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A Chicago Christmas
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Christmas Festival
An 87-foot-tall, brilliantly lit Christmas tree towers above the iconic Picasso sculpture and 50-plus tents and wooden stalls decked in candy cane-striped awnings. Bundled shoppers mill around the impromptu village, munch brats mounded with sauerkraut and drink hot, sweetly spicy gluhwein from boot-shape ceramic mugs. Lederhosen-clad musicians belt out holiday tunes.
In Daley Plaza, surrounded by the Loop’s high-rises, Christkindlmarket Chicago looks wildly out of place, and that's part of the monthlong annual event’s appeal.
Husband and wife Scott Pidgeon and Barb Kempken of Chicago clutch mugs in mitten-clad hands, taking slow sips and swaying contentedly as a trumpet player sounds the first bars of "Jingle Bells."
"We come every year, and we’re not in the Christmas spirit until we get here," Scott says.
The wine concoction helps, they admit with smiles. The German holiday drink has become a tradition at the 12-year-old festival, which covers most of the Plaza in the heart of the Loop, the downtown business district south of the Chicago River nicknamed for the circling elevated-train tracks.
Visitors who explore beyond the market discover why this area has come to rival the nearby Magnificent Mile for holiday experiences. Macy’s (formerly Marshall Field’s) draws holiday crowds with its famously elaborate trimmings and animated window displays. Other stores, including the world’s largest Old Navy, comeback theaters, the Art Institute of Chicago and Millennium Park, all are within walking distance. (It’s more of a hike across the Chicago River to the Mile's 500-plus stores and millions of lights, but still walkable.)
The market draws its inspiration from a four-century-old festival in Nuremberg, Germany, that began as a holiday gathering and celebration of Christkindle, a legendary bearer of gifts. With a flowing white and gold gown, blond curls and a gold crown, a Christkindle stand-in presides over Daley Plaza’s day-after-Thanksgiving tree lighting.
