Christmas Markets

I'm missing Christmas markets right now. In Europe, lots of cities have Christmas markets near the city center. Vendors are set up in tents/booths on the sidewalk selling food, hot chocolate, and all kinds of cute gifts like scarves and ornaments. Sometimes there are also small rides for kids and the decorations are always beautiful! The other great thing about them is they're not just a one day event. They usually operate at night for several weeks before Christmas (sometimes only on the weekends). I'm sure there are some like this in the U.S. but I've never been to one. We need more of them! Here are some photos that I took last year of markets from a few cities...

The lights on City Hall at the Belfast Christmas market were lovely.

It was the most crowded Christmas market that I went to.

This Paris market went right down the Champs-Élysées towards the Arc de Triomphe. 

At the start of the market there was a giant Christmas tree and Ferris wheel!

Where's Santa?

We got hot chocolate and crepes...it was a VERY chilly day.

I didn't get great pictures of the Cork Christmas market, but there was this cool slide and a Carousel!

There were also a lot of pretty Christmas trees around the City Center.

P.S. While I was making this post I got a notification from Google Plus that they auto-created gifs from the photos in this post and they look awesome! Here are 3 of them: