FRANCE-TOURISM-CHRISTMAS-MARKET-SECURITY-POLICE ©(Photo by Ian LANGSDON / AFP via Getty Images)

 

 

Anti-Christian extremists can’t stop brutalizing European Christmas markets

 

December 9, 2025

By Derek VanBuskirk

Reprinted from The Daily Caller

 

Christmas markets across Europe are being hit by waves of vandalism targeting nativity displays in the weeks before the holiday, with incidents ranging from theft and property damage to animal cruelty.

A living nativity in Erbach, Germany, was vandalized on Nov. 30, with perpetrators beating two donkeys named “Max” and “Lilly,” stealing food, damaging Christmas decorations and electrical boxes, vandalizing public restrooms and church property, and defecating inside the church, according to Hit Radio FFH.

A local resident who witnessed the donkeys being beaten chased the perpetrators away, the outlet reported. The church was temporarily closed and the animals relocated. The same perpetrators are suspected of vandalizing the town’s Christmas market earlier that day and a local Protestant church earlier in the week, Merkur.de reported.

TOPSHOT – Debris and closed stalls are seen on the site of a car-ramming attack on a Christmas market in Magdeburg, eastern Germany, on December 21, 2024, resulting in several deaths and dozens of injured. (Photo by RONNY HARTMANN/AFP via Getty Images)

In Brussels, the head of the baby Jesus figure — a cloth ball — was stolen from a nativity scene at the city’s Christmas market, the mayor’s spokesperson told The Brussels Times on Saturday.

The nativity scene, which featured faceless patchwork figures, had drawn contention before the theft, the Times separately reported.

“Christmas market in Brussels turns into an Islamic hell,” said Geert Wilders, leader of the Netherlands’ Party for Freedom. “Elsewhere in Europe, Christmas markets are being extra guarded. The result of decades of open borders. We must stop the Islamization of the West. Freedom instead of terror. Islam does not belong to us.”

In another decapitation incident, vandals broke the head off a statue of a shepherd in Trieste, Italy’s town square on Saturday, according to Il Piccolo.

“My lord, if I catch them, there’ll be trouble,” Mayor Roberto Dipiazza told the outlet. “They’re stealing just to cause a nuisance and ruin Christmas.”

After learning of the vandalism, Dipiazza rushed to the scene and enlisted help from a nearby bar patron to move the statue for repairs. It remained absent during the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, according to the outlet.

“Every year it’s the same story: we have two cameras, but these scoundrels always wear scarves around their faces so they don’t get recognized,” the mayor said.

Camera footage reviewed by police showed two apparently intoxicated men climbing a fence and mocking the nativity scene with selfies, irreverent poses and laughter, Il Dolomiti reported. The video shows one man, partially masked, knocking over the shepherd statue and causing its head to break. The two men reportedly left the head balanced on another statue’s staff.

Open the Youtube video

The nativity scene at Amiens, France’s Christmas market was vandalized during the night of Nov. 25-26, with plexiglass broken and several figures, including baby Jesus, destroyed, according to ICI Picardie.

“It’s a real blow, because the nativity scene has existed for about thirty years and nothing has ever happened,” the president of the neighborhood committee told ICI. “Nothing was stolen, it was only damaged. There are some characters that we have to restore a little bit, and then the head of the baby Jesus that we’ll have to glue back on.”

The nativity will be reinstated after the plexiglass is repaired, the president said.

CCTV footage reviewed by the Public Prosecutor’s Office showed the vandalism was committed by a lone individual, the city’s website said.

“Damage, thefts, and attempted thefts are unfortunately frequent at the Christmas market and affect all the installations,” the website states. “This situation has led the Federation of Merchants and the city to hire security companies, while the municipal police are increasing their vigilance.”

The vandalism reflects a broader pattern across Europe, where Christmas markets are shutting down or increasing security amid concern about costly vandalism and a near-yearly trend of terror attacks.