Christmas in Vienna: A Love Letter

Lights, Christmas traditions, Christmas markets, seasonal foods and more

Graben Street

For the first three years that I worked in Vienna, my company’s offices were located at the end of Graben—the short pedestrian street that lies at the center of Vienna’s first district. (The first district is where many of Vienna’s most important palaces, churches, 18th century villas and shops are located.)

Every morning, I would emerge from the U1 subway station next to St. Stephen’s Cathedral and walk past one amazing building after another to my office. And every evening, I would retrace my steps, overcome with gratitude to be living in such a beautiful city and working on such a beautiful street.

I enjoyed taking this walk at every time of year, but my favorite season was—of course—Christmas. As the cycle of the year headed toward winter solstice, the days grew dark, cold and a bit dreary. Once the lights had been hung up on Graben and its surrounding streets, however, the days grew magical and somehow full of hope.

Since moving to Ireland five years ago, my Austrian husband, Gerhard, and I have visited Vienna a couple of times a year, but never at Christmastime. Therefore, this year I convinced him to come at the beginning of December so we could visit the Christmas markets, eat roasted maroni (chestnuts) on the street, drink Glühwein, and be dazzled again by all of the sparkling Christmas lights.

In the rest of this post, I share pictures of our recent visit, discuss a few traditions that are common in Austria at this time of year, and feature three of my favorite Christmas markets. Hopefully all of this will give you an idea of the magic that awaits you should you decide to visit Vienna at Christmastime yourself!

St. Stephen’s Cathedral lighted up for Christmas

Graben Street begins at St. Stephen’s Cathedral, the most important religious building in Vienna. The first (now long gone) church on the site was built in 1147. The current building, which combines Romanesque and Gothic architectural elements, dates from the 14th century. It’s almost hard to imagine all of the history that this edifice, with its multi-colored tile roof and towering spire, has witnessed over the centuries.

Each street that branches off from Graben also has its own unique and magical way of lighting up the Christmas season.

The Viennese love eating on the street—even if the winds are blowing and the temperatures are hovering around freezing. Throughout the Christmas season, the restaurants simply turn on the heat lamps, hand out blankets, and proceed as normal. (They do take a break from outside tables come January, however!)

Dining al fresco on Graben Street in December

Fresh, living Christmas trees begin to appear for sale on Graben in mid-December, lending their wonderful scent to the festive atmosphere.

Christmas trees for sale on Graben

Gerhard—who was an only child—remembers that when he was small, his grandmother and parents would shoo him out of his bedroom on December 24th and put up the Christmas tree there behind closed doors. They hung the tree with real candles, Christmas balls, tinsel, and all kinds of sweets, including schnaps-filled chocolates. They also hung sticks that burned like sparklers. (Gerhard says they were not hot.) Underneath the tree, they would place the presents.

Once the candles were lit, the adults rang little bells hanging like ornaments on the tree as a sign that Gerhard should open the door and step inside, his eyes wide with awe and excitement. Then the adults would light the sparklers, adding even more magic to the event. Finally, while Gerhard was impatiently straining to open his presents, his mother insisted that the whole family sing Silent Night first.

The tree remained in the house through January 6—the day that Catholics celebrate the Feast of Epiphany, which honors the arrival of the magi to the place where Jesus was born. The tree was always taken down the next day, on January 7th. By then it had mostly been denuded of its sweet temptations. (What were the adults thinking when they put the tree in Gerhard’s bedroom of all places?!)

Although customs in Austria have changed—few people actually put real candles on their tree for good reason—I believe that many still adhere to the same schedule: put the Christmas tree up on December 24 and take it down on January 7.

I didn’t realize until talking with Gerhard about his family’s Christmas customs that singing Silent Night was part of their tradition. This is fitting, though, because the song is arguably the most popular Christmas song in the world. The words to the original song, Stille Nacht, were written in 1816 by a young Catholic priest named Father Joseph Mohr. Mohr lived in the village of Mariapfarr, which is in the Austrian state of Salzburg.

On Christmas Eve in 1818, Father Mohr brought the words to Franz Xaver Gruber, who was a schoolmaster and organist in a nearby village, and asked him to compose a melody and guitar accompaniment for that night's mass.

People loved the song, and over the years and centuries, it gradually spread around the world. It has now been translated into more than 300 languages!

St. Peter’s Church

In addition to St. Stephen’s Cathedral, another amazing church is located just off of Graben. Called St. Peter’s, it was constructed in the Baroque style between 1701 and 1722. Today it not only continues to serve locals as a regular parish church, but it is also a major venue for classical music concerts. This includes special concerts throughout the Christmas season.

Inside St. Peter’s Church

Graben comes to an end at Tuchlauben Street. If you look to your left on Tuchlauben, you can see the green dome of the Hofburg Palace looming at the end of the light-filled street. Originally built in the 13th century and expanded several times afterwards, the Hofburg served as the imperial winter residence for members of the Hapsburg dynasty. (Schönbrunn Palace was the summer residence.)

The Hofburg Palace

My favorite Christmas Markets

My favorite Christmas market in Vienna is the Art Advent Market on Karlsplatz. (My second favorite is the one at Schönbrunn Palace, which I wrote about a couple of weeks ago.) In addition, there are two small markets not far from Graben Street that I also like very much: the Altwiener Christkindl Markt (the Old Vienna Christchild Market) and Weinachts Markt Am Hof (Christmas Market on the Hof).

The Art Advent Market on Karlsplatz

The Art Advent Market is located on a square in front of Karlskirche (Charles’ Church), which is one of the most beautiful churches in Vienna. Built in the Baroque style, it was consecrated in 1737.

The entrance to the Christmas market at Karlsplatz

The Art Advent Market is the brainchild of an association called “Divina Art,” whose goal is to develop and promote art and contemporary crafts in Austria. It only allows works to be sold that are self-created and of high quality. To ensure this, all craftspeople who would like to participate in the Christmas market must first present themselves and their work to a jury consisting of expert artisans.

The result is that this is the best Viennese Christmas market to visit if you are looking for high quality, handcrafted arts and crafts.

This is also the only Christmas market in Vienna that guarantees that all of the food and drinks sold there are organic. (The Glühwein here is arguably the best of all the Christmas markets in the city.)

As soon as the darker, cooler days begin to descend in Vienna, little stalls pop up all over the city where vendors roast fresh chestnuts, or maroni. Gerhard loves these, so the first thing he did when we entered the Art Advent Market was buy some to munch on.

One thing I love about Vienna’s Christmas markets is that the same vendors tend to return to the same market year after year. So if you find a vendor whose work you love, you know you can return again next year to buy more of the same.

I bought a beautiful white flower vase with a really unique design one year from this vendor.

I love the bright red enamel products here and have bought several things over the years. (This year, I bought a glowing little red flower vase like the ones on the lowest shelf in the picture.)

Gerhard and I both really liked the cheerful, colorful pottery here and ended up buying two coffee cups for ourselves and another one as a gift for a friend.

I love the graceful, tactile curves of these products made from wood and bought a lovely, curved flower vase here a few years ago. (Clearly, I like flower vases!)

One of the most delightful features of the Karlsplatz Christmas market is the way in which they fill the middle of the square with bales of straw. It is so fun to watch little children playing and laughing in it, coming up with games of their own, and just generally enjoying something completely natural.

Altwiener Christkindl Markt

The Altwiener Christkindl Markt is also a delight. Located in Freyung Square, it has been in operation every year since 1772! The square is fronted by the ancient Schottenstift Abbey, which was founded by Henry II of Austria in 1155 when he invited a group of Irish monks to move to Vienna. Many homes of former nobility are also located in Freyung.

One of this market’s most wonderful features is a 46m (151 ft) wall that is covered with life-size scenes depicting the Christmas story.

I absolutely love this booth and have been returning to it for ten years now. The artist—Paal Sandor—is a Hungarian who makes beautiful jewelry and framed pictures using fire enameling, which is a technique that is at least 3,500 years old. On his website, Paal explains that his designs are based on Hungarian and European motifs of the past thousand years of culture.

Paal’s wife, Edit, sets up a booth at the Freyung Market every Christmas to sell his beautiful pieces. I have bought several pairs of earrings from her in the past, as well as an amazing enamel picture of a river boatman moving his craft with a long pole as a Christmas present for Gerhard. This year, I bought a necklace with an ancient motif of birds twined around a tree of life.

Weinachts Markt Am Hof

The small Weinachts Markt Am Hof, which is located in a large central square a short distance from the Freyung Market, is also rich in history. Henry II, the Babenberg Duke of Austria, resided here in the 12th century, the Kirche am Hof church dates back to the 14th century, and Mozart first performed in Vienna at Palais Collalto, which fronts the square.

The market is particularly known for its delicious offerings of food and drink, such as cheese, sausages, Christmas sweets, seasonal punches and mulled wines.

Enjoying a final drink of Glühwein

What About You?

Have you spent time in Vienna during the Christmas season? If so, what did you like best about it? What were your favorite Christmas markets? Foods? Drinks? Activities?

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