DETAILS: Christmas Markets in Europe

I love the Christmas market in Hamburg, but an even bigger one is in Nuremberg (see below). Other countries have thriving markets as well. Here's what I found out about a few of them.

Piazza Navona Christmas Market, Rome: Surrounded by baroque palaces and skirting Bernini's Fountain of the Four Rivers, this market is a class act. Presepi, or creches -- and everything that goes in them -- are the big draw. Make like decoration-crazy Italian tourists and move from stall to stall collecting farm animals (including peacocks and goats), baby Jesuses and other accouterments for your custom-made manger. Little surprises (tiny baskets filled with mini-vegetables made from matchstick heads, for example, will make your creche unique. Food vendors are just as prevalent as presepi, and they hawk such treats as roasted chestnuts, torrone (chewy nougat with almonds and honey), biscotti, licorice and sugared apples. The festivities run through the Epiphany, Jan. 6, the day when Roman kids finally get to open their presents. Then, La Befana, the friendly witch, descends on the piazza by broom, bearing gifts for the good kids and coal for all naughty bambini.

Strasbourg Christmas Market, France: Christmas markets take place throughout France, but the best are in the Alsace region, closest to Germany, where every once in a while the locals even refer to fromage as kaese. The Strasbourg market has played out on the streets surrounding the city's fantastical, late-Gothic cathedral, Notre Dame, since 1570, and is considered France's biggest and best. (The city unabashedly proclaims itself the Capitale de Noel.) French linens, lavender Christmas ornaments and sachets, and stork souvenirs (the bird is the city's mascot) are among the trinkets that become all the more tempting the more vin chaud (mulled wine) you drink. Vendors cozied into wooden huts (called chalets here, natch) proffer hot orange juice spiced with cinnamon and gingerbread-like Alsatian cookies called bredele. It doesn't get any more romantic than a wintry stroll down the Rue de Hallebardes, which is illuminated with Baccarat chandeliers for the season. http://www.noel-strasbourg.com.

Frankfurt Market, Birmingham, England: Dubbed the largest authentic German Christmas market outside Germany or Austria, this fest in Victoria Square imports wooden huts and vendors from Germany and even celebrates the very German St. Nicholas Day on Dec. 6. From the gluehwein mugs to the grub, everything here is stereotypically -- and more important, authentically -- German. Everything from stollen (fruit bread) and grilled bratwursts to marzipan and decorated cookie hearts scrawled with "Ich Liebe Dich" ("I Love You") conjure Frankfurt in its British sister city. http://www.birmingham.gov.uk/frankfurtchristmasmarket.bcc.