Pre-Christmas Period in Vienna: Christmas Market at the Vienna City Hall
The pre-Christmas season in Vienna has officially begun. The festive illumination of the Christmas tree on Rathausplatz already illuminates the entire square. The "Wiener Weihnachtstraum" invites this year with an adapted concept for more sustainability, less standel and more offers for families.
Festive illumination of the Christmas tree and opening of the Vienna Christmas Dream at the Vienna City Hall. / Picture: © Wikimedia Commons / Bwag, CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)
Now the spruced-up Viennese Christmas tree outshines the City Hall Square and the Vienna Christmas Market, which also opened today. This year, the market runs until December 26 with a new concept that focuses on family-friendliness and sustainability. Most of the food and drinks are certified organic, and fewer stalls mean more space.
In addition to already familiar and popular offerings such as ice skating, Ferris wheel and merry-go-round rides, the traditional arts and crafts booths and inviting mulled wine and food stalls with regional and seasonal products, or the fabulously decorated park, there are once again numerous new elements to discover at the Wiener Weihnachtstraum this year.
Just under 100 market stalls - about a third fewer than before - have opened their wooden shutters to visitors. This creates additional open spaces, thanks to which visitors can spread out better. This leaves more space to linger, marvel and discover. Between the market huts, there are several covered areas where guests can enjoy punch, mulled wine, chestnuts and the like away from the hustle and bustle. The food on offer is generally seasonal and regionally produced and prepared as freshly as possible.
The market is illuminated one hour shorter, which brings savings in energy consumption. Nevertheless, familiar highlights such as the children's ice rink, the nativity trail, the mistletoe pavilion, or the Herzerlbaum tree do not have to be dispensed with. The latter is hung with 200 LED hearts and serves as a selfie spot and meeting point again this year. Every hour, a new attraction, the Herzerlflug, ensures that the tree - accompanied by music - is lit up again. A new twelve-meter-high carousel in the center of Vienna's Christkindlmarkt, visible from afar, is designed to attract young visitors in particular in the run-up to Christmas. At the carousel, there is also a market stall specially designed for the youngest visitors, where children's punch or drinking chocolate is served in smaller cups.
"The illumination of the Christmas tree on the town hall square has a very special symbolic value this year: light is a sign of hope! A symbol of peace. And hope for peace we need this year more than ever," said Mayor Michael Ludwig. "As if the Corona pandemic had not already brought us enough challenges, since February 24 there has also been a terrible war raging - in Europe!" However, he added, the Viennese have proven "that through cohesion and humanity, even real "Herculean tasks" - from Corona to the effects of war - can be successfully overcome! And this is precisely what is symbolized by the light that we are illuminating today on the Christmas tree in front of Vienna City Hall," said the Mayor and Governor of Vienna. "The origin of the tree from Styria especially shows the beautiful bond between our two provinces, which exists through their many commonalities," Ludwig emphasized.