Market know-how · 7 min read
How does the mug deposit work at Europe's Christmas markets?
You pay a deposit on the mug when you buy your mulled wine. Hand the mug back at a drinks stall and the money comes back to you, or carry it home and the deposit has paid for it.
By Adam BognarPublished
At most of Europe's big Christmas markets you pay a deposit on the mug along with your mulled wine, and you get it back when you return the mug to a drinks stall. Keep the mug instead and the deposit you already paid covers it. The German word is Pfand, and Strasbourg's chalets call it a consigne. We collected the amounts that organizers and cities publish, added a newspaper price check where an organizer prints nothing, and dated every figure to the season it comes from.
What does the deposit cost at each market?
The euro figures run from €1 a cup in Strasbourg to €5 a mug at several Vienna markets. Every amount below is as published by the source in the last column, and we computed none of them.
The organizers publish their own amount for Strasbourg, the four MAGMAG markets, Leipzig, Brno, Gdańsk, Tallinn and Montreux. Strasbourg, MAGMAG and Montreux print theirs in FAQs that carry no year, so we date those to the 2026 season their sites describe. Vienna's Rathausplatz and Spittelberg figures come from vienna.at's December 2024 price check, which also found mostly €4 at Art Advent at Karlsplatz and €5 at Am Hof and Schönbrunn. Stuttgart's organizer prints no amount either, and the Stuttgarter Zeitung put it at €3 for mugs and glasses in December 2025.
Two of Germany's busiest markets leave the figure out. Nuremberg's 2025 fact sheet confirms ceramic mugs and a washing station in a container on the Obstmarkt behind the Frauenkirche, so ask at the stall before you pay. In Dresden the city's stall rules allow only the Striezelmarkt's own mugs, and the city washes them centrally and runs one deposit system for every stall.
How do you get the deposit back?
Take the mug to any drinks stall at the same market and you get the deposit back there. Strasbourg's FAQ says any chalet that sells drinks will take a cup, and the city puts charity collection bins on the squares as well: drop the cup in one and your euro goes to a Strasbourg charity. Nuremberg's market says every Glühwein stall hands out the same mug, which means any of them can take yours.
A few markets pay refunds to a card. Brno's cups go back at any drinks stall across its central markets, and the dedicated return stalls refund to a card only, which can take up to five working days to reach your account. Montreux has gone cashless apart from its restaurants and the New Bretzel stand, so its cups go back at dedicated stands and card refunds take a while to process. Riga's return point pays back to a bank card or a phone.
In Leipzig the year on a mug decides whether a stall takes it back. The city's stalls accept mugs from the current season and usually the two before it, and they turn older ones away. The Finnish and South Tyrolean villages there pour into their own mugs, so a mug from the Finnish village goes back to the Finnish village.
Dresden's token pays for drinks and sits outside the deposit system. The city sells Striezeltaler at the Dresden Information pavilion, 11 coins for 10 euros, and the stalls take them as money.
Which markets bring out a new collector mug each year?
Dresden's Striezelmarkt changes the design of its mugs every year, and visitors kept about 65,000 of them in 2025. Since 2017 the city has also sold a limited special edition. For the 591st market in 2025 it made 591 of those. The Kannegießer works in Upper Lusatia makes the Striezelmarkt mugs, and it also makes the Dippl, the single shared mug that Seiffen has used since 2019.
Nuremberg's 2025 mugs carried the year on the side. Frankfurt brings out a newly designed mug every year as a collector's piece, and Journal Frankfurt reported in November 2025 that you could buy one outright for €4. Leipzig started a series of children's mugs in 2022. In Vienna, the four MAGMAG markets serve punch in a mug shaped like a red boot, which their FAQ calls a collector's piece, and some huts sell it empty. It comes in glass for the first time in 2026.
South Tyrol and Trentino lean into collecting as well. Bolzano brings out a new collectors' mug every year, and on 10 October 2026 the organizer had yet to show the 2026 one. Merano and Trento sell mugs from past seasons at their info points while stocks last. Gdańsk sold nearly 7,000 collector mugs in four colours in 2025 beside its deposit mugs, and part of that money went to the Fundacja Hospicyjna hospice charity. Each organizer shows its own mug once it reveals the design, and we leave the artwork to them.
Where do reusable cups take the place of ceramic mugs?
Strasbourg serves every drink in a €1 deposit cup as part of its eco-responsible charter for the markets. Brno calls itself the first Czech city to bring returnable cups to all its central Christmas markets, and the same 50 CZK cup works at every one of them. You can buy a lid for 10 CZK at some stalls, and that part stays yours. Brno's Daruj kelímek stall lets you give the deposit away instead, to one of 18 causes in six categories. Tallinn uses one set of reusable tableware for food and drink on a €2 deposit, and the collection point refunds the full amount.
Other markets mix mugs and cups. Gdańsk trialled porcelain deposit mugs in 2025 and still offered a paper cup for a few złoty extra, and visitors kept more than 16,000 of the mugs. Salzburg's Christkindlmarkt runs a deposit scheme with reusable mugs and compostable cups. Freiburg washes its porcelain and Glühwein glasses in five mobile dishwashing units, and Vienna's Am Hof market built its own mobile washing system on the square. Nuremberg bans disposable cups and plates at its food and Glühwein stalls.
What should you do with a chipped mug?
Hand a chipped mug straight back at the stall and ask for another before you drink from it. The official pages we read leave chipped and cracked mugs out of their rules, so the stall decides. A chipped rim can cut a lip, and a hidden crack is a worse problem with a hot drink in it. Frankfurt had to pull its new mugs on the first day of the 2024 market over a production fault, as Journal Frankfurt reported. Before the 2025 market the city's tourism company filled the new mugs with hot water to test them, and the maker checked them too.
If you chip a mug yourself, return it like any other and let the stall decide on the refund. A mug you plan to keep travels best wrapped in a scarf in the middle of your bag. For the drink that goes in it, our Glühwein page explains what to order and how to spot a grower's Winzerglühwein.
Quick answers
Do you get your money back on a Christmas market mug?
Yes. You get the deposit on a Christmas market mug back when you return the mug to a drinks stall at the same market, and Strasbourg's deposit for the 2026 season is €1 a cup. If you keep the mug, the deposit pays for it.
How much is the mug deposit at Vienna's Christmas markets?
The mug deposit is €5 at Vienna's four MAGMAG markets in 2026, Stephansplatz among them. In vienna.at's December 2024 price check the other Vienna markets charged €3 to €5, with €5 at Rathausplatz and €3 at Spittelberg.
Can you keep the mug from a German Christmas market?
Yes. You can keep a German Christmas market mug, because the deposit you paid covers it. Leipzig's city page says taking the mug home as a souvenir is fine, and Nuremberg's market says the same.
Can you return a Christmas market mug at a different stall?
Yes. In Strasbourg any chalet that sells drinks takes your cup back for the €1 deposit, and Brno's 50 CZK cups go back at any drinks stall across its central markets. Leipzig takes back mugs from the current season and usually the two before it.
What does Pfand mean at a Christmas market?
Pfand is the German word for the deposit you pay on a Christmas market mug or glass. In Stuttgart it was €3 in December 2025 by the Stuttgarter Zeitung's count, and you get it back when you return the mug.
We write from operators’ and agencies’ own pages, open map data and published research, and we date every fact we check. How we research.
Sources (18)
- https://noel.strasbourg.eu/foire-aux-questions
- https://www.weihnachtsmarkt.at/faqs/
- https://www.vienna.at/groser-punsch-test-wiener-weihnachtsmarkte-im-preisvergleich/9093013
- https://www.leipzig.de/kultur-und-freizeit/einkaufen-und-ausgehen/maerkte/leipziger-weihnachtsmarkt/tassen-weihnachtsmarkt
- https://www.stuttgarter-zeitung.de/lokales/stuttgart/hat-der-tassendiebstahl-zugenommen-gaeste-auf-dem-weihnachtsmarkt-sollten-pfandbecher-im-auge-behalten-78973410.html
- https://brnenskevanoce.cz/prakticke-informace/
- https://www.gdansk.pl/wiadomosci/Ponad-1-3-mln-osob-na-Jarmarku-Bozonarodzeniowym,a,302472
- https://www.christmasmarket.ee/en/
- https://www.montreuxnoel.com/faq/
- https://www.nuernberg.de/imperia/md/kommunikation_stadtmarketing/dokumente/internet/ckm/25_ckm_details.pdf
- https://www.christkindlesmarkt.de/ihr-besuch/essen-trinken
- https://www.dresden.de/media/pdf/wirtschaft/markte/STM-2026-Ausschreibungstext.pdf
- https://www.dresden.de/de/tourismus/souvenirs/sondertasse-striezelmarkt.php
- https://striezelmarkt.dresden.de/index_de.php
- https://www.journal-frankfurt.de/journal_news/Stadtleben-2/Frankfurter-Weihnachtsmarkt-Gluehweintassen-auf-Hitzebestaendigkeit-geprueft-44800.html
- https://christkindlmarkt.co.at/umwelt/
- https://www.weihnachtsmarkt-hof.at/
- https://www.5min.at/wien/5202606041321/wieder-auf-dem-maria-theresien-platz-der-weihnachtsmarkt-kehrt-zurueck/
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