You know, from past posts, that I LOVE German Christmas markets! I’ve posted in the past about Nuremberg’s famous Markt, as well as the five (yes, five) in Bamberg while I lived there. So imagine my delight when I discovered that Denver has a German-style Christmas market! Of course I made a special trip downtown to check it out. If you saw my previous post about the Christmas parade, well, the market was my ramp-up to the parade.
The market is located in the heart of downtown Denver in Skyline Park. It’s easily accessible via the free Sixteenth-Street Mall bus. Sixteenth Street is the pedestrian shopping and restaurant district. When I hopped off the free bus, I saw an approximately-German-style market sign:
Actually, to split hairs, a truly German sign would read Christkindlmarkt, but who’s counting? However, I was surprised to find that the market looked fairly similar to the Christmas markets in Germany, including the wooden stalls. Even some of the vendors were the same!
One factor I was surprised to see was the enclosed Festival Hall:
If you recall my Denver Oktoberfest post, you’ll know that the beer tent there was not totally authentic. However, here at the Christkindl Market, they had a sort-of-proper German one, complete with a beer stand at one end serving real Paulaner beer from Munich:
They also had a stage and, at the time, tap dancers.
While tap dancers aren’t particularly German, later there was a Lederhosen-clad oompah band and slap dancers as well.
It’s been warmer than usual here in Colorado this December, but the Christkindl Market sure helped set the holiday mood.
Leave me a comment below if you try the recipe and let me know what you think. Happy Holidays!
Photo for No Apparent Reason:
Looks like you’ve been having a wonderful holiday season! Hope you have a very Happy New Year!!!