Christmas Festivities in Lausanne
2011 Edition

Christmas Market

Place St-François, 25 November to 24 December

Come and visit the 50 chalets on the unavoidable market in St-François during the festivities. Enjoy the original ideas for your Christmas gifts and take a fancy to the delicious meals proposed. You will find in the program all the dates of the entertainments as EJMA concerts or afterworks jazzy.

• Monday to Saturday 11.30 to 20.00
• Every Sunday 13.00 to 18.000
• Evening shopping 11.30 to 22.00

Lumberjack Village

Place Pépinet, 25 November to 24 December

• Monday to Saturday 11.30 to 20.00
• Every Sunday 13.00 to 18.00
• Evening shopping 11.30 to 22.00

2011, the year of forests, refreshes Lausanne with the lumberjack village. You will be warmed up by a fondue-tree or take part to the entertainments on the theme of forests. Special entertainments for kids as pony rides or the father Christmas's hut.

Some history

The history of the Christmas Market goes back a long way. Background paper tells us that its ancestors originated in the 14th century as the St. Nicolas Day Markets. In Alsace, it was St. Nicolas - or Santa Claus - who was responsible for distributing gifts to deserving children. In his wake a certain "Bogeyman" who handed out some very different surprises...

In Munich, the first recorded St. Nicolas Day Market was in 1642. According to a chronicle of the time, Nuremberg gingerbreads, children's woollen and cotton garments, crib figurines and almond and prune chimney-sweeps were to be found there.

In 1806, the Market was first lit up and changed name to become the "Christmas Market".