Published on June 14, 2023
The 9 best Christmas gifts from Germany
Stroll through a traditional German Christmas market, and you’ll see why Germans have a special reputation for capturing the Christmas spirit. From steamy Glühwein to sweet and spicy Lebkuchen, from wooden figurines to nativity scenes, you’ll find a massive variety of typically German Christmas presents on hand. To help you pick out the best Christmas gifts from Germany to bring back to your loved ones, we’ve picked out the most iconic of the bunch.
What’s better than one German Christmas present? Twenty-four German Christmas presents! The Adventskalender helps impatient children count down the days from the first day of December to Christmas Eve with a surprise each day. If you want to create lasting memories to revisit in future years, pick one of the reusable Advent calendars. They’re often designed as wooden drawers or mini stockings on a line, and they double as Christmas decorations. Make sure the recipient opens this gift in November, as the Adventskalender starts on December 1!
A traditional German Christmas mug is a great option when you need to fit the German Christmas market experience into a suitcase. This isn’t just a mug for your standard tea or coffee; an essential part of the experience is drinking mulled wine (or Kinderpunsch, an alcohol-free alternative). The steaming Christmas beverage is served in Christmas mugs produced for this occasion, with the name of the town and the year. Collecting these mugs is part of the fun. Rule-loving Germans also take pleasure in the extra excitement that comes with not returning the mug, which means forsaking the €2 mug deposit.
German chocolate is one of the best gifts from Germany. But if you want to get a bit more creative around the holidays, bring home some Lebkuchen, the German version of gingerbread. While it’s an acquired taste, it comes in highly decorative tins that can be used for storing Christmas cookies for years to come. Oh, and don’t forget to pack some of those other traditional German Christmas cookies, too.
Planning to gift a Christmas mug? Why not add a bottle of mulled wine to bring the real Christmas market experience home? If you have to post a parcel, you could simply choose a Glühwein spice mix that’s less heavy and more likely to reach its goal in one piece. Add a sugar cone or gift a Feuerzangenbowle set to surprise your loved ones with a very special German Christmas and New Year”s tradition: watching the rum-soaked sugar burn and drip into the mulled wine.
The most German Christmas decoration of all is probably the Weihnachtspyramide (Christmas pyramid) from the Ore Mountain region. On one or more tiers of the wooden structure, Christmas-related scenes turn like a carousel shortly after the candles at the bottom are lit and hot air streams to the paddles on top.
The Weihnachtsbogen is a much simpler construction, with candles on a wooden arch. Both gifts were originally considered substitutes for a Christmas tree, but today they are widely used as Christmas decorations.
While the famous ballet comes from Russia, the story behind it was written by the German author E.T.A. Hoffmann. Even if the wooden nutcracker doesn’t actually come alive in their home, your friends and family will love this German Christmas present. The colorful nutcrackers come in different sizes and are a practical and decorative gift for Christmas.
This incense smoker originally comes from the Ore mountain region. The wooden figurine is made of two parts and is hollow. If you place an incense candle or cone inside and burn it, the smoke comes out of the pipe and gives the impression of the little man smoking.
One of the best Christmas gifts from Germany is a carved nativity scene. If you are an expat living in Germany, you could surprise your family and friends back home with a new piece every year. Just start with the holy family and then add the wise kings, animals, shepherds and angels for a growing masterpiece of German craftsmanship that can be passed down for generations.
Send a whole German village back home! You can build a German Christmas village with these little porcelain houses that are lit from the inside by a tea candle, shining their warm light through the little windows. Decorate with fake snow and little trees and add some carved wooden figurines to create a miniature winter wonderland. Gift the kids a German wooden train set to make it complete. And if your friends just can’t get enough of Germany, consider gifting them a German course to prepare them for their own adventure.
Christmas is all about tradition, and tradition is a big thing when it comes to Christmas in Germany! There are so many choices that it can be hard to pick the right Christmas gift from Germany for your loved ones back home. With this list of German Christmas presents, you should at least have a starting point. Need more ideas? Head to the next Christmas market for some Glühwein-fueled inspiration.
