In Europe, traditional circus is booming in the winter time.

Christmas time is circus time, at least in Europe! While most of the traditional touring shows struggle throughout the summer season, and only a few successful exceptions (Arlette Gruss in France; Knie in Switzerland; Krone, Roncalli, and Charles Knie in Germany) prove the rule, many circuses are hardly able to handle the mass of visitors around Christmas. As in the best times of the circus, visitors stream into the tents. Especially in Germany, Switzerland, France, and the Netherlands, the so-called Weihnachtscircusse, German for “Christmas circuses,” are experiencing a boom. In Germany, for example, you can hardly find a big city without its own Christmas circus. In the German CircusZeitung this year, we are reviewing almost 30 Christmas shows, and that doesn’t even mean we come close to writing about every Christmas circus that exists. This shows usually start one week before Christmas and end one week after New Year’s Eve. The situation i...