Around 160 million visitors flock to Germany's more than 2,500 Christmas markets each year to sip mulled wine in wooden huts. However, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Germany has been partially locked down, causing festive activities to stop. Not missing out on the merry Christmas atmosphere, a restaurant owner in Unterbrunn near Munich decided to open a special Christmas market, ensuring smooth business operations while creating a warm Christmas atmosphere for his customers.
Wine, Christmas cookies and even fake snow are set up across the vast grounds, creating a Christmas atmosphere that permeates the market. However, unlike other Christmas markets where pedestrians jostle to buy things, visitors will enter the market in their cars. Customers will order from the menu and pay at the entrance, before slowly driving from stall to stall, receiving glasses of wine from the waiters standing along the roadside, hot crepes or other Christmas dishes.
Hotel owner Simon Wankerl said: “Because of Covid-19, our shop had to close. But I didn’t want my staff to lose their jobs. So I thought of doing takeaways. Just a 10-minute drive through the Christmas market, you can feel the atmosphere and enjoy delicious food.”
The snow may be fake, to create a Christmas atmosphere, but for many diners, walking into the market, the feeling of joy and happiness is real.
“The change is lovely. You see there aren't any other Christmas markets this year. So it creates a nice Christmas atmosphere too,” said one diner.
With the complicated developments of the Covid-19 pandemic, it is certain that not only Germans but also people in many countries around the world will no longer be able to enjoy the bustling Christmas and New Year atmosphere as usual. However, they are still optimistic and creative to welcome and feel Christmas in their own way.
