At 6 p.m. on most evenings, Heidelberg's foot traffic moves steadily from the center of the Altstadt to the transit stations at the Bismarckplatz and Karlstor. During the Christmas Market, however, office workers and students tend to stay downtown, where they're outnumbered by visitors pouring in from outlying districts. By 8 p.m., when the crowds reach their height, they fill the pedestrian Haupstrasse, its stores, bistros and boutiques linked by a pearl necklace of white lights strung around pine wreaths. In the city's squares, the crowds snake around the larch-wood booths of the markets.

Some have come to shop, but most have come to meet friends, family and co-workers. Carolers sing on street corners, and toddlers with trumpets try to earn some extra money massacring holiday favorites. When the door to the Providenzkirche opens, the harmonies of a rehearing choral group swell through the frigid air.

Beaming dads drag off Christmas trees bought for 14 Euros a meter. A group of visiting Bavarians prances around in red-felt antlers to the amusement of some and the cheers of others. In often vain efforts to stay warm, shoppers shift from one foot to the other and clap their gloves, the muffled thuds sounding like so many polite buffalo stampeding across the University Square.

Some booths offer classy manufactured goods and New Age items, but most feature hand-crafted goods and traditional foods. Many shoppers arrive with large bags and plan to challenge credit limits with buys of candles, wood carvings, jewelry and soaps. Others are obvious impulse buyers, their willpower perhaps sapped by schnapps. Why else would they buy giant, kitschy gingerbread hearts lettered with "For My Sweet Little Mouse" and "Let's Nibble on Each Other?"

Favorite foods show up marked in chalk and paint on menu boards: half-meter bratwurst, potato pancakes with applesauce, and brittle pizza-meets-pancake Pfannkuchen topped with bacon, cheese dumplings or marinated mushrooms. And shoppers keep their colorful cups filled with Gluehwein, as good a way as any to heat hands, body and spirit. The traditional Christmas drink comes in many forms like "Turbo" with rum, "Hot Love" with amaretto, and "Cherry Lane" with a tease of cherry liqueur.

Information: www.heidelberg-marketing.de