A European Christmas

Available for over a year

Sheila Dillon follows in the footsteps of The Archer’s Kathy and Kenton to explore the background, business and pleasure of Vienna’s Christmas Markets. Sheila Dillon visits Schönbrunn Christkindlmarkt and talks to organiser Gabriella Schmiedler and tea shop owner and stallholder Andrew Demmer about the business of the market, and to city guide Uta Minnich about the history of Vienna’s Christmas markets. Sheila Dillon visits the “Magic of Advent” Christkindlemarkt outside the Rathaus with press office Linda Pichler, and the Freyung Christkindlemarkt with BBC correspondent Bethany Bell, and talks to gingerbread stall holder Nela Alker. The Viennese, in common with most European countries, celebrate Christmas on the 24th with a Christmas Eve dinner, traditionally the carp. Sheila joins Walter Osztovics, author of men’s cookery book Heroes of the Hearth (Helden am Herd), to shop to carp (from Biofisch), and for a Christmas Eve feast with Bethany Bell, and Walter’s friend and keen cook, Issy Bornemann.