There is excitement and there is excitement, and walking into the Domäne Dahlem Christmas market was most firmly the latter. Easily the best of the four Christmas markets I visited last weekend, the treasures of Domäne Dahlem resist summary, but let me count my non-food favourites.

1) Where else can you find a working apiary that offers candle-making during advent, complete with nifty wooden tables inset with deep tubs of hot wax? Much less adorable children busily fashioning conifers, snow people, stars and other figures?

2) Or a female blacksmith forging lengths of iron into Christmas decorations?


3) Or an indigo dyeing workshop, run by the same family for generations, complete with dye stamps?

4) Or a weaving workshop, full of colourful handmade fabrics from local wools and other fibres?

5) Or an old-fashioned take on bumper cars, with the vehicles powered by muscles rather than creaking fairground motors?

Stay tuned tomorrow for edible highlights – and I encourage anyone in or near Berlin to ink a visit to the market into their advent calendar.

Domäne Dahlem Adventsmarkt, December 9th-10th & 16th-17th from 11 am-7 pm. Admission is 1 EUR for adults, 0.50 EUR for reductions, and free for children. (map)

Comments

[Chris]

I really enjoyed this post. What a find, the Domane Dahlem Adventsmarket. Thanks for posting this!