Hamburg Holiday

I spent Thanksgiving in Hamburg, Germany, and while I was working for most of the time, I did get to enjoy their Christmas Fair, which is a uniquely European phenomenon that I totally adore.

Every year, from November to January many towns in Europe have a Christmas fair in the evenings with hot mulled wine, local food and local artists' wares.

In the case of Hamburg, their culinary specialties are fried seafood, sausage, apple pastries and an invention so genius that it makes me almost totally forget about the whole Holocaust thing.

You're ok, Deutschland.

That's right. Waffles on a stick. Delicious, cakey, German waffles covered in Nutella on a stick so you can walk around and find the next thing you'd like to put in your mouth before you're even done. Pure genius, I tell you.

I wish we'd import these fairs and their be-sticked wonders in America, but they'd probably charge $12 for a mug of hot wine, so perhaps it's for the best.

I love how sparkly and cozy these fairs feel, and how they celebrate what makes each town unique. So, in that vein, I'm compiled a list of things that I feel exemplify that spirit that would give any celebration a shiny, quirky feeling.

calendar, heels, clock, paperweights, boots, tart servers, earrings, camera

Not included: mulled wine. Have a happy holiday everyone!