What does the Nuremberg Christkind do?

The Nuremberg Christkind, with her white and golden dress, long blond curls and golden crown, has been the symbol of the Christmas Market for many decades. In fact, the event – the “Christkindlesmarkt” – is named for her. During Advent, the Christkind is the most important representative of the city and the Christmas Market.

Every year, on Friday before the first Sunday in Advent, the Nuremberg Christkind opens the Nuremberg Christmas Market by reciting a festive prologue. Her other tasks in the weeks before the holidays include appearances at both the Christkindlesmarkt and Children's Christmas Market, a fairy-tale hour for little ones in the "Sternenhaus" children’s theater and music center and more than 170 appointments at charitable institutions. The most important task of the Christkind, however, is to give hope, warmth and joy to children and the less fortunate. That is why visits to kindergartens, homes for the elderly and disabled and hospitals are a large part of her well-scheduled pre-Christmas program. On Christmas Eve, her last and most important task of the season is to visit Nuremberg's children's hospitals to bring presents to the little patients there.

In addition, the Christkind has a lot of interviews and TV appearances and acts as an ambassador for Nuremberg when she visits Christmas Markets in other cities. She’s even known as far away as the USA and so visits the Christmas Villages in Philadelphia and Baltimore. This special representative of Nuremberg also pays regular visits to Nuremberg's Scottish sister city Glasgow.