Marché de Noël Strasbourg (Alsace)

This guide to the Marché de Noël at Place Broglie in Strasbourg starts with a single sermon in 1570, when a Protestant preacher named Johannes Flinner convinced the city's ruling council to ban the beloved Saint Nicholas market. Merchants and shoppers still needed a December fair, so the council allowed a replacement, stripped of its saint and renamed the Christkindelsmärik, market of the Christ child. You'll hear how that market wandered the city for three centuries before landing where you're standing. Look for the chalets glowing against the December dark, and think about how a ban gave way to a tradition instead of erasing one.