Käthe Wohlfahrt is an enterprise selling Christmas decorations year round. It currently has six shops in Rothenburg and several more in other locations in Germany and abroad.

In Rothenburg it is a dominating presence and you can experience Christmas even on the hottest summer day by entering any of the six shops. The largest and most interesting is the massive Weihnachtsdorf or Christmas Village just off Market Square in Herrngasse. This shop claims to have the largest collection of German Christmas decorations in the world and this claim would be hard to dispute. Displays range from large nutcrackers to huge Christmas trees and snow covered toy houses. Most items are made of wood and a far cry from modern mass-produced plastic decorations. Prices are of course not low but the items are of a high quality and make nice souvenirs. There is also a Christmas Decoration Museum but it seems hardly worth the money and effort after having seen the display in the main shop.

Each of the six stores has a different emphasis, but the Christmas Village is definitely the most interesting for mere browsing. The Clock Shop has a large variety of clocks from cuckoo to grandpa standing clocks. The Magic Mushroom sells mainly toys, in contrast to its Tokyo namesake, which specializes in hallucination inducing stuff. The Rosenpavillion has home decorations including a separate Meissen porcelain section. At the Bavarian Gift Shop you can pick up those Lederhosen that no closet is complete without as well as other traditional Bavarian attire.

The Käthe Wohlfahrt shops are concentrated around the Market Square area, which give them good exposure. Rothenburg can feel like one big Christmas shop until you wandered off a bit and regain some medieval calm and tranquility in the narrow back alleys.

The website has an interesting bit on how the store developed out of American interest in German Christmas decorations and toys after the Second World War.