The Christmas season is a very special time in Germany. During the four weeks preceding Christmas, known as Advent, in almost every city, town, or village in Germany the main market square where all the fruits and vegetables are sold, the fruit and vegetable stalls are dismantled and removed from the market square at the beginning of November, and replaced by picturesque wooden huts adorned with miniature white lights which transform town squares and city marketplaces around the country into winter wonderlands. Vendors begin selling traditional German gifts, handcrafted ornaments, wooden toys, and Advent wreaths. The aromas of fresh gingerbread, roasted chestnuts and almonds, lebkucken (honey or spiced rectangular cakes with a wafer bottom), and hot steaming mugs of mulled wine, known as glühwein, waft through the air. All this contributes to a sense of wonder
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