In the 1960s West Germany, the period of post-war reconstruction had nearly reached its end, with prosperity growing across the country. Christmas gifts grew more and more expensive, extending into new areas such as electronic items and luxury goods. But at the same time, more and more people started criticizing the new consumerist spirit eroding the Christian origins of the holiday.
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Germany’s Christmas markets came roaring back after the end of the war—and only grew in the following decades, as an economic boom in the 1960s and 1970s and the rise of consumerism fueled the growth of Christmas shopping.
These economic shifts transformed the Christmas markets in to mass cultural events—up to a thousand tour buses full of shoppers might descend on a city’s Christmas market during any given weekend.
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Here below is a set of beautiful photos from flow_23 that shows a German family was celebrating Christmas in 1962.
