Christkindlmarket Chicago
Wooden huts fill Daley Plaza, 50 W. Washington Street in the Loop, for Christkindlmarket Chicago, a German Christmas market open daily from late November to Christmas Eve. Vendors sell gifts and food, and the organisers call it the most authentic traditional holiday market of its kind outside Europe. Its model is the 16th-century Christkindlesmarkt in Nuremberg. The German American Chamber of Commerce of the Midwest came up with the idea in 1995 as a way to promote trade with Germany. The first market stood at Pioneer Court in 1996, and Mayor Richard M. Daley invited it to Daley Plaza the next year. It has stayed there since. Recent seasons have opened at 11 a.m., closing at 8 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 9 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, with a 4 p.m. close on Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve. Entry is free. Some years a second Chicago market opens at Gallagher Way in Wrigleyville.
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