From financial markets to Christmas markets: experts’ festive favorites
19 DEC, 2025
Throughout the year, it’s all about the financial markets. Now, it’s time for Christmas markets – the atmosphere, the food, the drinks, and the decorations. We asked financial experts which ones are their favorites!
Trierer Weihnachtsmarkt – The Trier Xmas Market
David Lagrange, Fund Analyst and Market Intelligence
Stock markets’ “Santa rally” may light up the screens for professional investors but the real sparkle comes from Northern Europe’s Christmas markets. Golden lights from wooden huts and vivid illuminations capture the magic of the season, brightening the longest nights of the year.
“Trierer Weihnachtsmarkt”, just an hour from Luxembourg’s fund hub, was crowned “Best Christmas Market in Germany” in 2024. Its ancient charm and village scale create an intimate atmosphere. Trier is the oldest German city, and there it feels like a journey through time: from the Roman Porta Nigra to the timbered façades of the medieval high street, with the UNESCO-listed cathedral towering over the festive scene.
The market’s unusual Nativity cradle intrigues visitors. It takes the shape of a three-tiered pyramid topped with a propeller … that looks ready to lift off, though that’s not its purpose … I suppose…I’ve never seen it flying myself…
Tradition and Moselle customs define the experience. Wooden huts showcase handcrafted gifts, ornaments, and woodwork when displaying: Handwerkliche Geschenke, Weichnachts Schmuck and Dekoartikel, Holzwaren. The air is filled with the scent of sizzling wurst, crispy potatoes, cinnamon, biscuits, lebkuchen, waffles...
…and mulled wine. Trier’s Winzer-Glühwein, made from local Moselle wines, is known for its quality and are served in mugs of different colours, sometimes in the shape of a boot. A Winzerkönigin (Mulled Wine Queen?!) is elected as the annual ambassador of the region’s wine.
A great place to enjoy epicurean delights, reconnect with our roots, celebrating our traditions and lights that will inspire us for the year to come. You may want to return there to add to your mug collection.
The Strasbourg Christmas market in the Alsace region
Stéphane Levy, Strategist, Head of innovation, IRIVEST IM
That's for sure! The Christkindelsmärik attracts 2 million of visitors from around the world during one month every year and holds the title of France's most visited Christmas market.
It has been around since 1570 and was for a long time the only one in France. In 1570, once the Protestant Reformation had been adopted in Strasbourg, it was decided to assign the role of gift-giver to the baby Jesus, known in Alsatian as Christkindel. Thus, Saint Nicholas Day was abolished, but merchants were still allowed to organize their market, which became a veritable annual fair.
Over the years, several Christmas markets have sprung up across France, but Alsace remains renowned for the beauty of its markets.
Visiting Strasbourg during this period is an experience not to be missed.
Riquewihr and Eguisheim
Bruno Patain, Country Head of Eurizon for Spain and Portugal
My favorite Christmas markets are those in the towns of Alsace, especially Riquewihr and Eguisheim, where Christmas retains an authentic and close character. In these towns, the traditional architecture, cobblestone streets, and medieval facades create an environment that naturally fits with winter celebrations and allows you to enjoy a more serene Christmas experience linked to local life.
In Riquewihr, the market unfolds in a very well-preserved Renaissance landscape. Its streets, decorated with soft lights and aromas of hot wine, have even served as visual inspiration for Hayao Miyazaki in the movie Howl's Moving Castle. As you walk through the wooden stalls, where regional crafts, ceramics, traditional products, and the typical bredele (butter cookies with many shapes and flavors) are offered, you perceive an attractive balance between history, tradition, and celebration. It is a place where Christmas is lived unhurriedly, with a sense of cultural continuity that invites you to stop and observe.
Eguisheim, on the other hand, offers a smaller market, but especially cozy. Its circular layout facilitates an orderly walk among artisan workshops, wineries that open their doors to present local wines, and small stalls that showcase the production of the area. Here, Christmas is presented with simplicity and proximity, supported by the work of the inhabitants themselves and the wine tradition that defines the identity of the town. What I value most in these markets is their authenticity: they do not seek large effects or shows, but to preserve an atmosphere that clearly reflects the Alsatian personality. The combination of heritage, craftsmanship, and local life creates a sincere and well-cared-for Christmas experience. Therefore, when I think of an ideal market to visit in winter, I always mentally return to the towns of Alsace, which offer a truly special Christmas.
Bolzano and Vipiteno
Alessandro Stival, Founder, Stival Multifamily Office
When I think of my favorite Christmas market, my mind immediately goes to Bolzano. Not only because it is one of the symbolic places of markets in Italy, with its Walther square full of lights, spice scents, the Capuchin Park and Risacco street with local crafts, but because there I realized that these events speak primarily of family, more than tourism and consumption.
The data reminds us that markets are now a real economic engine: in Bolzano and Vipiteno, for example, during the Christmas period the presence increases significantly, with accommodation facilities often towards the "sold out" and rates growing without this slowing down the influx of visitors.
But behind the numbers there are families who choose to invest not only money, but shared time... our most precious asset.
Walking among the wooden huts with children by hand, choosing together a decoration for the tree, warming up with a mulled wine while grandparents tell "how Christmas was once": they are small rituals that cement relationships and family identity. The expense for the trip, the hotel or the simplest weekend getaway thus becomes a form of investment in the emotional capital of the family, something that does not appear on the balance sheet but weighs heavily on long-term well-being.
My favorite Christmas market, therefore, is not just a place. It is any square where consumption gives way to sharing, where a cup of hot chocolate is worth more than an expensive gift because it is drunk together. In a world that runs, the markets remind us that the real “return” of Christmas is the time spent around our hearth, even when that hearth, for a few days, is a lit square far from home.
