Given the huge number of requests we receive to post Christmas events on our website, we have decided, again, to compile this list of Christmas markets for you, and add a few of our own recommendations as well.
Christmas markets are a great place to go to get a flavor of the local customs and traditions of this region - and of course to buy unique, hand-crafted products to send as presents to your folks back home. Most of the markets provide food stalls offering local delicacies, including of course a welcome glass of mulled wine (otherwise known as vin chaud or glühwein). For the children, there are often many activities organized - and if they're lucky, Santa Claus may make a surprise visit!
Since some of the information has been sourced from other websites, we recommend that you verify the time and location of any events that interest you before you set out – just in case the dates have changed.
Horizontal poster 70 x 50 cm: fits in inexpensive frames from local stores easily.
Our very own publisher, Lisa Cirieco-Ohlman, has a new project to announce! The Lake Geneva Poster took one year to produce and another couple of years before it came together. Depicting 2 views of the lake and mountains, with photographs taken throughout the year from the same location, it seems natural for her to have come up with this project as her background is graphic design.
Lisa has been living in Switzerland since 1972 when her father joined the World Health Organization. Her family lived in Eaux-Vives with a view of the lake and Jet d’Eau, as well as Le Salève and Jura mountains.
She has always been fascinated at how the lake changes color throughout the seasons and at different times of day, how it changes in texture due to weather patterns, and various wave formations due to the winds, La Bise (cold wind) and Le Foehn (warm wind). As a little girl, every Sunday morning after breakfast, she would walk down to the lake with her father to feed the ducks and swans, even on the coldest, windiest days. She even remembers seeing an elderly lady get blown into the icy waves one time!
Exclusive 20% discount for knowitall.ch clients on first-time orders placed before the end of 2013.
If you own a video camera, the chances are that you have hours and hours of video footage of your family and friends that you simply don’t have time to edit, or even watch. The amount of footage you have builds up so quickly that eventually the idea of editing it becomes so overwhelming that it sits in the cupboard, untouched, for years.
Although there are many software packages on the market, which claim to make the task of creating home videos relatively easy for the novice editor, they are very time consuming and can take a long time to learn to achieve the desired effect.
Recognizing what a problem this can be for many busy people, experienced journalist and editor, Zuzana Hevler, has recently set up her own business in Geneva, called VisualSouvenirs, creating home videos for clients. As a mother of two children, Zuzana understands only too well the desire of families to capture their special memories on video, and has spent many evenings editing her own family videos after the children have gone to bed. So when she was looking for a way to juggle her career with the demands of motherhood, the idea of setting her up her own movie-editing business seemed the natural choice.
This is the time of the year when we are all looking for shortcuts in the kitchen. Even though you have prepared and shopped and gifted and baked, no amount of organization will see you through to the end of the holidays without a hiccup here and there.
While doing a quick shop at Denner supermarket the other day, I reached into the promotional bin near to see what great deal they were offering that week. When, what to my wondering eyes should appear, but the cutest little cabin-shaped ice cream log of just the right size, and boasting the cutest price of only Fr. 4.95!
This is just the kind of thing that is great to have on hand for an emergency dessert that will have all the guests raving about it. They won’t be offended that you didn’t make it yourself!
Before I recommended it though, my handy team of samplers put it through its paces, and sliced off the first slice to see if “what you see is what you get”. This is the result of our test:
- The size is generous: 1000 ml (to you and me that is 1 liter) and you can slice about 8-10 slabs of cabin — 10/10
- The taste is a rich and gorgeous chocolate ice cream and a roof made of soft whipped cream with flakes of white chocolate that give a nice texture — 10/10
- The contrast between window/door and rest of cabin is not as contrasted as the photo on the box — a disappointing 5/10
- One of the testers is convinced that he was able to taste the difference between door and wall. The other testers could not. — 8/10
Enter our competition to win a free chopping board, or claim your exclusive 10% discount on all products ordered before 31 March, 2014!
As Christmas approaches, many of you will be racking your brains for original present ideas. If you are looking for something with a Swiss influence, then the PanoramaKnife is surely the perfect gift!
Created by a small family company based in Ermatingen, Switzerland, the PanoramaKnife is a high quality kitchen knife that portrays the major peaks of Switzerland along its blade, and is available in several different versions, representing the most popular mountain ranges in the country. The Lake Geneva knife is an obvious choice for residents of Geneva, Vaud and neighboring France, but others such as Valais will be equally appealing to those who like to travel around Switzerland, especially skiing enthusiasts!
Asked what inspired him to create this novel idea for a kitchen knife, Andy Hostettler told knowitall.ch. “It was on a romantic road trip one misty morning, near Ermatingen, that I looked over at the Säntis and its neighboring mountains and was simply overwhelmed by the sheer beauty of it all. The idea of creating a product that could enable others to literally “grasp in their hands” some of the most beautiful natural creations in this world was incredible – and also very practical! Our family company runs a small boutique hotel in Ermatingen, so we need to use kitchen knives every day to slice the bread for our customers and serve them cheese!”
