Saarbrücken Christkindl-Markt

Christmas Market Season!

I love them SO much.  I decided to meet up with some spouses from Trek's squadron here & carpooled down to Saarbrücken to the Christmas market down there while the kids were in school.  I try to hit as many as I can before they end on Christmas Eve.

The Saarbrücken market was fun.  It's not quite as big as Trier was, but it's adorable & we had a great time.  I usually visit the markets at night because I'm a sucker for twinkle lights, but it was a lot of fun to be able to walk around without a TON of people there.  It made it more personal & we got to see more than we usually would.  It was really nice.

My tradition is to collect a mug from every Christmas market I visit.  Each village/city had a special mug made just for that village with the village name & year on it.  Most people get a mug of gluhwein (heated mulled wine), but since I don't drink alcohol I can have Kinderpunsch (non-alcoholic hot grape juice) or hot cocoa.  I love both so I usually alternate between the two.  I'm completely in love with the Saarbrücken boot mug I got.

Germany & twinkle lights.  I'm a HUGE fan.  I don't know how they do it, but there are SO many lights here that you literally feel like you're in a fairy land.  Even in the middle of the day they had stars & twinkle lights above you everywhere you went.  It's seriously the most magical thing ever.

And I do love that the German Christmas Markets are centered around our Savior Jesus Christ.  We love to find any reference to him & his birth that we can.  The nativities here are beautiful.

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One unique thing about the Saarbrücken Christkindl-markt is that Santa flies here.  He flies overhead & then visits with the children.  Santa isn't at very many of these so it's kind of neat when you can find him at one.

I love all the little "houses"/ "stalls" they set up to sell different things at the Christmas markets.  They are HUGE & small & decorated & amazing.

I got some more potato pancakes at this market.  You just can't get enough.  It's the only time of year you can eat them so you have to fill up!

Another thing I love about Saarbrücken is that they have the Northern Germany traffic lights.  We live in Southern Germany & all the other lights down here are just typical red & green lights, but when you go up to Northern Germany you get the little guys with their arms stretched out . . . 

And the little guys walking with hats on.  This is the first time I've seen these in Southern Germany.  It made my heart smile.  Trek lived in Northern Germany for 2 years while he served a mission for our church.  He LOVED the stoplights so much, that when we visited Northern Germany 10 years ago, we bought magnets for our fridge of the two little guys (red & green).  We still have those magnets.

It was a really fun afternoon with friends.  I'm glad we decided to take a trip together.