Category: Saxony

Land of Christmas: The Beauty of Saxony at Holiday Time

Christkindlesmarkt, Christkindlmarket, Christmas, Historic foodways, Historic Restaurants, Holiday events, Saxony, Uncategorized

Saxony is Germany’s Land of Christmas, a place where tradition and craftsmanship shine year-round. Throughout the state, artisans create exquisite handmade goods, and during the holidays, their work fills markets with warmth and wonder, allowing visitors to explore a mix of history, culture, art, cuisine, and festive cheer. From Dresden’s historic Striezelmarkt, one of Germany’s oldest Christmas markets, to Leipzig’s music-filled Old Town, Saxony’s centuries old cities radiate holiday spirit and cheer.

In Seiffen, the famous “toy village” of the Ore Mountains, generations of craftspeople continue to carve nutcrackers and candle arches that are now timeless symbols of Christmas. Meanwhile, Bautzen and Görlitz enchant visitors with medieval streets and castle views steeped in history and folklore. Even after a century of challenges, Saxony’s dedication to quality and artistry endures—especially at Christmastime, when only the finest craftsmanship will do.

The Striezelmarkt in Dresden, with its many beautifully decorated stalls filled with a cornucopia of items, is a stunning spectacle during the winter and Christmas season. Photo: Sebastian Weingart (DML-BY)

View of the 588th Dresden Striezelmarkt from the tower of the Kreuzkirche. Photo: Michael Bader (DML-BY)

Dresden: One of Germany’s Oldest Christmas Markets

Dresden’s Striezelmarkt is the crown jewel of Saxony’s Christmas. By medieval right this market dates to 1434, and in 2025 Dresden celebrates its 591st anniversary. The market opens Wednesday, November 26 at 4 pm with a parade and the ceremonial lighting of the stalls. Highlights include the 40 ft high Ore Mountain pyramid and the giant candle arch (both record‐breakers), plus a historic Ferris wheel offering views over the glittering Old Town. Visitors can sip Glühwein and nibble on Dresden’s famous Stollen, which even has its own festival on Dec 6. Beneath the illuminated church towers, shoppers browse handcrafted wooden toys, ornaments and regional foods.

Dresden Striezelmarkt

Leipzig Christmas Market

Leipzig: Music, Markets, and Magic in the Old Town

An hour by train west of Dresden, Leipzig lights up for Christmas in historic style. Leipzig’s festive season begins on Tuesday, November 25, 2025, with the opening of the historic Christmas market, running through December 23. The city center will feature over 300 stalls, blending tradition, music, and culinary delights.

Highlights include the Historic Market Square with its 60 ft Christmas tree, nightly trombone performances from the Old Town Hall balcony, and a festive stage with choirs and musicians; the Naschmarkt, showcasing medieval crafts, mead, and freshly baked Handbrot; St. Nicholas Churchyard with the beloved Feuerzangenbowle pyramid for mulled wine; and Augustusplatz, featuring Finnish and South Tyrolean villages and a 125 foot Ferris wheel offering panoramic views.

Trendy districts like Connewitz and venues such as WERK2 and Feinkost host smaller markets with handmade arts, crafts, and regional foods. Music lovers can enjoy performances at St. Thomas Church, including Bach’s Christmas Oratorio, along with numerous advent concerts celebrating Leipzig’s rich musical heritage. Beyond the city, visitors can explore the medieval Christmas market at Felsenkeller, the illuminated Christmas garden walk at Park Markkleeberg, and the traditional Gänsemarkt in Werms, featuring Christmas geese, carp, handicrafts, and Nordic decorations.

Leipzig Christmas Market

Bautzen: Castles and Sword-fights

Eastward in the Lusatian Hills in an area in the east of Saxony that is the center of Sorbian culture in Saxony, the medieval town of Bautzen in Upper Lusatia, is a perfect backdrop for a fairy tale Christmas with turrets and towers and beautiful churches and buildings.

Photo courtesy of Wenzelsmarkt Bautzen Facebook.

In Bautzen’s old town, the historic Wenzelsmarkt (28 Nov – 22 Dec 2025) carries the name of King Wenceslas IV, who in 1384 granted the town market rights. Stalls line Hauptmarkt and Reichenstraße beneath the Reichenturm tower, decked with lights and a giant tree. Bakers’ guilds sell Stollen and smoked sausages, and on weekends a medieval market at the Moench Church Ruins highlight sword-fights and minstrels. Children can enjoy seasonal surprises at the library and hear Christmas tales at the Nikolaiturm (St. Nicholas Tower).

Festive rides at the Kornmarkt (Corn Market) provide extra fun, while live music fills the air throughout the city. From December 1st onward, Santa Claus will delight crowds daily on Wenceslas’s Stage beneath the Main Market tree, opening a new door of the Advent calendar.

Bautzen

Görlitz: A Silesian Christmas in Eastern Saxony

From the Napoleonic Wars to WWII, the Saxon town of Görlitz was part of the Prussian province of Silesia, which now belongs to Poland. Today, Görlitz is part of Germany right on the border with Poland and the city maintains many of the Silesian customs, traditions, costumes, cuisine and even its dialect.

The city’s historical importance is evident in its well-preserved architecture, which reflects its past as a wealthy trading town. It was never destroyed during the war and so its buildings are original and incredibly romantic. Each year the city stages the Schlesischer Christkindelmarkt (Silesian Christmas Market). From Friday, November 28 to Sunday, December 14, 2025 the Untermarkt (below the medieval hall) is transformed into a festive village. Wooden chalets brim with gingerbread, hand-carved angels and regional crafts, and the scent of mulled wine wafts past the Gothic St. Peter’s Church. There are special church services,baking, reading, singing and music, plus the “Görlitz Christkind” (christ child) which makes a daily appearance on the market. Bautzen offers a quiet, historic counterpoint to the big-city markets.

Görlitz

Seiffen: Germany’s Christmas Capital in the Ore Mountains

Nestled high in the “Erzgebirge” (Ore Mountains), the village of Seiffen is the Christmas capital of all Germany as it is where many of the beautiful Christmas treasures are created. The nutcracker and the smokers were invented in Seiffen as the woodcutters used their winter time in industrious ways to create the wooden toys, gifts, keepsakes, candles and figurines.

Here families have been making wooden toys and decorations for over 300 years. In Seiffen’s narrow lanes, workshops and shops spill out seasonal bounty: nutcrackers, smoking men, pyramids and candle arches. Local artisans say this craft is truly their passion. As one woodcarver explains, “People are amazed that we can spend so long painting a few details on a minuscule doll’s head… But we love our craft – it’s a love many of us have had since we were children.” Visitors to Seiffen can tour family workshops and the Toy Museum (Spielzeugmuseum), tasting Erzgebirge biscuits amid snow-dusted firs and candlelight. It is truly quintessential Saxon Christmas tableau.

Traditional Christmas Handicraft

Meissen – A Place of History, Legacy, and Europe’s First Porcelain

manufakTOUR, Meissen, Saxony

The Porcelain Disease – Maladie de Porcelaine

As early as the 13th century, porcelain was a highly coveted item at the royal courts of Europe and was imported from China at extravagant prices. Attempts were made starting from the early 18th century to reproduce the “White Gold” in Europe, with alchemist Johann Friedrich Böttger finding success in Dresden in 1708 under commission from Saxony’s royal court.

A close up of Augustus the Strong in the Procession of the Princes which is mural that runs the entire length of the stable yard of the royal palace and is composed completely of porcelain tiles. c. Saxony Tourism

That discovery marked the beginning of a legend that was sealed two years later with the founding of the manufactory by Augustus the Strong, Elector of Saxony, who claimed to have Maladie de Porcelaine, or porcelain sickness, as he was so addicted to collecting beautiful pieces. From 2014 to 2024, an international team of experts researched and catalogued the comprehensive, extant royal holdings of Augustus the Strong comprising around 8000 East Asian porcelain objects.

Saxon Service Plate given to the Duke of Wellington by the King of Saxony made by the Meissen Porcelain Factory Berlin 1818-1819 porcelain-Apsley House-London UK. Wikimedia Commons.

The results are published on ‘The Royal Dresden Porcelain Collection’, an innovative digital platform that not only showcases the objects but also focusses on the history of the collection.

Special Exhibition on Meissen Porcelain during the East German Period

From September 20 to February 22, 2026, there is a special exhibition at the Japanese Palace of the Meissen Porcelain during the East German period. The Japanese Palace—the porcelain palace built by Augustus the Strong just for his collection—offers an exciting yet fitting setting. Despite all the contradictions of the socialist system of government, the great Baroque tradition of Europe’s first porcelain manufactory remained influential.

Monumental murals for the Palace of the Republic and other central buildings of the GDR, state gifts, and a medal that Sigmund Jähn carried with him on his space flight testify to the unfailingly high prestige value of Meissen porcelain as a luxury item. Design sketches, theater costumes, film excerpts, illustrated magazines, and much more provide insight into the art and cultural-historical context of Meissen porcelain during the GDR era.

The exhibition also explores the identity-forming role of the world-renowned manufactory from the perspective of citizens in both East and West Germany, where a large portion of Meissen porcelain was exported in exchange for foreign currency. What remained in the home country, and what significance did Meissen have in everyday life and collective memory on both sides of the Wall? Artistically sophisticated photo series from the 1950s and late 1980s, as well as interviews with contemporary witnesses, tell of everyday working life in Europe’s largest porcelain manufactory.

Experiencing MEISSEN in Meissen

The quality of Meissen porcelain has its beginnings in the manufactory’s own mine near the city of Meissen, where the purest kaolin is sourced day after day. This white clay is the key to the striking radiance of Meissen porcelain.

Hard at work shaping the beautiful clay that will become a precious object at MEISSEN.
MEISSEN Tourismus Marketing

The precise blending of kaolin with native feldspar and quartz has been refined in Meissen over the past 300 years and is still completed by hand to this day. The in-house training to become a painter or shaper lasts over three years, while achieving the level of Master takes many years more. A piece created for the “Limited Masterworks” collection requires months of elaborate handicraft, learned over decades of exacting training. 

Artists at Work at the MEISSEN Manufactory. You can visit and explore, paint, and observe. Photo by Iona Dutz c. MEISSEN Marketing Tourismus

Each piece of Meissen porcelain has its beginnings in the manufactory’s archives, the oldest and largest treasury of models and molds anywhere in the world. Each new piece that bears the Meissen name is a modern interpretation of European art and cultural history. Artists from a variety of disciplines frequently collaborate with Meissen artisans on contemporary pieces, pushing the manufactory to the highest echelons of artistic accomplishment. And there are lines of beautifully designed items, including jewelry, household goods, fine art,and decorations.

There are a number of fun and experiential ways to visit the Meissen manufactory. With the “manufakTOUR” you can experience the artisanal creation of porcelain live. Our show workshop also brings the world-famous Meissen porcelain to life in 14 languages! You can ask experienced porcelain makers detailed questions about the production process.

In the creative workshops, you can learn the techniques required to design porcelain by hand and create your own work of art or fer paint your very own MEISSEN mug and create a very special souvenir of your visit. On a tour of the Meissen Porcelain Foundation Museum, you will discover a multitude of exhibits from all eras of Europe’s first porcelain manufactory. A selection of 2,000 porcelain objects and over 300 years of porcelain history await you from around 33,000 historical porcelains. And, last but not least, you can really shop! The gift store at the MEISSEN headquarters is literally mouthwatering. 

Photo courtesy of the Meiseen Porcelain Foundation Museum

The exhibition at the Meissen Porcelain Foundation Museum: “Maladie 2.0. Ten Years of the Meissen Porcelain Foundation” will be showcased until February 22, 2026. The Foundation preserves Meissen porcelain as a cultural asset, including looking after the Meissen Porcelain Manufactory’s historical collection.The exhibition sheds light on the Foundation’s work whilst also showcasing Meissen porcelains given over to the subject of collecting.

For further information, please contact Victoria Larson at victoria@vklarsoncommunications.com

Top Photo: One wing of the Zwinger Palace of the Dresden State Art Collection was designed by architect and designer Peter Marino just for the museum’s porcelain collection. c.WGaertner