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I longed for the Christmas celebration pictured on an old-fashioned European greeting card at once nostalgic, romantic and handsome. I wanted to ride about an Old Town s cobbled streets in a horse-drawn carriage, swaddled in furs, listening to cathedral carillons alternate with the sweet voices of a youthful choir singing "Silent Night, Holy Night." I wanted to see children skate on a frozen pond as their parents and friends wish each other a Merry Christmas, a cup of eggnog in hand.

On a weeklong visit to Austria last year during December, I found all of these evocative expressions of Christmas cheer. Throughout city and country parks, fragrant fir trees stand tall, decorated simply with white candles. The sun sets early; Christmas lights twinkle all over town; chestnuts are roasting over a small fire; snow is imminent; the air crackles with the cold. No one minds, least of all me.

At Christmastime, the old Hapsburg Empire cities of Vienna, Salzburg and Innsbruck steep their celebrations with enough texture, taste and tradition to make even a hardened cynic a believer.

I flew to Vienna, and traveled by train within this Maine-sized country. Frequent connections and short distances between the three cities means it is easy to travel here on your own. Many people speak English.

In each city, I stayed in the Old Town at hotels with character. (See bottom of story for details.)

In Salzburg, I took the tram to the top of the Old Fortress for an evening candlelight concert of Mozart s music held in a cozy room that had an arched ceiling and walls that were more than five feet thick. In Innsbruck costumed musicians performed an all brass evening of Christmas carols and contemporary songs.

The capital of the province of Tyrol, the city is jumping with winter activities, both on and off the slopes. Talking there with some college students, I learned that the University of Innsbruck s sister school is the University of New Orleans. Why was I not surprised? The sense of festivities is equal in both locations!

The joyous music of Mozart, Brahms and Straus provides the backdrop to countless spiritual events taking place in cathedrals and chapels, where the country s large Catholic population observes mass for numerous saints days. On Christmas eve, as many as 10,000 people attend Midnight Mass at the cathedral in Salzburg s Old Town, just a few hundred meters from Mozart s birthplace.

Salzburg, a city of 115,000 people, has 48 churches, some dating back to the 1200s. During Advent, organ recitals and chorale performances add to the majesty of the ornately decorated chapels and cathedrals. There are special ecclesiastical observances on St. Barbara s Day and Saint Nicholas s Day, December 5 and 6, as well as many others throughout the season.

Among the many treasured Austrian holiday festivals are the famous Christmas Markets, which date back 700 years. Even if you are the proverbial non-shopper, you ll discover that the Markets are not an ordinary shopping experience. Rather, they are a feast of authentic sights and sounds and smells and tastes and textures.

Beginning in late November and lasting for five weeks, the markets offer hand-crafted items that will become family treasures. Artisans create dolls, toys and clothing as you watch.  Like the medieval craft fairs on which they are modeled, the Markets are found in the center of the city near the cathedral, the Town Hall or even in front of one of the many Imperial palaces.

You can hear Advent carols while you stroll among dozens of decorated stalls where vendors sell frosted glass tree ornaments, embroidered lace, pretty hand-knit wool scarves and hats, children s wooden toys, even musical instruments and carved chess sets.

From every fifth or sixth stall come the evocative smells of hot mulled wine and spicy foods like gingerbread cookies, bratwurst and Vienna sausage rolls.

In addition, every city hall square is home to ensembles of musicians in loden coats playfully tooting their brass horns, as crowds gather to sing familiar songs. Cheerful families and groups of friends gather for an outdoor walkabout, stopping here to sample a sausage, there to down a cup of Gluwein, (literally glow-wine).

Unlike some of the other cities of the old Austro-Hungarian Empire where the Hapsburgs reigned supreme, Vienna turns a cold shoulder to change. This is not a city of construction cranes and kids with blue hair and pierced noses. The society that Empress Maria Theresia foresaw for her sixteen children still lives on in the Opera, Waltz Evenings, fancy dress balls, marionette plays and other romantic musical events. Performances in the three main cities are so numerous that it is always possible to snag a ticket. Although my seat at the opera in Vienna was in the last row of the top tier, I was still able to enjoy a magnificent performance of "La Traviata"", and the cost was only $40. Ask for help at your hotel.

Last December, Time magazine reported that 91% of Americans feel that Christmas is too commercialized. For many, things like canned music, plastic trees, online shopping and suburban mall Santas add up to an artificial take on this important holiday.

By choosing a Christmas visit to Austria, you can capture the charm of a European Christmas. Tour operators offer packages that include tickets to performances in castles and fortresses by costumed musicians who recreate music written centuries ago for kings and queens.

Be sure to visit some of the country s many villages, usually just a local tram ride from the cities. Residents observe Christmas rituals, such as caroling and candle-making, much as their grandparents did in the last centuries.

In the small town of Obendorf, I visited the chapel where "Silent Night, Holy Night" was first performed. The tiny baroque building has six small pews and a guest book with signatures of people from all over the world. I added my own with a wish for many more beautiful Christmases.

HOT TIMES IN THE OLD TOWN TONIGHT

In Vienna I stayed in an unusual small hotel located in the Spittleburg Quarter, the seventh district, near Vienna's primo shopping streets. Located on the upper floors of an 18th-century town house, Hotel Altstadt ("Old Town") is a lovely melange of antiques and modern brightly colored furniture and up-to-the minute lighting fixtures. High-ceilinged rooms are a great value for the money (around $150) and big enough (and decorative enough) to hold a dance in.

The hotel dining room doubles as an after-hours lounge; its hot-hot red walls, tiger print chairs, oriental rugs and attractive fireplace-facing sofas create that sense of gemutlich (roughly translates as "cozy") one seeks when traveling in winter.

But the most amusing part of staying at the Hotel Altstadt is what else you find here. In common with many European hotel buildings, this one houses several businesses. Waltzing down the hall to my third-floor room, I chuckled as I passed a psychiatrist s office two doors from the elevator. Talk about Total Vienna Concept. Who knows when that might come in handy? ("Shopping nerves?!")

Owner Otto Wiesenthal described how, having lived in hotels for eight years in the US when he worked for a major computer company, he always knew exactly what to put in his own stylish 25-room hotel. Add to that insight a flair for the dramatic, no doubt inherited from his relative Grete Wiesenthal, the Austrian Isadora Duncan, and this 4-star hotel has "wish fulfillment" written all over it. Freud would have approved.

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-Updated 07-12-01-

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