Christkindlmarket DSM Mug Unveiling Party
Be one of the first to view Christkindlmarket Des Moines’ 2017 Glühwein mug design at Jasper Winery on Tuesday, April 18 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.
Sip the signature drink (warm mulled wine) while shopping a mini market featuring foods and handcrafted items from Christkindlmarket Des Moines 2017 vendors. Other Jasper wines and Madhouse beer will also be available for purchase.
The first 25 attendees to donate $25 (or more) to guarantee their 2017 mug will receive a goody bag. A limited quantity of commemorative mugs are ordered each year. The mug design will be revealed at 6:30 p.m.
Feeling festive? Bring your own Glühwein mug (0.2 liters) from a past Christmas market.
Admission is free; donations accepted.
Share the event with your Facebook Friends!
Participating vendors include:
- Andy Klindt – Demonstrating forged metal winestoppers
- Worldly Goods
- Three Smooth Stones
- The Permanent Collection Letterpress
- Indianola Glass Creations – Demonstrating cutting wine bottles for making wine bottle tealights outdoors)
- Jett and Monkey’s
- Chocolaterie Stam
- Sugarplums (Lebkuchen!)
- Mucky Duck
Des Moines European Heritage Association connects Iowans with European traditions, language education and cultural experiences; and it provides resources and tools to other cultural heritage organizations.
#CDM2017 Vendor Announcement
We’re pleased to showcase the following vendors during Christkindlmarket Des Moines 2017.
Christkindlmarket Des Moines 2017 Gift and Specialty Item Vendors
Glaszauber Lauscha, Lauscha, Thuringia, Germany
Glaszauber Lausche is a small family business located in the “Glasbläserstadt” Lauscha in Southern Thuringia. They make handmade Christmas decorations and small glass ornaments. The town of Lauscha is considered to be the cradle of glass Christmas decorations worldwide, since the business was founded there in 1847.
Offering: Hand-blown glass ornaments
Price Range: $20 – $120
German Gifts and Specialty Items
Offering: Various gifts and foods of Germany
Price Range: $2 – $100
Worldly Goods, Ames, IA
Worldly Goods is a Fair Trade nonprofit gift store located in Ames since 1987. Our unique Fair Trade gifts are handmade from over 50 developing countries. Volunteers share artisan stories.
Offering: Fair Trade items from around the world focusing on Christmas ornaments and decorations. Additional items that have a European heritage theme including Fair Trade stocking stuffers, coffee, tea, chocolate and other Fair Trade foods that are prepackaged.
Price Range: $1-125
TeaGeschwendner, Chicago, IL
Tea shop with natural and organic teas.
Offering: Premium loose leaf teas and tea accessories: Christmas teas: Black Christmas tea, Snowman greet teas, including Spices for Glühwein, herbal teas. Link to the teas:http://shop.tgtea.com/. Also tea accessories: Cast iron teapots, ceramic teapots, mugs and infusers.
The Permanent Collection Letterpress + Design Studio, Des Moines, IA
Vintage letterpress printed art prints, cards, stationery sets on elegant paper
Offering: Art prints, cards, stationery sets, holiday cards, and coasters
Price Range: $5-$55
Chocolaterie Stam, Des Moines, IA
Chocolaterie Stam, Fine European Chocolates since 1913
Offering: Hot chocolate, stroopwafel, coffee, prepacks
Price Range: $2 – $25
Andy Klindt – Chainsaw Carvings, Des Moines, IA | DEMONSTRATION
Andy Klindt is an Iowa artisan specializing in chainsaw sculpture and metal design. Fanciful, functional, or a fusion of each…watching Andy craft original pieces is sure to delight people of all ages!
Offering: Chainsaw carvings, hand-forged metal items, and mixed metal and wood items
Price Range: $20 – $2000
Pickle Creek Herbs, Fairfield, IA
Pickle Creek Herbs is a family farm in SE Iowa. They handcraft herb-infused olive oils & vinegars, jams, soaps, salves, and balms using herbs we grow in our gardens. They make everything by hand using our own recipes and herbs we grow in our Iowa garden.
Offering: Herb-infused olive oils and vinegars, herbal jams, herbal soaps, salves, and balms. They will also offer festive gift boxes and gift bags of our items.
Price Range: $3 – $22
Three Smooth Stones, Des Moines, IA
Betty Chamness Trost of Three Smooth Stones creates handmade wet-felted and embroidered stones, and painted mandala stones that fit beautifully into the palm of your hand for comfort and meditation.
Offering: Smooth stones surrounded with wool fiber using the wet-felting technique and then hand embroidered in colorful garden designs. On the round stones she paints mesmerizing mandala designs using dots of acrylic paint. Each of her stone pieces are hand made and fit beautifully into the palm of your hand for soothing comfort and meditation. She creates felted pictures using wool fibers and needle and wet-felting techniques, free motion machine quilting, hand embroidery, silk fibers, and beads. And she knits, then wet-felts luscious wool slippers for men and women. The best part of her day is engaging with people and enjoying their excitement at seeing her creations.
Price Range: $5 – $150
museum of danish america, Elk Horn, IA
The Museum of Danish America booth will carry items from its Design Store reflecting Danish culture and Danish, Danish-American and Scandinavian artists, artisans and product designers.
Offering: Gift items of Danish, Danish-American and Scandinavian design – Christmas decorations, papirklip, die-cuts, hand towels, coffee mugs
Price Range: $5 – $100
Amana Woolen Mill, Amana, IA
The Amana Woolen Mill crafting Iowa made textiles since 1855.
Offering: Amana crafted blankets, scarves, totes, aprons & table runners
Price Range: $30 – $150
Suri Oaks at Grace Ranch, Hudson, WI
Suri Oaks Alpaca Fashions
Offering: alpaca socks, hats, mittens, scarves, gloves, dryer balls, capes
Price Range: $15 – $250
Jett and Monkey’s, Des Moines, IA
Jett and Monkey’s offers hunde und katzen (dogs and cats) holiday gifts, including treats, toys and European Christmas ornaments. Visit our store in the East Village!
Offering: Holiday pet gifts, including treats, toys and European Christmas ornaments.
Price Range: $3 – $50
Indianola Glass Creations, Indianola, IA | DEMONSTRATION
Come in and enjoy the world of glass. Indianola Glass Creations designs and creates colorful Stained and Fused Glass ornaments, suncatchers, jewelry and home decor. They will be demonstrating blown glass ornaments.
Offering: Stained Glass, Fused Glass & Blown Glass ornaments and suncatchers. Fused glass and china jewelry. Fused & Stained Glass clocks and home decor art pieces. Wine bottle tealights.
Price Range: $12 – $150
Wild Cherry Spoon Co, Rock Island, IL | DEMONSTRATION
Wild Cherry Spoon Co. handcarves unique, one of a kind, pieces of wooden kitchenware along the banks of the Mississippi, in Rock Island, IL.
Offering: Handcarved wooden: spoons, spatulas, kitchen utensils, rice paddles, chopsticks, cutting/cheese boards, baby spoons, cheese spreaders, pizza paddles and pizza cutters, coffee and ice cream scoops.
Price Range: $5 – $75
Sugarplums, Altoona, IA
Delicious homemade gingerbread and lebkuchen featuring fancy cookies and houses. Traditionally decorated cookies are often purchased at Christmas markets to present to loved ones.
Offering: Fancy gingerbread/lebkuchen houses and cookies with festive German expressions such as, Frohe Weihnachten, Ich liebe dich, Mein Schatz, etc.
Price Range: $3 – $50
Christkindlmarket Des Moines 2017 Food & Beverage Vendors
Glühwein
Glühwein (roughly, “glow-wine”, from the hot irons once used for mulling) is popular in German speaking countries. Glühwein is prepared from red wine, heated and spiced with cinnamon sticks, cloves, star aniseed, citrus, sugar and at times vanilla pods.
Iowa Beer Bus
L&L European Delight, Chariton, IA
Taste of Ukraine
Offering: Cheburekie, Perogies, Pelmenie, sweet rolls, cake, candy
Price Range: $2 – $10
Mucky Duck Pub, Ames, IA
The Mucky Duck Pub is a full service, British-style public house. At the Mucky Duck we are pleased to welcome people of all ages and from all walks of life – we believe that drinking, eating and having fun together is a very important part of life! We have a great selection of beer from the UK, the USA and Iowa. We also serve some classic British dishes such as fish and chips and bangers and mash but we are also well know for our burgers and tenderloins. At the market we are pleased to be serving some British Christmas classics such as mince pies and Christmas pudding, along with some of the staples from our restaurant.
Offering: Bangers & Mash, Fish & Chips, Baked Potato Filled w/ Vegetarian or Chicken Curry, Vegetarian or Chicken Curry over rice, chili, Banked Potato covered with chili, Christmas Pudding w/ Brandy Butter, Sticky Toffee Pudding, Hot Tea, Coffee. Retail items: Christmas crackers, Turkish Delight, Tubs of assorted chocolates (Roses or Quality Street)
Price Range: $5 – $10
Salt & Pretzel, Ames, IA
Salt and Pretzel Co. is family-owned and operated in Ames, Iowa. They started the business in 2015 with the idea of bringing unique, soft pretzels to the community. Each pretzel is carefully crafted with the best ingredients and produced with state of the art equipment to create exceptional pretzels. All of their are made in their FDA-inspected bakery that meets all food safety and GMP requirements.
Offering: Bavarian-style pretzels and sauces, German and European Sausages, European baked products.
Price Range: $3 – $7
Top of the Hill Nuts, Grinnell, IA
Offering: Roasted almonds, cashews, pecans with cinnamon or maple flavoring
Price Range: $5 – $15
Curbin Cuisine, Granger, IA
State of the art, wickedly designed bright green food truck.
Des Moines European Heritage Association connects Iowans with European traditions, language education and cultural experiences; and it provides resources and tools to other cultural heritage organizations.
Signature Beer to be Brewed for Christkindlmarket Des Moines 2017
Christkindlmarket Des Moines 2017 organizers are pleased to announce their partnership with Confluence Brewing Company to brew a signature beer for #CDM2017.
Confluence brews 30 – 40 different beers each year. They often partner with area non-profits to help bring awareness to their cause through a unique and related recipe. Confluence cares about the creativity and craftsmanship that goes into making excellent beer, and knows that excellent beer can bring people together.
Through this partnership, you can look forward to:
- A signature beer release fundraiser at Confluence Brewing Company in November 2017.
- A Firkin tapping of our signature beer at #CDM2017.
- Our signature beer available at retail locations prior to #CDM2017 and during the holiday season.
Des Moines European Heritage Association connects Iowans with European traditions, language education and cultural experiences; and it provides resources and tools to other cultural heritage organizations.
Gail’s Photography & Designs | 2017 In-Kind Sponsor
As we continue to host fundraising events and get ready to produce Christkindlmarket Des Moines 2017, we’re finding a lot of memorable moments along the way. We’re grateful to have Gail’s Photography and Designs to capture those for us as our 2017 Photography Sponsor.
Gail retired from Lifetouch Portrait Studios in June 2014. The next month, she opened her own photography business. Her subjects are usually children and families. She also designs word art that are offered in metal or in print. Her favorite part of her job is seeing families enjoying themselves and capturing moments for them to keep for generations.
Gail is looking forward to looking at the unique gifts that are offered. Her involvement with Christkindlmarket Des Moines was inspired by her Italian heritage and passion for learning about other cultures.
“I believe that learning about and understanding what other cultures have to offer is essential in our society,” Gail said.
She also encourages people interested in European heritage to get involved with Des Moines European Heritage Association and Christkindlmarket Des Moines.
“There’s great connections to be made and everyone brings something special to it that only they can give.”
Take a look at Gail’s Facebook Fan Page to see her great work. You’ll see Gail at all of our 2017 fundraising events as well!
Thank you, Gail, for your support!
Des Moines European Heritage Association connects Iowans with European traditions, language education and cultural experiences; and it provides resources and tools to other cultural heritage organizations.
Modern Woodmen of America | Fundraising Match Sponsor
Christkindlmarket Des Moines relies on donations to help bring our work to life. We appreciate all our sponsors and donations that come from individuals or are collected at fundraisers.
With that said, wouldn’t it be great if dollars could double themselves and have twice the impact? Definitely! That’s why we’re so excited to welcome Stoy Hall and Modern Woodmen of America back as our fundraising match sponsor for Christkindlmarket Des Moines 2017.
Founded in 1833, Modern Woodmen of America is a fraternal financial service organization. They offer life insurance, annuity and investments. In addition to their services, Modern Woodmen of America offers benefits to members through their fraternal programs. Chapters across the nation are able to host events and activities that help them invest in their communities. These include educational and social events, as well as volunteer opportunities. Matching fund programs, like the one supporting Christkindlmarket Des Moines, help the organization get involved in the communities where it operates.
Stoy has been with the organization for six years, including an internship. According to him, finding ways to participate in the community is an important part of being in a fraternal organization. Stoy and a few of his colleagues volunteered to help set up at Christkindlmarket Des Moines 2016.
“The ability to do something in the community near Christmas with cultural influences is a no brainer. I have done a lot of research on them and I believe Des Moines will be a great fit for the event, ” he said.
The first event in 2017 to be matched by Stoy and MWA will be “Alsatian Cuisine and Conversation” on May 22. Keep an eye on our Facebook Page and the blog to learn more.
Thank you for your support!
Des Moines European Heritage Association connects Iowans with European traditions, language education and cultural experiences; and it provides resources and tools to other cultural heritage organizations.
Alsatian Cuisine and Conversation, March 22, 2017
Say “oui” to a three-course French dinner at Le Jardin on Wednesday, March 22. Choose from several specialty dishes prepared by chef Tag Grandgeorge. Chef Tag will talk about his French experiences and how they influenced the food.
The cost is $35 per person. A portion of the proceeds will benefit the Des Moines European Heritage Association and their production of Christkindlmarket Des Moines. Call Le Jardin at 515-255-5787 to reserve a table. Only 44 seats available. Bon appétit!
Seating Times: 5:30pm, 5:45pm and 6pm
Menu:
Mixed greens salad, basil vinaigrette, blackberries, mandarin oranges, peppered bacon, brie croustade
Entrées
Smoked pork shoulder, buttermilk polenta, horseradish-dill-citrus sauce
Stuffed cabbage rolls (beef and pork), roasted vegetables, garlic broth
Sausage and chicken spaetzle, tarragon cream, caramelized onions, roasted carrots
Desserts
Apple fritter, vanilla ice cream, caramel
Cherry clafoutis, blackberry syrup, whipped cream
Please note: The $35 fee includes a three-course meal. Beverages will be available for purchase. Tax and a 20 percent service gratuity will be applied to the final bill.
Des Moines European Heritage Association connects Iowans with European traditions, language education and cultural experiences; and it provides resources and tools to other cultural heritage organizations.
#CDM2016 Volunteer Appreciation Dinner
In January, we held our volunteer appreciation dinner to thank those that helped produce the inaugural Christkindlmarket Des Moines. We couldn’t have done it without you!
Thank you to Barilla for supplying the pasta and sauce and to Graziano Bros. for supplying the sausage. And to Perry Wehrle for supplying the venue.
Are you interested in getting involved to help plan this year’s event? Complete our volunteer interest form indicating your committee interests.
Are you interested in volunteering at the event this December? Opt in to our e-newsletter to be notified when opportunities are available. The Glühwein serving shifts go fast!
Des Moines European Heritage Association connects Iowans with European traditions, language education and cultural experiences; and it provides resources and tools to other cultural heritage organizations.
2017 Call for Performers
The quality of a traditional Christmas market depends on maintaining a high standard of programming. Christkindlmarket Des Moines is dedicated to immersing visitors in a world of folklore and craftsmanship as well as enticing them with traditional, seasonal gastronomic specialties to provide an experience filled with European elegance and charm. See Google Images of Christmas markets around the world.
We will provide a four-sided, forced-air heated tent at a location to be determined by Christkindlmarket Des Moines event planning committee on Cowles Commons. A lighted stage within the tent will be provided.
Our performer guide will give you an overview of the needs assessment process and requirements. As soon as you fill out the needs assessment, it will be reviewed internally and all information stored in our database.
What is the timeline for the process?
Fill out the online needs assessment no later than March 1, 2017
Send photographs representing you or your group to – [email protected]
Receive feedback from Christkindlmarket Des Moines staff by April 1, 2017
Christkindlmarket Des Moines 2017 Performer Information Guide
Christkindlmarket Des Moines 2017 Performer Needs Assessment
Chocolaterie Stam | 2017 In-Kind Sponsor
A huge thank you to Chocolaterie Stam who continues as our 2017 in-kind vendor stall logistics partner. Not many people understand the logistics behind this process, so let me explain.
Materials are purchased from Lowes and Gilcrest/Jewett and delivered to either Waukee High School or Johnston High School.
After each stall is built, it is torn down, palletized and transported from WHS or JHS to Centennial Warehousing Corporation for storage until Christkindlmarket Des Moines. Chocolaterie Stam is donating the use of their dock-height delivery truck so we can transport each individual stall to Centennial Warehousing Corporation! Prior to this partnership, we were renting UHaul trucks. Thank you so much for your continued support!
Des Moines European Heritage Association connects Iowans with European traditions, language education and cultural experiences; and it provides resources and tools to other cultural heritage organizations.
2017 Call for Vendors
Des Moines European Heritage Association invites you to become a vendor at the 2nd Annual Christkindlmarket Des Moines.
In 2016, this cultural experience attracted 22,000 – 26,000 attendees.
In 2016 we set up at 125+ events around Iowa, and out of all of those events, Christkindlmarket Des Moines was our #1 event for gross sales.
Pickle Creek Herbs, 2016
In addition to food and gift/specialty item vendors, we seek vendors that can provide demonstrations.
- Over 62,000 website pageviews/year
- 1,517 Facebook Likes
- E-newsletters: 11 issues per year, 924 subscribers, 40% open rate
- Promotional flyers (Jul – Dec): 2,000
I had high hopes for this event, and in terms of both sales and marketing, this event exceeded all my expectations.
Pickle Creek Herbs, 2016
View all 2016 Vendor Testimonials
Read the 2017 Vendor Guide (Required)
Apply to be a 2017 Vendor
Application Deadline: February 15, 2017
Des Moines European Heritage Association connects Iowans with European traditions, language education and cultural experiences; and it provides resources and tools to other cultural heritage organizations.