and artisans arriving from the Continent en masse in search of new customers.
The tradition of traders peddling traditional Christmas wares from tiny wooden huts erected in central squares dates back hundreds of years in Germany. The most famous include Nuremberg's Christmas market, which draws millions each year and dates back to the 16th century, and Dresden's Striezelmarkt, famous for its delicious, powdered sugar-coated Stollen fruit cakes. These days, the markets in Germany are a major draw, luring 160 million visitors from around the world to more than 2,500 Christmas markets.
In the United States, the largest German-style Christmas market is Chicago's Christkindlmarket, established in 1996 in a bid to stimulate German-American trade. On offer is a range of European wares in 50 stalls, which now draw close to a million visitors each year. The vast majority of the stall holders are German or of German descent -- and some have been so successful at the Chicago market that they have now decided to set up business there.
'Traditional and Authentic'
Market manager Maren Biester puts the event's popularity down to its central location in a large metropolis and a growing interest in all things German among the city’s residents. "It's in a downtown area of a very busy metropolitan city,” she said.
She added it wasn't just German-American trade that was benefiting. "It does give (visitors) a better understanding (of Germany), simply because there's history and tradition that go along with what happens in the holidays in Germany that is different from the United States," she said.
For the biggest Christmas market outside Germany or Austria, though, one has to go to Birmingham in England. The city, which is a sister city with Frankfurt, is dotted with wooden stands -- most of them straight from the city on the Rhine -- for several weeks each year. And it has been an enormous success: Last year, the Frankfurt City Christmas Market pulled in 2.2 million visitors and provided the local economy an estimated 168 million pound (€197 million) boost. Despite this year's economic downturn, organizers expect the number of people visiting the market to rise to 2.5 million this December.
Jim Kelly, from Birmingham City Council, who established the Christmas market eight years ago and still manages it, stressed the flight of traders from Frankfurt did not affect the Christmas market there. Most German market stalls are run by families and there are enough relatives left at home to deal with the domestic side, he explained.
The thinking behind the market was to make it as authentically German as possible, he went on. "Everything comes in from Germany. The key words here are traditional and authentic," Kelly said. "If it's not traditional and authentic, it doesn't come in."
And he believes the event plays a role, at least in a small way, in improving understanding between Brits and Germans. "It does help improve relations. The Germans always say that Birmingham is the friendliest city they come to," he said.
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