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After reading about the size of the Kassel Weihnachtsmarkt and its fairy tale theme, I was looking forward to this Christmas market more than any other during our Märchenstraβe road trip. I was especially interested in the fairy tale theme and hoping to pick up something special to bring home from our trip. I left with mixed feelings about this market.
My absolute favorite part of this market was the long department store Steiff window display of a winter scene. It so wonderfully merged the wonder of children, the feeling of Christmas, and the nostalgia of old shop windows.
I did enjoy the fairy tale themes that we saw, with handmade fairy tale characters on display. Each year brings a new fairy tale theme. During our visit, the theme was “the Brother and the Sister”, but I did not notice evidence of this. I would have liked to have seen more fairy tale presence.
There were a few good rides for the little ones. As with most markets, these rides were geared toward toddlers through maybe 7 years old. Since Sequoia was 5, this worked out well for us!
The ferris wheel was huge, with a bit of a line to ride it. Totally worth it for the views of the market.
There was plenty of food and drink to go around, and it was all yummy. There were a ton of small wooden ornaments, pyramids and other Christmas decorations–they basically had what you find at any other Christmas market, perhaps in larger quantities.
This is a good-sized city, so downtown stretches kind of far. In other words, this is not one compact Marktplatz market. I was referring to a map of the kiosks and rides and I was still a little confused about where they were. I was a little disappointed in the vendors; I expected more of a variety of handcrafted items, but I didn’t see a single thing that I couldn’t buy at a smaller market.
Parking was an absolute nightmare, so you should plan accordingly. Seriously. Nightmare.
What we brought home from Kassel: nothing. I couldn’t find anything I really liked. Well, I did buy a 5€ scarf, if that counts, but that’s because I was freezing my butt off. I was disappointed about not being able to find “just the thing” for a fairy tale Christmas buy.
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