Cullman Christkindlmarkt opening Thursday, hoping to attract 500,000 visitors in its 7th season

CULLMAN, Ala. (WIAT) — Starting Thursday, visitors at Cullman’s Christkindlmarkt will feel as if they’ve been transported to Germany.

Organizers say authenticity is key as they hope to attract 500,000 visitors to Cullman’s 7th German Christmas market.

The Cullman Christkindlmarkt began in 2019 with only 8 wooden huts and 5,000 visitors. The city says they’ve grown in size and now take up 9 ½ acres. Last year, the event had around 370,000 visitors from 48 states.

Nathan Anderson, Executive Director of Cullman Parks, Recreation and Sports Tourism explained how it all began.

“We purchased the Weihnachtspyramide in 2017. Being German founded, we wanted to give a nod to our German ancestors,” Anderson said.

The Christmas arch for the Christkindlmarkt is modeled after the one in Dresden, Germany.

Anderson said they did their research and also got ideas after visiting Chicago’s Chriskindlemarkt.

“We’re German founded. If we’re going to do this, we’re going to go all out,” he said. “We’re going to make sure that this is an immersive experience.”

Stefan Vlach, with The Chimney Cake, is back for his third year at the event.

“We have a fresh fire roasted cinnamon roll, it’s called Chimney Cake,” Vlach said. “It’s a traditional Eastern European pastry. It’s fire roasted bread, over the charcoal.”

He said he sells a lot of apple strudel Chimney Cakes.

Sipsey Winery will be selling Feuerzangenbowle, a German holiday drink.

“We will take sugar cones that we made ourselves, and we soak those in rum, then we set it on fire, as the cone burns, it melts and caramelizes the sugar into the mulled wine,” Bart Crabtree explained.

Lynsey Todd, with Monograms Plus, arrived at 4 a.m. Wednesday to set up her wooden hut.

“Honestly, I’m looking forward to breaking some crowd records. We had huge crowds last year, I think we’ll break some records this year,” Todd said.

If that happens, the city of Cullman stands to benefit, according to Mayor Woody Jacobs.

“They don’t just spend their money at the market, you know, they eat at the restaurants, they stay in the hotels,” Jacobs explained. “I mean, we have people drive five plus hours just to come to this market.”

Click here for more information on the Cullman Christkindlmarkt.

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