Birmingham

Singing bowl

While it's a popular place to pick up a Christmas gift or grab a bite to eat, not every item is made in Germany. You'll find Himalayan singing bowls, German houses made in Lithuania, honey mead from Poland, East Asian sound frogs, salt crystal lights and mineral rocks from South America, and the odd replica item made in China.

Kirstin's traditional witches

German witches

Kirstin Toennes is surrounded by hundreds of dolls, puppets and marionettes, some of which are handmade by her husband who also designs the stall's witches;

Hand made witch

"Many people in Germany have a little witch hanging in the entrance hall or in the kitchen of their house, or anywhere in fact, at anytime of year. It's a traditional and very popular. I have a marionette witch, which is made by my husband, he had a special factory where he produced them. It is made out of clay and it's hand made. For those who can't afford the expensive handmade ones we have the cheaper ones for £6.50 and for £8 so everyone who likes witches can buy one for just a little money." 

Elias with wood carved gifts

Hand finished decorations

Elias has a stall full of traditional wooden Christmas decorations, made by his family, not in Germany, but in German-speaking Tyrol in the North of Italy, for those looking for an alternative to tinsel and baubles:

Stollen on Stefan's stall

Traditional Christmas cake

Stollen is a centuries old traditional Christmas cake in Germany, originally baked to resemble the baby Jesus wrapped in swaddling clothes. Stefan sells Stollen and other sweet treats on his stall: "I have cookies, Christmas cake, Stollen - all kinds of things. Stollen is a traditional German Christmas cake made with butter, marzipan, fruits, and raisins. Every German family at Christmas will have some Stollen in, or at least every second one! English people seem to like it too."

Ivan with his 70s hippie candles

Flower power candles

Ivan Schwabe has hundreds of candles, hand made in Berlin for sale: "In the 70s we had an idea with some friends in the flower power movement to make these rainbow candles. We tried it out and its now a very good selling product in the Christmas market in Germany, Birmingham, Southhampton, London and Plymouth. 

Rainbow candles

Are you tempted to put scent into your candles to please the Brummie market? "No, we began with pure candles, candles with colour pigments and organic candles. The candles were born in the 70s and now they are still back. But the Brits are not so happy with no smell, but for the last two weeks in front of Christmas they are loving it, everybody needs a candle at Christmas."

Marco's romantic Rhine chocolates

Brandy filled chocolate

Marco Schmidt works on the praline stand, serving hundreds of individual, delicate hand made chocolates. "The Asbach pralines are fine black chocolate filled with some old traditional brandy from Germany. The chocolate is protected with crunchy sugar crystals but that makes it especially sweet, but the inside runs down and makes you feel fine, its got a very warm-up feeling!

Chocolate!

"It's from the famous vineyards of Germany and they do their best wine there. The chocolate brand is over 80 - 100 years old and the wine is many hundreds of years old." Have you ever tried Birmingham chocolates - Cadbury's? "Yeah, I love Cadbury ! The Dairy Milk with this caramel stuff - I love it! I'm addicted to chocolate. I want to go to Cadbury World but I won't have time so I will have to come back to Birmingham to see this great place. I love the UK, the people are great here."

Petra and her German sausages

You take it in a roll and you can make ketchup or mustard on it. People come and say 'Oh the big sausage!'. I came to Birmingham seven years ago with my big sausage and people are coming and saying, 'Hello, nice to see you back' - I have some friends here now I think! It's traditional to have big sausages, the two types the white with herbs and the red a smoky sausage that we grill. We use traditional German mustard and curried ketchup, it's very lovely. The white one is my favourite it's very traditional, all people in Germany like a Bratwurst. I like it when English people come and say (puts on posh voice) 'I'd like a Bratwurst please'. This is very good. Very nice."

Terry's steel men made of nuts and bolts

Steel men

Terry sells unusual sculptures made out of nuts and bolts: "It began with the brother of the owner of the company, he was a locksmith and he started just for fun to do one of the figures he made a drummer for his good friend. The owner said 'this is a great idea we have to do more of that'. We started with a little market in Germany and each year getting bigger, they like it very much in Germany. In '92 we came to England to show the English people our product and they accepted them very well.

Sabine with nutcrackers

"The little smoking men depict different trades, in the olden days every family would have a smoker depicting the trade of the family and come Christmas they would get him out of the closet, put an incense cone inside him to celebrate the holidays, and to say thank you to the trade for supporting them all year. That’s where these little people originated from and from today they are just collectors items and nice Christmas decorations.

'Smoking men'

"They're not made in Germany as they wouldn't be affordable, they are replicas made under German supervision in China. The nutcrackers are also traditional, there's a story about how the nutcracker protects the house - you should see the ballet for the full story! They are all very traditional including the Christmas pyramids which are rotating nativity scenes. We would have them as centre pieces at Christmas dinner tables so everybody can watch the nativity scene rotating. Most Germans buy these things too because they are so affordable and with the credit crunch we don't expect people to spend too much money on nik-naks like this."

Gingerbread hearts

Gingerbread hearts

Yvonne Weber is selling gingerbread hearts. They are solid baked gingerbread piped with icing and decorated with a message, hung up on a piece of red ribbon. "It was the dish of the poor people and they baked the bits and pieces they had left over and they formed a heart out of them and sold them on the Christmas market. The tradition dates back to around 1900 and would have traditional words like Frohes fest, Merry Christmas, I love you, For my mum, For my dad. They are for eating and for decoration. They are fun!