6 Things That Make Christmas Markets so Irresistibly Christmassy

Delicious hot chocolates , Christmas markets, and joyful caroling  are in order! Despite enjoying this emotionally charged time of year, Caplena cannot help but flaunt our true nature – after all, we are artificial intelligence that categorizes emotions and sentiments better than it feels them – we leave that to the humans . We are aching to categorize something, and what could be more Christmassy than jolly Christmas markets? 

What are the most common things people mention when they happily talk about their most recent Christmas market visit? To find out, we studied three highly rated – but different – Christmas markets to analyze their Google reviews.

From left to right: 1) Singing Christmas Tree Market in Zürich, Switzerland, 2) Winter Village at Bryant Park in the United States, New York, 3) Medieval Christmas Market in Germany, München

The Science Behind Christmas Markets Spirit ✨

Perfecting the Christmas Markets’ Spirit is a scientific process. Have you ever been to an amazing Christmas market that only had one good thing? Us neither. At Caplena, we contend that the key to that jolly feeling of love and togetherness is a blend of various topics. A mix alone, however, isn’t enough. The more the ingredients are balanced, the better! Using the Treemap, we can see the derived topics and their balance within our scientific recipe.

Our treemap of Christmas topics appears to be relatively balanced. No one topic dominates half of the space. Let’s examine the topics in more detail.

Caplena’s analysis of the reviews automatically generated these key topics

Our treemap of Christmas topics appears to be relatively balanced. No one topic dominates half of the space. Let’s examine the topics in more detail.

Christmas Markets Ingredients

A dash of this and that…

🎁 Aesthetics

Taking the top two spots are aesthetic-related codes. An ideal location (i.e., the general atmosphere of the city or market) is key. Smaller details follow; think fairy lights, fragrances, a shiny garland entwining pine boughs, glass ornaments, and all the other little touches bringing the season to life.

Aesthetics has the strongest correlation with overall ‘Excellent Experience’ according to the relationship chart.

The driver chart shows that a nice setup has by far the highest impact on customer satisfaction.

🎁 Food & Mulled Wine

Food is the way to the ❤️

The treemap proves this point clearly. All foods from different countries and cultures were combined into one code. Mulled wine is just like wine, but with a holiday spirit. In fact, it had such a high volume of mentions that it deserved its very own code. Because wine not?

The food code ties into every positively associated code, binding all the good elements of a Christmas market together. In fact, there is barely a code involving food not combined with one another. Have a look.

‘Amazing Food’ has strong connections to almost all other codes.

🎁 Fun Activities

People like to eat, but (after) they have filled their bellies, some like to participate in light activities to digest all the delicious food they just consumed. In activities, ice skating takes first place by far. Also on the list are other attractions like bumper rides  (although you might want to wait a while after eating for those).

via GIPHY

🎁 Christmas Music

"Santa Baby, so hurry down the chimney tonight" 🎶 Christmas isn’t Christmas without music. Researchers examined people’s ability to recall memories after hearing a clip from a song in a 1999 study. During that time, they were able to recall specific emotions and events. Listening to some Christmas tunes might make you wistful for your childhood or simply make you feel festive and happy.

🎁 Family Friendly & Jolly Staff

It might seem like a minor point – but nothing destroys a wonderful Christmas market more than rude staff or people complaining about kids being there. Yes – not all of us are huge fans of children – but they represent the innocence and pure joy that Christmas tries to instill in us all .

🎁 Shopping

Christmas Markets wouldn’t be complete without… the market! Ironically the very thing it is named after comes in last on the list of Christmas market staples.

See the whole Christmas Markets dashboard here

Bar chart showing topics from most important topics (top) to least important (bottom).

Things That Ruin the Spirit of Christmas Markets

Whilst most of the reviews are quite positive, BEWARE of the few things that very much bothered people. You can best measure satisfaction vs impact using the driver chart.

The far left side of the driver chart shows what negatively affected people’s perception of the Christmas market. The higher, the bigger the negative impact. More about Driver Chart Analysis here.

Christmas Markets only suffer from three major negative factors. If the market is too expensive, for instance, the negative NPS score is quite high. A small or crowded market comes second. Finally, although ice skating is the third most important code, it carries the highest risk of disappointment due to paying a lot, rude staff, and long wait times.

Conclusion

Having proven what makes an amazing Christmas market – and what to avoid – let’s turn our attention to you, our customers! Thanks for being a part of our success. We wish you a happy holiday season. Now that you have all the ingredients that make Christmas markets so magically Christmassy – you are sure to have a beautiful Christmas holiday (backed by facts) 😜🎄