We've been home in Alabama over the past two weeks visiting the family for the holidays. So this week's trip is a day trip for North Alabama, and boy is it definitely worth a visit if you are passing through the area. Last Friday for the kids' Adventure Friday and as their Christmas present from Grandmother, Uncle Benji came along with us as we visited Christkindlmarkt in Cullman, Alabama. Cullman was originally founded by German immigrants to the United States, and so the town hosts several German themed activities throughout the year.
Christkindl means "Christ Child" in German, and depicted as an very young Jesus the Christkindl (or Christ child) is viewed in Germanic countries as the one who brings children gifts. Also sometimes depicted as a young female angel the Christkindl is said to leave gifts for children and ring a bell as she leaves. With such a tradition, Christkindl is a perfect name for a traditional German Christmas market. There is an abundance of German Christmas foods at the market and a 30 foot German Christmas pyramid (the largest in the United States). There are all sorts of kids activities such as wooden toy building, ornament decorating, and of course marshmallow roasting while drinking hot chocolate. There is of course the market for shopping for adults and ice skating for all ages. There is so much to see and do, that it's worth visiting for several hours despite the cold. Friday when we visited the high was 60, which made it a great day to be out and about. Since it was so warm they didn't have the fires going for roasting marshmallows, but other than that everything was in full swing.
We begun by getting on the wait list for ice skating. Since we had almost an hour before it would be our turn, we decided to take a stroll around the market. Our first stop was the tent for a family picture. Over the month, they had pictures with Santa, Mrs. Clause, Buddy the elf, or the Christkindl, but when we visited they were just doing family pictures. We got a great photo and a funny photo, before deciding to find a snack. So Gary picked up three types of pretzels to try - a butter and salt, a cinnamon and sugar, as well as a brat wrapped with pretzel. After split them up so everyone could try them all, we took a turn on the carousel. It was Jon and Will's first time on a carousel. Jon loved it right away, but Will didn't want to ride at first; however, by the end of the ride he decided he liked it. Next we tried a German style caramel apple. They spiral cut an apple, and then drizzle a thinned caramel sauce over the apple, and add peanuts to it so that you break off bits of apple and scoop the caramel and peanut mixture up with the apple to eat.
We spent most of the rest of the hour roaming the market stalls. They had so many things to see. There were booths with normal southern offerings like tumblers, sweatshirts, and monogrammed items. Other little shops hosted various types of Christmas ornament, wooden Santa style pipes, as well as toys and crafts for kids. But, my favorite stalls, where those with traditional German Christmas items. There were German mugs with their little flip up lids, wooden coo-coo-clocks, cut wooden ornaments with elaborate designs, and mini Christmas pyramids. German Christmas pyramids are traditional decorations, with a windmill type attachment horizontally at the top. Candles are lit underneath which turns the blades powering the pyramid, the windmill blades make the scenes turn and characters depicted on the each level spin. They are unique works of art. There was also a booth with other European Christmas decorations, such as an absolutely gorgeous set of Russian nesting dolls that had been hand painted with various Christmas scenes on each one.
Finally to the kids delight, we received our text that it was time for our turn to skate, which was our main reason for visiting. The girls, especially Ruth have been asking to find a place to try out ice skating while we were home in Alabama. I warned them ahead of time that they would fall alot but that it would get easier with practice, and so they all wore thick clothes to help pad them from falls. Britt who insisted he wouldn't fall, opted for two pairs of pants, two shirts, and one coat for padding, just in case. While we skated Gary took some photos and then played with the boys near the rink. They saw a monkey puppet, and Jon was so enamored with him that he tried to talk and was gifted with 6 more tickets for the carousel. They also checked out some dancing jumping jacks.
It was everything they hoped for. Britt thought, "It was fun but a bit hard to do, because the ice near the wall was uneven, and if you skated away from the wall it was hard to be stable." He only fell twice and from the beginning nearly skated out away from the wall. He windmilled nearly loosing his balance a few times, but did really well. Kate said, "It was really fun. After I get the hang of it in the middle part, I want to skate by myself." She stuck near the wall and insisted that I stay right with her for the time I was out there. She pulled me down once and I fell twice trying to stop when she was slowed up. But, she got some speed and in the last hour she decided to venture away from the wall as long as Uncle Benji stayed right with her. Ruth had the most to say about it, "I really loved it. There were a couple of nasty falls, but most didn't hurt that much. I wasn't expecting the skates to be as heavy as they were. I'd like to do it again sometime. There's a learning process to it. In the beginning I kept going backwards, but I was doing it pretty well, and was smooth by the end." She is right by the end of the day she had gotten fairly smooth at skating taking longer strides and gliding faster. Rebecca reported, "I really liked it. I fell a lot of times but I got pretty good at it. By the end I only fell a few times away from the wall." Poor Rebecca fell a grand total of 36 times. Uncle Benji quipped that she was easy to pick out in her red jacket completely covered in the back with ice. Uncle Benji and the girls skated for two and a half hours, while Britt and I only lasted about one and half hours.
While waiting on the girls and we picked up a schnitzel for me and the boys. It was delicious. Before heading out we got apple cider and plenty of hot chocolate, and we even saw a few people dressed in traditional German costumes playing instruments and dancing to Christmas tunes played in a polka style. If you'd like to plan a trip the Cullman Christkindlmarkt next year, it's located in the Depot Park at 209 First Ave NE Cullman, Alabama. Open every weekend from the day after Thanksgiving through Christmas Eve. Entrance to the market is free, but events vary from $10 for ice skating to $20 apiece for toy making or other craft activities.
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