Dortmund Christmas City: As many visitors as in 2019!

From November 17th to December 30th, 2022, the Westphalian Market Traders and Showmen's Association and the Rote Erde Showmen's Association organized the Dortmund Christmas City for the 144th time. This has been the name of the Dortmund Christmas market since 2019, which stretches across the largest squares and streets of Dortmund's city center, transforming it into the festive heart of the city for six weeks.

After the final day of the event, the organizers drew a satisfactory conclusion: "With around 2 million visitors, we have once again reached the level of 2019," said Patrick Arens, chairman of the Rote Erde showmen's association. "After two difficult years, we can speak of a successful restart of the Christmas market."

Arens: "Christmas market an established meeting place"

After the Christmas market was canceled altogether in 2020 due to the pandemic and only held under COVID-19 restrictions in 2021, visitors to the Christmas market defied concerns about inflation and the energy crisis this year. "The activity in the city showed us that people want to get out and about again," Arens noted. The Christmas market is not only an established meeting place during the Advent season, but also enjoys disproportionately high attendance after the holidays: "We probably had the strongest post-Christmas period ever, from which retailers particularly benefited." Since 2014, the Christmas market has remained open after the holidays until December 30th. Weekends were especially busy this year, with stallholders even recording record visitor numbers on some days. A noticeable trend was the significant shift in peak visitor times to the evening hours, when dusk falls and the numerous light installations create a festive atmosphere. To save energy, the lights remained switched off this year from 11 p.m. to 3 p.m. In addition, all lights and stalls use climate-neutral green electricity.

Many guests from all over the world again

Among the visitors this year were once again many guests from all over the world: Not only tourists from the Benelux countries came to visit; many Southern Europeans, English and Americans also used the Christmas market as an opportunity to visit Dortmund. "The tourist activity has increased tremendously again," said Arens.

Christmas village returns to Hansaplatz

The return of the Christmas village, where children could bake and do crafts throughout the entire period, also proved very popular. For the first time, it was combined with the theater tent on Hansaplatz and demonstrated the appeal of a daily family program.

From December 18th to 22nd, a glass studio belonging to WDR2 was set up right next to the Christmas village: the WDR2 Christmas Miracle . This fundraising campaign, the radio station's first of its kind, was a resounding success, raising more than 7 million euros over five days of live programming. With numerous celebrity visitors and performances by artists, the WDR2 Christmas Miracle was a popular addition to the Christmas market. Also popular was the campaign by Radio 91.2 on the opposite side of Hansaplatz: The station collected the best selfies from visitors at the selfie point in front of the world's largest Christmas tree and, together with the travel agency at the market in Dortmund-Mengede, will be raffling off a trip for two to New York at the beginning of the new year.

Looking forward to 2023

For next year, the organizers are planning to further develop the Christmas City concept, which unites all conceivable stakeholders in the city center. In addition to integrating restaurants, service providers, and retailers, partnerships with churches, museums, municipal institutions, and artists will be strengthened. In terms of content, plans include expanding the "Fair Trade Corner" sustainability area on Kampstraße and revising the fairy tale display. Furthermore, the organizers would like to see even more handcrafted goods, such as those found in the "Craftsmen's Quarter" with Tunisian potters, knitters, and a candy maker . Recurring artist performances and new pop-up concepts are intended to provide surprising moments throughout the entire event.

Since the Dortmund Christmas market always begins on the Thursday before Totensonntag (the Sunday before Advent), the starting date for 2023 is already set: The Dortmund Christmas City will begin on November 23rd in 2023.