Lodging usually isn’t the star of the show for me—but in Strasbourg at Christmas, especially if you’re staying through Christmas Day, where you stay can make or break the trip. Here’s what I learned about choosing the right area, enough space, and why having a kitchen matters more than you think.

Colmar Christmas Market was the cherry on top of our Christmas market trip.

And by “cherry,” I mean an aggressively adorable Alsatian town where my sons and I rode mechanical horses, took ridiculous pictures in photo huts, went up on the Ferris wheel, ate too much, laughed a lot, and eventually agreed we had reached maximum Festive.

For me, this was a perfect “long afternoon into early evening” trip. That gave us enough time to wander the markets, see the town in daylight and after the lights came on, do goofy Christmas things, eat excellent yummies, and then…

I’m not a Magic of Christmas Girl.

I’m a “Mostly Healed My Christmas Trauma but Remain Suspicious of This Time of Year Because It Might Try to Hurt Me” person.

As such, I was fully prepared for Strasbourg to be overrated. In my Grinchy opinion, any place that calls itself the Capital of Christmas is just as likely to be a miserable tourist trap as an actually enjoyable place for festive winter fun.

And then we got off the train and started walking through town…