• Travelsignposts Home
  • Country Guides
  • City Guides
  • River Cruises
  • Europe Photos
  • About Us

Germany Travel

  • Home
  • Trip Planner
  • Photos
  • Videos
  • Map
  • Weather
  • Site Map
  • Destinations
  • Sightseeing
  • Shopping
  • Food
  • Getting around
  • Useful facts
  • News & Events
You are here: Home / Sightseeing / Dresden Striezelmarkt 2019 – Germany’s Oldest Christmas Market

Dresden Striezelmarkt 2019 – Germany’s Oldest Christmas Market

By Helen Page Leave a Comment

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)

DRESDEN STRIEZELMARKT IS THE LARGEST OF THE CITY’S CHRISTMAS MARKETS:

Dresden Striezelmarkt

Dresden Striezelmarkt

There are many Christmas markets in Dresden (including a Medieval Christmas Market), but the largest of them all is the Dresden Striezelmarkt.  The Dresden Striezelmarkt is also Germany’s oldest Christmas Market. This year (2019) marks the 585th anniversary of this historical Christmas market and we’re glad that we’ll be there to enjoy the festivities.

Dresden Striezelmarkt

Dresden Striezelmarkt by night

The Dresden Striezelmarkt takes its name from the striezel or stollen which Dresden is famous. One of the main events of this month-long Christmas market is the Dresden Stollen Festival. No visit to a Dresden Christmas Market is complete without tasting some of its famous stollen. We happen to like this Christmas cake and Dresden is where we stock up on stollen supplies – read our Buying stollen in Dresden.

Dresdner Stollen

Stollen at the Dresden Striezelmarkt

The Striezelmarkt takes place is Old Market Square in the heart of Dresden, and each year over 700,000 visitors come to enjoy this Christmas event.

Plenty to see and do

There’s plenty to see and enjoy at the Dresden Striezelmarkt and it takes more than one visit to cover the whole market. If you have children in tow, there are some fun rides for kids such as the two-storey carousel.  Kids can enjoy rides on their favourite animal, be it a tiger, horse or dragon. Or, you can enjoy views of the Christmas market from the top of the ferris wheel.

The Striezelmarkt is romantic and atmospheric by night, however a day-time visit gives quite an different and interesting experience. This is when you can see the incredible efforts put in by stallholders to decorate their stalls. The decorations reflect the specialities of the stalls. Some of the elaborate decorations include bakers at work, a vineyard scene, nativity scene and Santa having a bath! We rather like the colourful elves enjoying food and drinks on the roof of a food stand.

Dresden Striezelmarkt

Stall decorations at the Dresden Striezelmarkt

Christmas Market Treats

Dresden’s bustling Striezelmarkt, has all the ingredients of a traditional German Christmas market. With the aroma of gingerbread cookies, roasted almonds, deep-fried dumplings and mulled wine wafting through the crisp winter air, hunger pangs can strike quite quickly. But don’t worry, you won’t go hungry here as there are plenty of traditional hearty snacks like roast beef, bratwurst and knobibrot available.

Dresden Striezelmarkt

Food Stall at the Dresden Striezelmarkt

Christmas Shopping

The Dresden Christmas market is the place where locals come to stock up on festive foods, as well as to do some of Christmas shopping. Amongst the many market stalls are the popular  Christmas woodcraft from the Erz Mountains. This is where the colorful nutcrackers and German incense smokers (Räuchermann) are produced.  You can also buy beautiful hand-made tinsels, winter accessories, hand-made candles and more.

Dresden Striezelmarkt

Hand-made candles at the Dresden Striezelmarkt

Christmas Market Events

There is a range of activities at the Dresden Christmas Market with over 100 events spread over the month-long Striezelmarkt, the main events being:

  • Opening Ceremony and Ecumenical Service
  • Dresdner Pfefferkuchenfest or Gingerbread Festival which includes the coronation of the new Gingerbread Princess
  • Dresden Stollen Festival – the highlight event of the Dresdner Striezelmarkt
  • Dresdner Pflaumentoffelfest
  • Pyramid Festival
  • Dresdner Schwibbogenfest
  • Dresden Christmas tree decorating
  • Seasons Greetings from a city to be announced

Where to Stay

If you like the idea of staying in the midst of of the Striezelmarkt, the NH Dresden Altmarkt puts you in the midst of the Christmas markets. There are many other excellent hotels in the heart of Dresden Old Town (Altstadt) including:

  • the 5-star Radisson Blu Gewandhaus, and
  • the very elegant Hotel Taschenbergpalais Kempinski, Swissôtel Dresden Am Schloss and QF Hotel Dresden.

See the complete list of Dresden hotels Here.

Event : Dresden Striezelmarkt 2019
Dates : November 27 – December 24, 2019
Venue : Dresden Altmarkt

Opening times:
16:00 – 21:00 Opening day
10:00 – 21:00 Daily
10:00 – 14:00 Christmas Eve

See more photos of the Dresden Striezelmarkt by night and Dresden Striezelmarkt by day.

Click here to get a free PDF of this post

Do you want more blog posts like this? Comment below telling me you want it...
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)

Related

Filed Under: Sightseeing Tagged With: christmas in dresden, dresden christmas market, dresden striezelmarkt, german christmas markets

avatar

About Helen Page

Helen Page is a prolific blogger and ardent traveller; she runs Travelsignposts with her professional writer and photographer husband Tony.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

You can also find us on

  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Latest Additions

  • Berliner Festspiele – MaerzMusik 2020
  • German Wine and Beer Festivals 2020
  • The Best Feuerzangenbowle – and it’s in Berlin!
  • Trouble at the Gedächtniskirche Christmas Market
  • Chinese Tower Christmas Market

Plan and Book Your Trip


eNews and Updates

feedburner Sign up now to get emailed news as well as other site updates!

Get the Guerrilla Travel Photography ebook here now!
City Guides
Country Guides
River Cruises

Who is behind Travelsignposts?

Helen and Tony Page at Singapore Changi Airport

We're Helen and Tony Page, and we love travelling - lucky as we've been doing it for the last few decades!

Tony has long been a professional photographer and writer, but Helen now writes most of the posts and takes a lot of photos herself!

Travelsignposts is our main travel planning site, but we've just launched Travelsignposts China and Tony also runs the Travelsignposts Photo and Guerrilla Travel Photography web sites, as well as publishing the Take Better Digital Photos and Guerrilla Travel Photography eBooks.

Read more about Helen and Tony or contact them.

Other Countries

  • Austria
  • Belgium
  • Bulgaria
  • Croatia
  • Czech Republic
  • Devon & Cornwall
  • England
  • Estonia
  • Europe (General)
  • Finland
  • France
  • Greece
  • Ireland
  • Italy
  • Netherlands
  • Norway
  • Portugal
  • Scotland
  • Spain
  • Switzerland
  • Turkey
  • Ukraine

Resources

  • Take Better Digital Photos eBook Take Better Digital Photos eBook
  • Take Better Digital Photos Free eCourse
  • Travel Signposts Photo – our main travel photography site
  • Guerrilla Travel Photography eBook Guerrilla Travel Photography eBook

Copyright © 2021 Travelsignposts Pty Ltd · All Rights Reserved | Privacy Policy   |   Terms of Service   |   Affiliate Disclaimer   |   Log in

Get a free PDF of this post!
Just enter your email address below and we'll send it to you immediately.

Please enter your Email Address