Werder Bremen beat Hansa Rostock 3-0 on Tuesday to make sure of spending the winter break as Bundesliga leader and Bayern Munich routed Freiburg 6-0 to move into second place.
Stuttgart or Bayer Leverkusen, which clash today, could still leapfrog over Bayern when the final round before the break is completed.
In other matches Tuesday, Cologne moved from the bottom of the standings by beating Hertha Berlin 3-0 and Eintracht Frankfurt dropped to last place by losing 3-2 at home to Hamburger SV, after coming back from a two-goal deficit and then wasting a late penalty.
The club that led at the halfway mark also won the title in 27 of the previous 40 Bundesliga seasons and Bremen now looks well positioned to earn its first championship in 10 years.
The season halts after Wednesday's five games and resumes Jan. 31.
Bremen had a quick start, with Ailton using a dreadful Rostock defensive error to shoot his team ahead after four minutes and raise his league-high tally to 16 goals.
Rostock then wasted several chances before Bremen regained control in the second half.
Bremen defender Valerien Ismael headed in a free-kick cross from Krisztian Lisztes in the 78th and celebrated by putting on a Santa Claus hat.
Lisztes, left alone on the right, fired inside the far post to complete the victory in the 89th.
Although missing star midfielder Michael Ballack and several other starters, Bayern romped to an unexpectedly easy win in Freiburg behind two goals by Roy Makaay.
Bayern went ahead after seven minutes when midfielder Martin Demichelis rose to head in a corner from Ze Roberto for his first Bundesliga goal.
In the 23rd, Freiburg goalkeeper Richard Golz couldn't control a free kick by Makaay and Hasan Salihamidzic pounced on the rebound to make it 2-0.
Less than five minutes later, Makaay collected the ball with the outside of his right foot and then shot it under Golz with his left for 3-0.
Claudio Pizarro continued the rout in the 61st, stooping to head in a cross form Willy Sagnol.
Six minutes later, Makaay capitalized on another Freiburg error to raise his season total to 10 goals and put Bayern 5-0 ahead. A quick break by Bayern produced the sixth in the 87th from Piotr Trochowski.
In Frankfurt, Stefan Beinlich drove home a left-footed volley from 20m out after a Frankfurt mistake to put the visitors ahead 17 minutes into the match.
The leaky Frankfurt defense failed to clear a corner in the 52nd and Japanese striker Naohiro Takahara connected to make it 2-0. But less than a minute later, Eintracht was back in the match with a near carbon-copy goal. This time, Hamburg defenders watched a free kick by Ervin Skela sail a long time, bounce off the ground and inside the far post.
In the 66th, Cha Du-ri played a backheel pass in the Hamburg box to Markus Beierle, who slammed the ball into the roof of the net to equalize.
But with five minutes remaining, Sergej Barbarez used an overhead pass from Beinlich to finish a Hamburg fast break by heading in his team's winner.
With the match going into its final minute, Skela had his penalty saved by Hamburg goalkeeper Stefan Waechter, who read the shot and dived to his left to prevent Eintracht from coming back again.
Less than a minute into the second half in Cologne, striker Andrei Voronin shook off two Hertha defenders to slot home his team's opening goal.
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