EUROPEAN
HOLIDAY CELEBRATIONS
Don’t even consider hibernating this
winter. There are so many great travel options in Europe
this time of year that you cannot afford to stay at home.
Make your plans now to hit Europe’s best and brightest
city-wide holiday celebrations where you’ll shop
for unique gifts and handicrafts, fill up on delicious
treats and drinks, and find enough hotel and travel bargains
to satisfy even the most budget-conscious travelers. Join
us as we visit London, Rome, Vienna, Berlin, and Copenhagen
to enjoy all the wonders that the Christmas season has
to offer in each of these exciting European cities.
VIENNA
Keep a cup of Glühwein, mulled wine,
in your hands for warmth this season as you romp through
the 21 Advent markets in Vienna beneath garlands of
flickering lights on Kärntner Strasse and
Graben, Vienna’s main shopping thoroughfares. More
than 10,000 liters of the spiced drink or, if you’d
rather, punch (berry, orange, and even jelly bean are
some of the flavor offerings), are sold every day to
help warm December visitors to this imperial city.
The Krippenmarkt or Vienna Christmas
Market in front of City Hall (www.christkindlmarkt.at)
is the largest and oldest of the markets and dates back
to the 13th century. One hundred and forty stalls attract
some three million visitors each year in search of one-of-a-kind
baubles, candles, all manner of toys, and the ubiquitous
gingerbread.
To find gifts for the trendsetters in
your life try Kabine in the Karmeliter district,
a maze of narrow streets where young local designers
display their wares: everything from sleek, small label
jackets to t-shirts and hanging sculpture. The nearby
MuseumsQuartier also holds a modern holiday design mart
that brings beats to the Yuletide with a variety of
DJs spinning daily in the inner courtyard. The Lomo
Shop here is an international favorite, carrying
cult cameras and a range of unique and utilitarian gifts.
 From
the MuseumsQuartier it’s only a few blocks
south to Linke Wienzeile, the center of the LGBT
scene, and a street with gay bars, clubs, and restaurants.
The Café Conquer Standard here serves
classic traditional Austrian holiday cuisine like Wiener
Schnitzel (breaded, fried veal) and Knödel (rich
dumplings).
In the inner city of Vienna, the grand
Imperial Palaces of the Habsburg emperors are
open for the holiday season and decorated in Christmas
ornamentation befitting a ruling house of Europe (www.hofburg-wien.at).
Watch some of the best 10- to 14-year-old singers in
the world when the famous Vienna Boys Choir (www.wsk.at)
performs in the ornate Hofburgkapelle Chapel on December
24 and 25. If you can get a ticket, glam up for the
Imperial Ball at the Hofburg Palace on December
31 (www.hofburg.com).
Vienna wraps up the winter celebrations
with a thumping street party on New Year’s Eve.
A dozen stages showcase free music and entertainment
beginning in the afternoon and crowds of dancers warm
each other up long into the night. When the Pummerin,
Austria’s largest bell, rings to officially welcome
2009, grab a partner for the Blue Danube Waltz,
the customary first dance of the New Year.
—Anja Tranovich
LONDON
What right have you to be
merry? What reason have you to be merry?” Charles
Dickens famously asks in his classic story, A Christmas
Carol. It is too bad Dickens isn’t around to see
the holiday season in London today, filled with performances,
lights, winter sports, shopping, clubbing, and even
a pudding race. What reason have we to be merry? Well,
just about every!
While London offers some of the world’s
most entertaining holiday festivities, the main and
most dominant attractions are the thousands of lights
that help illuminate every crevice of the city. Lights
will greet nighttime present buyers in all the major
shopping areas, especially on Oxford Street, Tottenham
Court Road, and Covent Garden. As the lights
seem to sprout up overnight, ice-skating rinks
also seem to magically appear. Some of the most impressive
spots to skate include the Tower of London, Somerset
House Ice Rink, Hyde Park, and the Ice Disco
at the O2 dome.
At the Geffrye Museum (www.geffrye-museum.org.uk),
one of the city’s most unique holiday activities
allows you to take a look at London’s Christmas
past. Be transported through over 400 years of English
history via period rooms. Each room is specially decorated
as if to host a holiday gathering. See what traditions
have survived since King Charles II’s day, and
even draw some inspiration for your holiday celebration.
For Christmas’ Sake! London’s
Gay Men’s Choir (www.lgmc.org.uk)
sure knows how to put on an enchanting show. December
19 and 20 at Cadogan Hall, the boys will perform
everyone’s favorite holiday classics, and inevitably
mix in their charming humor, to make this event a must
see for any holiday visitor.
If a highly amusing theatre experience
is in order to help assuage that buildup of holiday
frustration, the British holiday tradition of Pantomime
was designed for you. Popular since the early 18th century,
pantomime is an over-the-top theater spectacle, where
cross-dressing is rewarded and belly-aching laughs are
guaranteed. This year the must-see show is Mother
Goose (www.hackneyempire.co.uk)
playing November 29–January 10.
What would the holidays in London be
without the annual English Pudding Race (www.xmaspuddingrace.org.uk)?
Celebrating its 28th year, on December 6, teams from
across the UK will race through a series of obstacles,
dressed up in madcap costumes, all while balancing a
pudding mold on a tray. While the teams have fun competing,
the spectators have the most fun, cheering on their
favorite fancy dressed team and amused by the sheer
ridiculousness of the entire event.
London’s largest holiday festival,
and a truly romantic treasure, is Hyde Park’s increasingly
popular Winter Wonderland (www.hydeparkwinterwonderland.com).
Come and enjoy ice-skating, tobogganing, Santa photos,
and the famous Ferris wheel. The most noteworthy part
of the festival is the German market. Wander down bustling
alleys of stalls, each selling German specialties, from
Kinder Chocolate to wooden toys. The festivities last
until January 4 and crowds don’t usually let up.
While the event is free, the ice-rink and wheel aren’t—advance
purchase tickets are highly recommended.
 To
mark the days of Hanukkah, the city lights a 30-ft menorah
in Trafalgar Square. Celebrate with London’s
thriving Jewish community and enjoy latkes, doughnuts,
and festive music.
If by the end of all the holiday adventures,
you can’t stomach another sighting of Father Christmas,
head to one of a dozen gay clubs, which remain open
even on Christmas Day. The most talked about are Orange
(www.allthingsorange.com/orange),
which famously throws parties on days that Brits have
off, and Trade (www.tradeuk.net).
For the most up-to-date event information check out
Time Out London (www.timeout.com/London).
—Joseph Pedro
COPENHAGEN
The city of Copenhagen has
a latticework of interconnecting canals and its waterways
reflect holiday jollity with boats draped in lights
and Christmas decorations that shine during the long
winter nights. The Nyhavn district of Copenhagen,
in the oldest part of the harbor, starts off the winter
festivities with an annual Christmas Beer Tasting
on November 18 and a traditional Christmas market that
lasts through December 30. Carlsberg beer brews a special
Julebryg or “Yule brew” delivered to bars
and restaurants in horse-drawn wagons covered in garlands
and Danish flags on November 3 at exactly 8:59 P.M..
If you are there for an early winter holiday be sure
to intercept one of the Santa-capped Carlsberg staff
scattered through the city handing out free samples
of the brew on its debut day.
 On
November 26, holiday revelers coming from Nyhavn Street
end their Christmas parade at the City Hall Square
to watch the mayor of Copenhagen light the city’s
official Christmas tree, a huge evergreen spotted with
white lights and woven paper hearts. The nearby Tivoli
Gardens, Copenhagen’s 100-year-old amusement
park, celebrates the season with a Christmas village,
holiday market, and hip-hop Nutcracker performances
from November 15 through December 31. Tivoli’s
stages also host a Christmas Cabaret, Hamlet’s
Private Dick—The Case of the Great Dane. Huddle
under a blanket and sit outside to enjoy the fireworks
at one of the many restaurants at Tivoli offering traditional
Danish holiday foods, like duck served with red cabbage
and Ris a l’amande, a rice pudding topped with
warm cherry sauce.
You can also travel abroad within Copenhagen’s
borders by visiting the independent district of Christiania,
which seceded from Denmark in the 1970s. The Grey Hall
in this alternative, self-governing district has a Christmas
market with handmade products, candles, sweaters, and
jewelry. While you’re there, pick up some of the
market’s exotic foods. Christiania also holds a
Hanukkah celebration. Head farther north to Fuglebjergaard,
a farm with an organic Christmas market. Local chefs
man stalls and give cooking demonstrations to show visitors
how to prepare homemade Danish holiday specialties.
Back in the city center, Kongens
Nytorv, the Royal Theatre, hosts an array of holiday-inspired
productions including the Royal Danish Ballet’s
performance of the Nutcracker. Meanwhile, the
Homophones, the country’s largest gay men’s
choir, bring some gaiety to the Christmas season by
belting out well-loved carols on December 9 at St. Stefans
Church.
—Anja Tranovich
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