Hi there, I'm Jeanette Brown, a relationship coach and late-life founder in my early 60s and this year I'm choosing Christmas abroad, solo, in Dresden. Fifteen years ago the Striezelmarkt gave me a memory I've carried like a talisman: choir voices drifting across the Altmarkt, spiced air, warm stollen eaten with cold fingers. I want that quiet, kept feeling again. My family gets it - we've traded presents for a New Year's dinner when I'm back, and they call my trip "the gentlest boundary of the year." I book a little apartment near the river, wake for the first light on the Frauenkirche, and spend Christmas Eve listening to carols instead of trying to be everywhere at once. It's not an escape from home as much as a pilgrimage to the version of the holiday that still feels honest to me. Thank you for considering my pitch! Cheers, Jeanette Brown Founder, jeanettebrown.net