Cristkindl Market

    Yesterday evening I went to the

Christkindl market in Arlington, Texas.

Christkindl markets are open air markets

that are traditionally held in Germany

during the holiday seasons. Chicago has

been hosting a Christkindl market for

several years and loaned Arlington twenty wooden huts this year.

This year is the first Christkindl market in Arlington, Texas. The Market runs along the North side of the Texas Rangers Baseball Stadium. Last night was the opening ceremony for the market and the tree lighting was done in an explosive fashion. As the Christkindl Angel counted backwards from ten, fireworks punctuated the countdown. Prior to the tree lighting several speeches were made that outlined the grand plan for expansion of the holiday event. Next year the plan is to have the market for two full weeks and the following year the market plans to run from Thanksgiving until Christmas.

This event is delightful family fun. Anyone in the area should try to attend. There is a tent with Father Christmas, where the kids can get pictures taken. Many of the booths have local artists with various homemade crafts. One artist had beautiful inlaid wooden art. This is a traditional art form in Germany. The artist hand cuts tiny pieces of wood and fits them together to create wooden paintings. His skill is amazing and definitely a booth that you must browse.

I love good smelling soaps. Two vendors sold soaps as well. Skullsoaps.com and delicioussoaps.net were the two good smelling soap vendors. I liked Skull Soaps because they had soaps, lotions and bath salts. Plus, Who doesn't like a skull with a little bow? Then there was Delicious Soaps. I approached the vendor more out of curiosity. Soap isn't edible, but the name is confusing. Basically, Delicious Soaps are made to look like our favorite desserts. Each soap smells so sweet, you want to take a bite. With these soaps you can smell your calories, instead of eating them.

With any open air market, there MUST be food and Beer. I did not try the food because it was cold and I did not want to part with my gloves. If you want to try German food, I suggest you go during the day when it is not so cold. I did try both the Hot Apple Cider and the Gluchwein. I prefer the cider but if you like wine try the Gluchwein. Gluchwein is a hot spiced German wine that is part of the holiday tradition in Germany. There was also beer and cappuccino available as well.

This is a fun event and I recommend it to anyone looking to learn about the German culture.