The village of Seiffen is the official 'Christmas village' of Germany. It's the place to go to buy traditional wooden toys and festive ornaments, and it has a history going back hundreds of years.

Our reporter Zhang Wan has the story.

Reporter:

Snow and ice cover Seiffen, providing a frosty backdrop to the traditional Christmas trade of the village.

Tourists, and shoppers from all around Germany, come here to buy decorations such as wooden candle pyramids, angels, nutcrackers, candlesticks and toys.

During the Christmas period, candles softly illuminate the streets of Seiffen, and wooden handicrafts are sold in workshops.

Christine Huebner is from Bavaria. 

"It is unique here. You won't find something like this anywhere else, like the pyramids and the figures. We already bought things and if I don't have something already I can buy it here."

Seiffen is located to the south of Dresden, in the Erzgebirge Mountain area, near the Czech Republic border. The seasonal trade is the most important source of income for the village.

Walter and Edeltraut Thiele from Hamburg say it's clear to see how much love and care people put into their products.

"It is all hand made here, and one has to have new ideas for new products every year and therefore one has to admire the people here for their creativity". ( Edeltraut) "And if someone is creative like me, I create teddies myself, I know how much love is in the products."

This area was once a mining centre, but residents turned to wood carving when the tin ore ran out. Seiffen soon became noted for its toys and Christmas crafts. Through the generations, Seiffen wood craftsmen became masters of their art.

Sven Reichelt says the products are sold all around the world.

"We sell our products first of all to German speaking regions. There, our way of celebrating Christmas is well known. Then there are countries like the United States - we do export our products as well. We export to Japan, France and Netherlands, we even sell our products to Russia."

In the workshop shoppers can see how the decorations are created, painted and assembled. The typical wooden toys and the festive Christmas decorations are produced by over a hundred independent families and in middle-sized factories.

For China Drive, I am Zhang Wan.