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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Travel
Rebecca Smith

‘This is the real Santa’s workshop’: a trip to Germany’s toy village

Santa Mining
Seiffen is ‘a town full of twinkly lights and warm, inviting shops’.
Seiffen is ‘a town full of twinkly lights and warm, inviting shops’. Photograph: Thomas Hertwig/Alamy

I feel terrible … I’ve left the children at home and Seiffen, nicknamed Spielzeugdorf (The Toy Village), is literally a Christmas wonderland. Every street is alive with sparkling fairy lights and soft candlelight. There are thousands of tiny wooden figurines, train sets and toy animals displayed in shop windows, wooden pyramids taller than doorframes and colourful nutcracker characters. Forget elves in the north pole, this is the real Santa’s workshop. For hundreds of years, here in the village of Seiffen, wood turners and carvers have created classic wooden Christmas toys and sold them around the world.

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