We love the cozy atmo­sphere of the Michel­ber­ger Hotel in the Winter. On Advent Sundays, the Michel­ber­ger trans­forms into a cozy make­shift Christ­mas Forest exper­i­ence. They pull out the good Whis­key from the base­ment and spend a merry time with their cus­tom­ers and other happy after­noon­ers like us.

While the Michel­ber­ger is already quite notori­ous for their “no noisy tour­ism” policies (we like that, by the way).What they add to that is a cer­tain little romance for Christ­mas­mar­kets (very Ger­man tra­di­tion, those mar­kets). The staff’s cre­ativ­ity, the interior and the bands they choose for their little shows in the lobby all make for a great visit, even if you’re a local. Although it’s become quite crowded, this is how you spend a per­fect Sunday after­noon in Christ­mas spirit (per­fectly dec­or­ated). We impro­vised our seat­ing situ­ation and just ran­domly scattered across the floor. After all, cud­dling with your neigh­bour should be a require­ment for the holy month!

Shop­ping, drink­ing, hanging around, loun­ging and listen­ing to folksy indie rock­ish kind of bands in candle light. Not exactly the best place to actu­ally buy a ton of presents for your beloved ones, but a good place to take your beloved ones out to — even the little ones.

By the way: if you need more input on where to go and what to do on these frosty week­ends to come, we’ve com­piled a con­tinu­ously updated list of spe­cial Christ­mas events around the city. Have fun!

Thanks to Stefan for some of these pictures!