German Market is set to return to Birmingham this year
BIRMINGHAM’S German Christmas Market is coming back for 2017 and the dates are changing again.
In 2014 and 2015, the market finished on December 22 and packed up on December 23, following its usual pattern of allowing traders to get home to Germany in time for Christmas.
In 2016, the seasonal attraction stayed over Christmas and almost up to New Year for the first time ever, finishing on December 29.
The extension was part of the celebrations of Birmingham’s 50 years of twinning with Frankfurt.
Birmingham’s German Market will take place from Thursday November 16 to Sunday December 24 .
It will be staying a couple of days longer than before 2016’s special extension, going right through to the end of Christmas Eve.
The extension will give people chance to eat, drink and shop at the market right up to Christmas.
Marker organiser Kurt Stroscher, who is Frankfurt City Council’s director of festivals and events, told the Birmingham Mail: “Last year we celebrated the 50th anniversary of the partnership between Birmingham and Frankfurt, therefore the market took place until December 29.
“This year there is no anniversary and every year we discuss which time the market should finish and this year we decided the 24th of December.”
Birmingham’s German Christmas Market will open 10am to 9pm every day.
The German market sells a range of hot and cold food including German sausages (bratwurst, currywurst, krakauer, kasewurst, feuerwurst) as well as schnitzel, strudel, pretzels, crepes and Berliner doughnuts (which have no hole in the middle).
There’s also pizza, burgers, steak, fries, waffles and deep-fried vegetables.
Drinks on offer include beer, gluhwein (mulled wine), hot chocolate (with and without spirits), coffee and tea.
There’s a range of gifts such as festive decorations, crystal lamps, wooden toys, baubles, Russian dolls, wind chimes, tea-light holders, jewellery, ornaments, hats and scarves and even items carved out of chocolate.
A neighbouring Christmas Craft Fair in Centenary Square sells local goods from West Midlands traders, as well as ethnic handicrafts from around the world.
The market is known by the council and its organiser Kurt Stroscher as Frankfurt Christmas Market Birmingham.
Taking place in Victoria Square and New Street, it’s the largest market of its kind outside Germany and Austria.
It’s also the the only German market in the UK to have a Victorian carousel, run by Birmingham company Bob Wilson Funfairs, which also operates the ice rink and big wheel.