Many towns incorporate different concepts from their own history into their Chistmas markets. In Landau, our Christmas market is very famous. The man who created the classic Santa image that you see all over the world comes from Landau. He started by selling cartoons of Santa at the Landau Christmas market. His name is Thomas Nast. There is also lots of food specific to the region in which we live that is sold at the market. We often got Frikadellen, which is kind of like a German meatball in bread.
A staple in all German Chirstmas markets is Stollen, a type of sweet bread filled with raisins, citrus, and my personal favorite, marzipan (an almond paste). Stollen was originally made for a contest in Dresden and the bishop ordered a special amount of grain that was saved specifically to make the bread each year. The loaves of Stollen would weigh about 30 pounds each! It is tradition to cut and save the first and last piece of Stollen so the family could be prosperous in the following year.
In Italy, they have lots of meats at their Christmas markets, especially salami. This is because Italy is known for its cold cuts. In Milan, we ate arancini at the market, which is deep fried rice stuffed with meat and cheese.
The Christmas markets in Switzerland are known for their hot chocolates, which they call Heissi Schoggi. This was the best hot chocolate that I have ever had. It is very sweet, but not too rich. In Europe, often hot chocolate tastes like chocolate syrup. Switzerland is also known for its Raclette, which is cheese melted over various vegetables and meats.
