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1. Learn the deposit system
At German and Austrian markets, the price of your mulled wine includes a deposit on the mug — usually €3 to €5. You return the mug to any stand for the money back, or you keep it as the evening's souvenir. Savvy visitors decide before ordering which they want, so they never end up with three mugs, a backpack full of glass and a queue behind them.
2. Have small cash ready
Most food stands prefer cash, and nothing slows a queue like a €50 note at a €5 sausage stall. Keep a stash of small notes and coins in an easily reached pocket, separate from the big bills, and you will be the fastest person in line all evening.
3. Order before you pay
The rhythm at a market stand is order, pay, collect — and the collection point is not always the ordering point. Watch one customer before you act. At busy stands the regulars know exactly which side to queue on, and copying them saves you the awkward shuffle.
4. Don't stand in the way
The space in front of a stall is for ordering, not for finishing your drink. Collect your Glühwein and step aside — there is a queue behind you, and the crowd in the lane is real. The same rule applies to the middle of walkways: stop at the edge, never in the flow.
5. Greetings and language
A "Hallo" and "Danke" at a German market, a "Merci" in France, a "Dobrý den" in Prague — a single word changes the interaction. Stallholders are used to tourists who speak none of the language, and they are uniformly tolerant; the greeting is a courtesy, not a requirement, and it is reliably repaid.
6. Don't haggle
Market prices are fixed, and the people selling are often the people making. Negotiating at a Christmas market is not a local custom; it is the fastest way to become the table's least favourite customer. If the price is too high, walk on — the market has another stall with the same thing.
7. Mind the queues
The long queue is usually the right queue. A stand with a line is turning over fresh food; the empty stand next to it is not. Join the line properly, wait your turn, and do not drift — at a market, the queue is the product, and the people behind you have plans.
8. Pace the Glühwein
Mulled wine is stronger than it tastes, and the "mit Schuss" version — with a shot of rum or amaretto added — is a serious drink. The savvy pattern is wine first, then hot chocolate, then wine again if the evening calls for it. Nobody is impressed by a dropped mug, least of all the vendor.
9. Leave no trace
The bins are at the edges of the square, and the paper cones and napkins go in them, not on the cobblestones. The deposit mugs go back or home, not into the bin — the deposit is real money. Markets are cleaned overnight by people who do not need your help.
10. Know when to come back
The best visitors leave while the evening is still good. The market is at its most magical twice — at opening, and in the last hour before closing — and the savvy plan is to come back on another night rather than exhaust the first one. The square will still be there tomorrow, and so will the Glühwein.
