Why the Christmas Markets Began

Stand in a German Christmas market with a mug of glühwein warming your hands, and you're standing in a tradition older than most countries.

The markets began in the Late Middle Ages — Vienna's December Market dates to 1296, Dresden's Striezelmarkt to 1434. But they weren't really about shopping. In the darkest, coldest weeks of the year, they were how a town gathered: a sanctioned reason to come out of your house, see your neighbors, buy a roasted chestnut, and remember that spring was coming.

That's still what they are. Strip away the Instagram photos and the stalls of ornaments, and a Christmas market is a town square doing what town squares have done for six hundred years — holding a community together through the dark.

This is why I tell travelers not to market-hop through five cities in six days. Pick one or two. Go in the evening when the locals arrive after work. Stand still, warm your hands, and let six centuries of tradition do its work on you.