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Rick Steves' European Christmas

This winter, an exciting Christmas special will add to your holiday fun. For 12 days of Christmas two busy crews were filming: 12 carol concerts, 11 mugs of gluhwein, 10 living mangers, 9 happy families, 8 Christmas feasts, 7 Euro-cultures, 6 mistletoe kisses, 5 alternative Santas, 4 pounds of weight gain, 3 midnight Masses, 2 exhausted cameramen, and a festival of great new public television.

From England to Norway, Burgundy to Bavaria, and Rome to the top of the Swiss Alps, "Rick Steves' European Christmas" gets you a seat at the family feast, up in the loft with the finest choirs, and into the kitchen with grandma and her best-kept holiday secrets.

With Rick Steves as your holiday travel partner, you'll join Romans cooking up female eels, Parisians slurping oysters, Tuscans tossing fruitcakes, and Norwegian kids winning marzipan pigs. Going beyond his well-established European travel show format, Rick explores the rich and fascinating mix of traditions — Christian, pagan, commercial, and edible — that led to the holiday festivities we know and love today.

With enchanting images, tasty feasts, glorious music, and an inspiring insight into sacred traditions, this special captures the spirit of the season. You'll celebrate Christmas as a wide-eyed child, as an awe-struck pilgrim, and as a loving parent.

You're right there as the excitement of the Christmas season builds in each of seven cultures. Then, in a festive climax, bells ring throughout the Continent as Christmas Day sweeps across Europe. Celebrate with us on KXXX, December xx. Buon Natale! Frohliche Weihnachten! Joyeux Noel! Merry Christmas!

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