The 15 Best German Christmas Markets in the U.S.

For more than 20 years, Denver’s free Christkindlmarket has been keeping German Christmas tradition alive in Colorado’s capitol. Like the Chicago market, the Denver Christkindlmarket is the project of the German American Chamber of Commerce of Colorado, meant to promote international business and cultural ties. Dozens of quaint wooden booths sell must-have German food traditions: soft pretzels, warm roasted nuts, sausages, and Christmas cookies. But you’ll find other European foods, too, like pierogies, gyros, and Belgian chocolates. Before heading off to shop, you can enjoy the goodies with warm mugs of mulled wine, hot cocoa, or a crisp German beer. Look for brightly painted wooden holiday décor, intricate Christmas pyramids that rotate on candle power, and glass tree ornaments, all staples of an authentic German Christmas market.

What could be more Christmasy than celebrating the holiday in Bethlehem, which dubs itself Christmas City? Founded in the 18th century by German-speaking Moravians, this city has included authentic European holiday traditions for much longer than its official Christkindlmarkt, which began in 1992. The festivities occur at Bethlehem’s SteelStacks campus, a revitalized 10-acre brownstone that wraps the ruins of Bethlehem Steel with park areas and event space. Huge, heated tents house stalls selling illuminated Moravian glass stars, wooden toys, crêches, nutcrackers, and blown glass ornaments. Don’t miss the Käthe Wohlfahrt shop, a branch of the German Christmas store chain from Germany, for loads of holiday goodies. When you tire of the tents, take a spin around the SteelStacks ice rink, which opens in November 2022.

Truth be told, when the holidays roll around, all of downtown Vail feels like a Christmas market, its European-style architecture adorned with snow and evergreen boughs, its shops selling wool felt hats and chunky sweaters designed for alpine winters. Vail was founded in 1966 to mimic a Bavarian village, and eventually, a true German-style Christmas market popped up. The small white tents of the free Kris Kringle Market line the downtown’s brick streets beneath a European-style clock tower, and the fir trees overhead are lit with hundreds of tiny lights. Shop for gifts, traditional and contemporary, the latter with a strong emphasis on Colorado-made items. When the shopping is over, you can’t beat Vail for outdoor fun. Go ice skating on the Vail Square Ice Rink, his ski Vail Mountain.  

More than 50 vendors sell European hand-painted and glass-blown tree ornaments, advent calendars, and tree toppers at Atlanta’s Christkindl Market in the city’s trendy Buckhead Village. The market is a project of the German American Cultural Foundation, which promotes German language and culture at festivals like this one. You can snack on cones of French fries, eat schnitzel, pretzels, chimney cakes, and sausages, and wash it all down with a German apple wine, mulled wine, or hot cocoa, while you catch the live music of the day. Pose the kids with Santa for the obligatory annual holiday pic, or just hang around and wait for Santa and his angelic sidekick, the golden-gown-wearing Christkind, to make the rounds. They enjoy meeting and greeting visitors casually at the Atlanta Christkindl Market.

Beneath the soaring glass-and-steel towers of downtown Chicago, the traditional wooden booths of the Christkindlmarket stand in tidy rows each holiday season, selling German cookies and sausages and displaying holiday gifts for sale. The Chicago market was launched in 1995 by the German American Chamber of Commerce of the Midwest to foster trade partnerships between the two countries. They patterned this market, which is one of the oldest and largest in the US, after the Christkindlesmarkt of Nuremberg, which dates to the 1500s. Chicago’s Christkindlmarket features its own version of the German Christkind, an angelic creature dressed in sparkling robes and wearing a crown. Other attractions to look for include holiday performances by an Alpine brass band, caroling choirs, and a ballet company acting out scenes from the Nutcracker, and everything is free. The Chicago Christkindlmarket has proven so popular there are branches of the market in Aurora and Wrigleyville, Illinois.

Mountain View’s traditional Weihnachtsmarkt is a project of the German International School of Silicon Valley. The school, which offers bilingual instruction from preschool through 12th grade, stages the market as a benefit, but admission is free. Although the Weihnachtsmarkt only lasts a single day, it is widely attended in the San Francisco Bay area. Given its association with a school, entertainment includes children’s choirs singing carols in German and English, educational gifts and toys, and German language books for all ages. Small tents decorated with evergreen and twinkling lights sell German tree ornaments, Christmas décor, nutcrackers, and tiny smoking houses. Visitors can snack on German holiday goodies such as stollen, butter cookies, and mulled wine.

All of Frankenmuth morphs into a Christmas village each winter. It’s only natural given the town’s German roots and its moniker, “Little Bavaria.” There is a proper Christmas market at the center of A Frankenmuth Christmas, located within the city’s farmers market and featuring booths with traditional German gifts and décor. But serious shoppers should continue their gift hunt at Bronner’s Christmas Wonderland, the world’s largest year-round Christmas store with ornaments, nutcrackers, and much, much more sold within a 5-acre building. Next to the store stands the Silent Night Memorial Chapel, an exact replica of the Austrian church where the famous carol originated. Along Main Street, 150 lit Christmas trees surround the city’s largest, a 40-foot tree synchronized in a seven-minute sound and light show. And downtown, Frankenmuth’s boutiques are built in German architectural style, adorned with lights and evergreen wreaths, and sell everything from German beer and cheese to authentic dirndls, wool felt hats, lace, and, of course, Christmas décor.

America’s biggest city is home to its largest German-style market, the Union Square Holiday Market. While the Union Square Holiday Market is inspired by its European counterparts, selling goods outdoors from small wooden vendor booths, the diverse city of New York lends a diverse vibe to its Christmas market. More than 160 vendors attend this pop-up market each year. If you’re dying for German imports, you’ll find them, including traditional blown-glass and wooden ornaments, linens, and illuminated Moravian stars with contemporary designs. Most vendors sell gifts that hail from New York, ranging from jewelry to kitchenware and toys. Snacking takes a global slant at this market, too. Nibble on Italian sandwiches, Korean hot dogs, and holiday cakes.