Enjoy a pre-festive break in Zurich

Zurich is one of those cities that repeatedly scores a home run when it comes to quality of life. Here in Britain we tend to dismiss it as a place for high finance, or an airport to pass through en route to the ski slopes, but for me it's where Christmas starts every year.

Whenever I can, I spend the first weekend in December in Zurich shopping, eating, drinking and crunching the snow underfoot. The city's hotels, with their warm fires and deep armchairs, are — while pricey — the best places to hole up as temperatures drop and snow settles over the city.

Celebrations begin with Chlausjagen, the Feast of St Nicholas, on December 6, when Sternsingers dressed as the Three Kings parade through the cobbled streets singing carols. At dusk, Santa rides through the city on a tram decorated with fairy lights. Children are invited on board to ride with him. The air is filled with the scent of cinnamon and mulled wine. It's everything Christmas should be — magical, communal and family-friendly.

As Chlausjagen falls on a Monday this year, I won't make the ceremony, but I won't be missing out on the pleasure of the markets. They're open from tomorrow. The best one is the easiest to find. At the airport get on the first train to Zurich Hauptbanhof. When you get off you're suddenly in a massive Christmas grotto.

Opened in 1847, at the start of the railway boom, Zurich's main station is the biggest in Switzerland. You arrive into a huge lofty concourse with a glass roof to protect it from the elements.

At this time of year a large, gaudy, flying Christmas angel by French artist and filmmaker Niki de Saint Phalle hangs from the ceiling. The angel is a Christmas regular at the Hauptbanhof, as is an enormous tree donated and decorated by Swarovski, which has a store nearby. There's so much glittering crystal on its branches the tree appears covered in hoarfrost.

Down below all manner of stalls seem to be doing a good trade. Each looking like a fairground booth, they sell anything from jewellery to nutcrackers.

Leaving the station there's a good circular walk that begins on the other side of the Limmat river. Snowy gusts come flying down from Lake Zurich as you step out, but once into Niederdorfstrasse the narrow streets and tall half-timbered buildings afford good protection from the elements.

The Limmatquai area is where goods were unloaded in medieval times when Zurich was a fortified port. Here more stalls are assembled out in the snow.

There's often a small choir of hearty men and women in mufflers and mittens at the junction of Niederdorf and Lunstergasse. Above them rear the twin towers of the magnificent Grossmünster. This huge, austere church has been a feature of the Zurich skyline since the ninth century. It was allegedly founded by Charlemagne on the site where two early Christian saints were beheaded. Inside there's not much light or frivolity: Lutheran iconoclasts removed the organ and religious statuary as early as 1524. The only colour comes from new stained-glass windows by Giacometti commissioned in 1932. Down in the crypt lurks a medieval statue of Charlemagne.

Crossing back across the Limmat by one of its prettiest bridges, the broad Rathausbrücke, there's yet another seasonal shopping opportunity inside colourful Christmas marquees. Zurich claims to have more Christmas markets than any other city in Switzerland.