Dreaming of a green Christmas... market

The weather outside is freezing (at least in the morning fog) and many have made most of their lists for to Father Christmas letters. Most of us have already bought the obligatory Advent crown, listened to a Christmas tune or twenty and whiffed, if not tasted, the mandatory “Glühwein” (mulled wine). Although the snow doesn’t seem to be right around the slippery corner “it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas”.

The Luxembourg “Winterlights 2011” festival and the Place d’Armes's "Krëschtmaart" start today, Friday 25 November at 10:30am. The small wooden huts are once again this year tempting you with the smell of freshly made Gromperekichelcher, luring you to indulge in a good old-fashioned Luxringer (still a Thüringer), really making you long for a nice warm Bouneschlupp, or, for the sweet tooth, crave waffles with whipped cream, pancakes, sugar-coated almonds and, and, and…!

The "Krëschtmaart" will celebrate its 30th anniversary in 2013, yet for the past 28 years almost nothing has changed. The pavilion will still feature choirs from around the country trying their best at imitating Bing Crosby’s version of Irving Berlin’s “White Christmas”, chanting “Stille Nacht”, singing “Petit Papa Noël” or performing any other musical interlude in whatever language seems appropriate.

Green energy Christmas market

However, something has changed over the years, the "Krëschtmaart" has partly gone green and the Luxembourg City has predicted that the overall electricity consumption will be reduced by around 95%. The rest of the power needed will be so-called green electricity and the many light bulbs decorating the city are labelled “low-consumption”.

The Christmas Parade

As another feature of the Winterlights festival, “the Christmas Parade” will march through the city centre on the 11th of December at 5 pm. About 600 participants will take part including the “Christmas Parade Dancers”, the Grinch, the Gingerbread-man, various snowmen and elves, a remake of the famous Coca-Cola truck and Santa with his reindeer and many others will parade down rue de Strasbourg, then up the Avenue de la Liberté heading towards the “Gëlle Fra”, where the procession will throw about 4 tonnes of sweets into the crowd.