“We don’t want an open-air Christmas supermarket,” defends Guillaume Libsig, deputy mayor of Strasbourg in charge of urban activities. This is how the ecological municipality justifies the list of products now authorized and prohibited for sale on the next edition of the Christmas market. This document, which includes some fifty articles, was sent by email to fairgrounds and shopkeepers who will be working on the “Christkindeslmärik” from 25 November.
The file revealed by The Latest News from Alsace is, to say the least, reacting. “Donuts prohibited for sale but not Turkish delights”, ironically for example Régis on Twitter. “Our doctrine is product authenticity. We wanted to exclude all items that are not made in Alsace and that do not respect Christmas values,” explains Guillaume Lisbig. This is how tartiflette, popcorn or umbrellas end up on the index!
“There were debates for each article”
The list comes from the work of the Christmas market’s “product selection commission”, an entity made up of elected officials, representatives of exhibitors or the city’s merchants’ association, which met on September 16. . “There were debates for each article. For example, we prohibit snow globes with water that we shake but we authorize those more noble produced in Alsace, ”continues the deputy. Hot beer, paninis and hot dogs are only allowed under this condition.
Among the other products banned this year, champagne. “In Alsace, during the holiday season, we want to give pride of place to crémant”, says Guillaume Libsig. What to react to the mayor of Reims, the capital of champagne, Arnaud Robinet, on Twitter this Tuesday: “I believed in information from the parody site Le Gorafi. What a bad signal sent. The town hall of Strasbourg specifies that exhibitors who do not respect these prohibitions during the next edition of the Christmas market could see their presence prohibited in 2023.