This year’s Denver Christkindl Market is bigger and better than ever. We stopped by for dinner and a little shopping before our Colorado Symphony concert on a Friday night. After all, the market, locate at Skyline Park in downtown Denver is just a block and a half away from the Denver Center for the Performing Arts.
Christmas Markets pop up all over Europe during the holidays, and the Denver Christkindl Market is modeled after the German version. A visit to the Christkindl market is more than just another shopping trip, it’s an experience to be savored. Literally. In addition to the vendor booths selling everything from German lace to Russian nesting dolls, there is authentic German and European cuisine available for purchase.
There’s also a festive entertainment tent where you can sit and sip a mulled wine or beer and listen to German music or watch talented German dance troupes perform. If this place doesn’t get you in the Christmas spirits, I don’t know what would.
I am not much of a shopper, but shopping the the Denver Christkindl Market is fun and a feast for your eyes. There are blown glass ornaments, handmade soaps, jewelry and real German-made cuckoo clocks.
Does your family hide the pickle on the tree at Christmas? A very German tradition, my husband’s family, the Schlaefers, have always played this holiday game. If you’d like to start, you can find a good selection of pickle ornaments at the market. The game involves hiding the pickle somewhere on your Christmas tree. The first person to find the pickle gets a special Pickle Gift.
We managed to check three people off our Christmas present list. I’d like to tell you what you bought, but at least one of them reads this blog religiously, so I don’t want to give anything away. However, it could be something pictured in the following photographs.
I highly recommend making the Denver Christkindl Market a part of your Colorado holiday tradition.
You can find the market online at DenverChristkindlMarket.com or on Facebook at Facebook.com/DenverChristkindlMarket.
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No one in Germany has ever heard of a Christmas pickle. Another “tradition” made up by Americans for Americans.
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Sandy,
That’s funny! My husband’s family is very German and they do it every year. I’ve always heard that it’s a German tradition. If it didn’t come from Germany it definitely seems to originated among families of German descent here in the States. Thanks for the interesting tidbit.
Heidi, The Mayor
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