Steaming mugs of mulled wine, the scent of cloves and cinnamon, candlelight and Advent carols – many across the country are looking forward to the Christmas markets in December. Corona had recently made this impossible. In Swabia, therefore, Christmas is now celebrated in the summer.

Christmas spirit with mulled wine, Santa Claus and a Christmas tree in midsummer – this is intended to attract people to the Swabian Dinkelscherben this weekend. The Christmas market that was canceled last winter due to the Corona crisis will then be made up for in the courtyard of a retirement home.

The organizers promise classic Christmas music, the smell of mulled wine and bratwurst and a cozy get-together with loved ones. Just as is usual with the traditional markets in Advent.

Organizer Paul Schreiber from the local business development association Reischenau justified the unusual timing that the “beautiful Christmas markets” that had been prepared for two years had to be cancelled.

Then the idea came up in the association to organize a Christmas market as part of the cultural weeks in the market town in the Augsburg district in July. First he swallowed and then said: “Yes, why not?”

He doesn’t know whether the approximately 6,400 residents of Dinkelscherben are already in the Christmas spirit after the hot days in June, says Schreiber. “But we’re trying to get people in the mood.”

The association promises that the three-day market will have “everything that goes with a real Christmas market”.

According to Schreiber, the reactions to the summer Christmas market are very different. “Some say it’s total bullshit.” Others asked if it was a joke. Especially religious people also criticized the idea.