KOBLENZ, Germany: You know it’s Christmas time in Germany when the main squares of many cities and towns are transformed overnight into glittering shopping bazaars offering everything from hand-carved Christmas ornaments to Bob Marley T-shirts.

The markets have been part of the country’s Yuletide celebration for hundreds of years and remain a tourist favorite.

One of the biggest and best-known is the Christkindlesmarkt in Nuremberg, where some 2 million people are expected to visit the market square in the heart of the city’s old quarter from 1-23 December.

Dresden’s Striezelmarkt is considered the oldest, dating back to 1434, and is home to Dresdner Christstollen, a butter-rich fruitcake topped with powdered sugar that has become a national holiday staple.

Shoppers can find a bounty of carved wooden items such as schwibbogen, or decorative candle arches from the Erzgebirge mining region. There are also nativity figurines, hand-blown glass tree ornaments and blue-tinged pottery from the Lusatia region.

Yet another favorite is the Christmas pyramid – an ornamental tower turned by a fan that catches rising warm air from candles.

In Frankfurt, the market covers the expanse of the rebuilt Old Town and counts thousands upon thousands of visitors daily until 24 December.

Others, such as Ruedesheim and Michelstadt, are more intimate affairs, off the beaten path and open only on weekends.

Erfurt’s Christmas market, the biggest in the state of Thuringia in former East Germany, is one of the most beautiful, with 200 stalls lining the city’s Domplatz, or Cathedral Square.

Lights from the 80-foot high Christmas tree softly illuminate people slowly sipping gluehwein – warm, spiced wine – and eating Thuringian sausages.

Food choices include bratwurst sausage, gluehwein, deep-fried potato cakes, and chunks of goose or turkey fried in batter and smothered with creamy garlic sauce.

Lebkuchen, or gingerbread, ranges from thin cookies enjoyed with a cup of hot chocolate to larger cakes, sometimes heart-shaped and iced with sentimental holiday messages – an edible Christmas card.

In Koblenz, one teenager wore hers around her neck, with “I love my boyfriend” in strawberry icing.

Since it’s Germany, there’s Weihnachtsbier, or Christmas beer, with a slightly stronger alcoholic punch to it, which helps keep away the winter cold.