Ranking off the charts for Christmassy-ness, which German city has been officially declared as the most festive in all of Europe? None other than Berlin.
Berlin has been officially crowned the most Christmassy city in Europe. From Schloss Charlottenburg to Gendarmenmarkt, the capital’s yuletide melange of Weihnachtsmӓrkte (Christmas markets), giant sparkling Brandenburg firs and festive light shows have earnt the German city its 2022 title.
The ranking was compiled by the holiday booking platform Holidu, and includes 110 cities from across the continent, comparing them through four main parameters: the number of Instagram hashtags, the number of Christmas markets in each city, the monthly search volume of each destination and the average number of snow days throughout December.
Vienna, a tourist hotspot for festive visits during the holidays, came in second. Prague nabbed third place, perhaps due to being home to one of the best Christmas markets in Europe. To nobody's surprise, another German city shortly followed, with Munich taking fourth place. Overall, not such a bad score for the country of Christmas.
Up and down the country, nine more cities managed to convince the judges of their Christmassy-ness, with Hamburg in 11th place, Cologne in 25th and Dresden in 26th. Further south, Nuremberg had an average score, ranking 41st, and Stuttgart came in 49th place. On the weaker end of the ranking, Lübeck took 67th, Düsseldorf was 71st and Hannover was 82nd.
On the face of it, Switzerland may seem like an obvious choice for one of Europe’s most Christmassy cities. According to Holidu - not any more - the tinsel crown has been passed on.
The Swiss city most highly ranked on the list came in an underwhelming 12th place. The city in question, Zurich, lost out for having just four Christmas markets, compared to Berlin’s 80, and is said to suffer from a serious lack of Christmas hashtags, with just 2.293 Christmas hashtags, compared to London’s monstrous 231.836. Behind Zurich, Geneva fell in 44th place, Basel in 46th place, Lausanne in 66th place, Bern in 69th place and Montreux in 81st position.
Durrës in Albania was ranked as the least Christmassy city on the continent.
The top ten most festive cities in 2022 according to Holidu, are:
For the full ranking and more information on how the ranking was put together, visit the Holidu website.