November in Mainz is for leaves falling, gray skies, and Christmas markets

Oh how cold it is. November is typically when the skies turn gray, it gets dark quite early, and Christmas lights begin to slowly appear. One of my favorite memories when we lived in Washington, was the swirling leaves falling all around in fall. Although the trees here look bare by the end of the month, it's rare to see unraked piles of leaves on the ground -- this is true German efficiency. As soon as the leaves fall to the ground, they're whisked away by city services. It's quite a sight to watch how quickly the ground is cleared!

It's a good time to pull out board games, light some candles, and get ready for baking lebkuchen. And towards the end of the month, time for the most festive activity of all: Christmas markets! As cold and dark as it may be, the glow of the lights and warmth of the hot drinks and people all around have a magical way of brightening up a dark month. In Mainz, it traditionally begins the Thursday before the first advent - this year it's quite late, on 29th November. The city of Mainz is also running an Adventsbahn: leave your older children or join your younger children while you're out shopping, for a free tram ride in the city, complete with a visit from the Weihnachtsmann, Christmas stories, crafting, and more onboard the tram. It sounds amazing, and it's where I will be on Saturday.

*update - the adventsbahn IS in fact amazing. It took an hour to make the full roundtrip, including potty breaks for the kids and snack / smoking breaks for the caregivers. They were happy to take kids alone and help parents find their kids at any stop, but most parents stayed on. It was helpful to bring snacks (we went too close to lunchtime). And it's hard to miss! It's well marked and decorated and stops at the usual tram stops including Schillerplatz*

We also love our neighborhood Christmas market (although friends who have lived here longer complain that it's "so small"!), which is hosted early one weekend in December, and picking up cardboard boots at Nahkauf that the kids can decorate and return to the store for St Nikolaus to fill up for them on December 6.

Although all this lead-up to Christmas leaves me exhausted with activities by the actual day Christmas arrives (and I haven't even mentioned all of the Adventsnachmittags, Christmas parties, and friend gatherings), it sure is a fun journey through the advent days to the 25th!