The Fifth Annual Kristkindl Markt will be held at the Historic Hermannhof Festhalle in Hermann Dec. 8-9.

Admission is free. The Market is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Dec. 8 and from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Dec. 9.

The Markt, sponsored by the Dierberg Foundation, resembles an old-world holiday market with traditional German arts, crafts, food, literature, costumed carolers, storytellers and music of the season.

The Markt will expand to a new space called Hofgarten this year to include new vendors who sell Missouri food products and more art demonstrations.

Each year, visitors from as far away as Germany visit the Markt to enjoy the ambiance of the magnificent old Festhalle and the visual feast of arts and crafts.

Inspired by old world European Kristkindl (Christkindl) markets in Germany, this event is a shopper’s paradise featuring handcrafted products such as soap, purses, dolls, one-of-a-kind Santas, furniture, pottery, dried wreaths and botanicals, painted ornaments, jewelry, baskets, painted gourds, lace, art glass, silk apparel, fruit butters, homemade jellies, sorghum molasses, watercolors, weavings, copper birdhouses, and folk art from over two dozen artisans.  

Hermannhof Winery’s Vintner, Paul Leroy, will serve his signature gluhwein (heated spiced wine) in souvenir Kristkindl mugs and the Kristkindl Cafe will offer a special menu of German sausages, sauerkraut, potato salad, kartoffel soup, Heidi Cocoa, and other German foods in the Gutenberg Room and the Fireplace Room in the Festhalle.

The Booneslick Strings will perform Saturday from noon to 3 p.m. and the St. George Children’s Choir (Kinderchor) will perform Sunday at noon.  

New vendors in the Hofgarten will present an amazing array of dried florals, lavender wands and sachets, as well as greens for holiday decorating.  There will also be demonstrations on the art of making gingerbread houses, holiday ornaments, Scherenschnitte (German paper cutting), quilting, stenciling, rug hooking, bead making, and kloppelei lace making.  

New this season is the Kristkindl Market “Friendly Loom,” on which visitors can give tapestry weaving a whirl.

Visitors are also invited to bring holiday greeting cards to be stamped with a commemorative Kristkindl Markt logo reminiscent of the famous Christkindl postmark. In addition, the author and illustrator of Daisy & Digger, a children’s book, will hold book signings.  

The historic, three-story, brick Hermannhof Festhalle will be decorated like a German lodge, complete with a collection of deer mounts on the walls, murals, stenciled friezes draped with greenery, a massive stone fireplace, and furnishings imported from Germany. With a view of the Missouri River from the large back windows, visitors will feel as though they have entered a holiday market on the Rhine.  

The historic, three-story, brick Hermannhof Festhalle will be decorated like a German lodge, complete with a collection of deer mounts on the walls, murals, stenciled friezes draped with greenery, a massive stone fireplace, and furnishings imported from Germany. With a view of the Missouri River from the large back windows, visitors will feel as though they have entered a holiday market on the Rhine.  

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