Children Invited to Participate in Opening Ceremony Procession
Children are an integral component of any Christkindlmarket opening ceremony. Would your child (children) like to follow “Saint Nicholas” through Christkindlmarket Des Moines to participate in the opening ceremony?
Contact Dave Cox at [email protected] with questions and interest. We would like at most 25 children to participate.
Children and parents are invited to gather in the Entrance of the venue at 5:40pm on Friday, December 3, (please be on time) to receive a luminary and battery-operated candle. Please return the luminaries to a volunteer at the end of the opening ceremony if your child does not wish to take it home.
Volunteer at #CDM2021
Iowa European Cultural Connection (IECC) invites you to be a part of something great: Christkindlmarket Des Moines. Volunteers are integral to a successful community event. We need your help, and we have several opportunities to choose from whether you’re looking for just yourself or a group team building experience. Be sure to include family members, friends and others who could join you to make it more fun!
NEW THIS YEAR: Refer 5 volunteers and get a drink or brat/hot dog ticket that you can pick up when you check in at the Volunteer Tent for YOUR shift. AND The individual whose referral efforts lead to the most hours volunteered will win a $100 Visa gift card.
NON-PROFITS: If your non-profit signs up to fill a shift (volunteers need not be directly associated with your non-profit) to serve Glühwein, beer or brats/hot dogs, you may put out your own “tip” jar for cash donations during that shift. Please email [email protected] with proof of tax-exempt status and the location/date/time of your shift.
After your shift, turn in your credential at the Volunteer Tent for: a ticket worth 5% off your purchase in “An der Weihnachtsecke”, a ticket for one free brat/hot dog or one free drink ticket. Christkindlmarket Des Moines Tear Down volunteers will enjoy pizza on Sunday night. At the end of the weekend, all volunteers will be entered in a drawing. One lucky winner will get to choose either a piece of IECC merchandise or imported food.
All volunteers must be at least 16 years old when they report for their volunteer shift. Those working with alcohol must be at least 18 years old when they report for their volunteer shift.
PROMOTING A SAFE AND HEALTHY EVENT: Rest assured that CDM prioritizes the safety and health of our volunteers. We will take guidance provided by local and state health authorities under advisement and make event modifications to ensure a safe experience for all. Based on this guidance, we will provide updated COVID-19 mitigation strategies and requirements as the event approaches.
Sign Up Here!
Beer Pourers: **Great for groups/team building** Work with the Iowa Beer Bus team to serve beer to attendees.
Bratwurst Imbiss am Markt (Food preparation): **Great for groups/team building** From a canopy tent adjacent to the festival venue, grill and package brats and hot dogs to be sold at a wooden vendor hut on the venue.
Bratwurst Imbiss am Markt (Sales): **Great for groups/team building** From a wooden vendor hut, sell prepared brats and hot dogs to market patrons.
Christkindlmarket Des Moines PR: From the festival entrance, welcome patrons and hand out sitemaps.
Christkindlmarket Des Moines Setup: **Great for groups/team building** Do you have an eye for detail? Work with a team to set up Christmas trees, assemble signage, hang stringed lights and decorate wooden vendor stalls.
Christkindlmarket Des Moines Tear Down: **Great for groups/team building** Remove Christmas trees, disassemble signage, remove stringed lights, remove decorations from wooden vendor stalls.
Glühwein & Kinderpunsch Sales: **Great for groups/team building** Serve warm, mulled wine and mulled cider from a tent or in Yuletide Hall to eager attendees.
Information Tent: From a 3-sided tent, answer patron’s questions, provide festival maps, share European tourism information and provide information about Iowa European Cultural Connection.
Non-Profit Tree Setup: Place live, 6-foot fir trees in tree stands and positioning them in outdoor tent.
Non-Profit Tree Tear Down: Remove ornaments and lights from non-profit trees and help silent auction winners transport these items and possibly the tree to their vehicles.
Parking Attendant: Manage free parking lot for vendors, volunteers, performers and Principal Park employees
Sales Associate – Merchandising: For our store, help ensure that product is displayed properly and answer customer questions.
Sales Associate – Online Order Pickup: From our store, hand out orders customers have placed online when they arrive to pick them up.
Sales Associate – Point of Sale: For our store, operate a point-of-sale system on an iPad, take cash, and interact with customers.
Vendor Stall Setup: **Great for groups/team building** Construct prefabricated wooden vendor stalls. **Heavy lifting definitely required**
Vendor Stall Tear Down: **Great for groups/team building** Tear down prefabricated wooden vendor stalls. **Heavy lifting definitely required**
Volunteer Relations: Greet and check-in volunteers, direct volunteers to assigned areas, and keep Volunteer Headquarters organized.
Yuletide Hall (heated entertainment tent): Assist the Yuletide Hall site leaders to ensure that performers have arrived, are prepared to take the stage, have what they need to perform while maintaining a neat and tidy venue.
Yuletide Hall Setup: **Great for groups/team building** Work inside a tent, outside of the elements, as you set up and decorate an artificial, pre-lit tree, set up tables and chairs and install lights and garland.
Yuletide Hall Tear Down: **Great for groups/team building** Work inside a tent, outside of the elements, as you disassemble an artificial, pre-lit tree, tear down and stack tables and chairs and remove lights and garland.
Sign Up Here!
Dakota Tinworks | #CDM2021 Vendor
Tell us about your business
Now in its sixth year, Dakota Tinworks is a family-owned business, specializing in traditional, handmade tinware and tin decorative items. Karl, the tinsmith in the family, uses mostly 19th century tinsmith’s tools in the creation of his tin goods. He trained as a historical tinsmith with Loren Miller at the Stuhr Museum of the Prairie Pioneer in Grand Island, Nebraska, and with master tinsmith William McMillen at Historic Eastfield Village in New York. He’s also taken an advanced tinsmithing workshop co-taught by Steve Delisle, head tinsmith at Colonial Williamsburg.
The work he produces is split between decorative tin items, like Christmas ornaments and tree tinsel/icicles, and authentic reproduction tinware, like pierced tin lanterns and other museum-quality tinware.
What inspired you to get involved as a vendor at Christkindlmarket Des Moines 2021?
We were invited to participate in CDM 2017, 2018, and 2019, as well as CDM Curbside in 2020. We’ve enjoyed being part of the Christkindlmarket Des Moines family of vendors and look forward to being at the event every year. People seem to really like the tin goods we produce and sell. We enjoy meeting everyone who stops by our pop-up tents. We’re looking forward to this year’s Christkindlmarket Des Moines!
What products will you be selling at Christkindlmarket Des Moines 2021 and why did you choose them?
Our tin ornaments and tree tinsel remain very popular, so we will, of course, have plenty of those on hand. We also plan to offer pierced tin candle shades, with traditional designs, cookie cutters, and pierced tin lanterns. We’ll have a full range of other tin items for sale, but we’re also planning on adding a variety of similar items made in copper, too, including ornaments and tinsel/icicles. Another new item will be colored tinsel.
Anything else you’d like to share?
We’re excited to be a part of this wonderful event once again. I hope people look for our red and white striped twin pop-up tents and come by to see a demonstration and check out our range of products!
Star Equipment | 2021 Gold Sponsor
We’re pleased to welcome Star Equipment as a Gold Sponsor of Christkindlmarket Des Moines 2021.
Star Equipment is Iowa’s number one source for high-quality construction equipment. Family-owned, by the Bowmans since 1968, Star Equipment offers expert service and unsurpassed product knowledge for contractors across Iowa and parts of Nebraska, South Dakota, Minnesota, Illinois, & Missouri. Star specializes in light to general construction equipment as well as specialty products to fill the needs of our customers.
Star Equipment offers a wide range of new and used construction equipment including, but not limited to, skid loaders, track loaders, excavators, telehandlers, articulating loaders, wheel loaders, service trucks, hi-reaches, power buggies, air compressors, compaction equipment, concrete saws, trowels, screed, mixers, floor preparation equipment, spray injection patchers, light towers, dust control, aerial lifts, lasers, machine control, water pumps, generators, trailers, heating & climate control, pressure washers, concrete pumps, and attachments for every job! Star Equipment also features brands such as Mustang, Gehl, Husqvarna, Takeuchi, Manitou, Topcon, Multiquip, Husqvarna, Allen Engineering, Somero, IMT, Elliott, Schwing, Sullivan Palatek, Wacker Neuson, Virnig, Paladin, and many more.
TeaGschwendner USA | 2021 Weihnachtswald Sponsor
We’re pleased to have TeaGschwendner USA as our Weihnachtswald (Christmas forest) sponsor. The Weihnachtswald houses fifteen live fir trees decorated by local non-profits. Patrons can bid on these trees and their decorations during a silent auction held during the festival.
TeaGschwendner has a passion for excellent tea and is a 2021 Christkindlmarket Des Moines vendor. They are global tea ambassadors, sourcing the finest teas the world has to offer. Their passion for tea began when they opened their first tea shop more than forty years ago following dreams of Albert Gschwendner and his wife Gwednalina. Their goal was to bring the finest teas to a small, select group of tea connoisseurs. From those humble beginnings, TeaGschwendner has grown into a global leader in tea retail. They have invested in their tea growers and developed their own in-house laboratories to ensure that they provide only the highest quality teas. The quality of their tea speaks for itself. They have been an award-winning tea company for more than fourteen consecutive years at the World Tea Championships.
From their location in the heart of the Historic Gold Coast of Chicago, they have been able to share their passion with even more people. Their Chicago location has continued to impress for the past fifteen years. Their woman-owned local business was named “The Best Tea Shop in Chicago” by Chicago Magazine. Customers can trust they are getting the best service from an incredibly knowledgeable staff as their store is managed by a Certified Tea Sommelier. They have been trusted by Top Chefs, Local Country Clubs, Navy Pier, Art Institute of Chicago, Drake Hotel, and the Chicago/Milwaukee/Carmel Christkindlmarkets to provide the perfect tea for any occasion.
TeaGschwendner is a leader in promoting organic tea production. Their tea producers actively encourage development of a caring and sustainable industry that generates income and improves the lives of millions of people. Their producers maintain the highest ethical standards regarding health, education, nutrition and environmental sustainability with Fair Trade certifications. They cultivate personal relationships with their tea growers and share their commitment to improving the lives of the people who produce their tea products. Their commitment to providing you with exceptional tea is matched by their commitment to the planet and the people who grow their tea.
They have superior knowledge of, and experience in, the tea market, with a mission to bring truly superlative teas to a growing community of tea lovers around the world and in their own neighborhood. While their company continues to grow, some things do not change. At TeaGschwendner, their Passion for Tea is at the core of everything they do.
Each shop carries a selection of more than 300 varieties including Black, Green, Oolong, White, Rooibush, Herbal and Fruit, and ranging in price from just a few cents per cup all the way up the rarest teas grown exclusively for TeaGschwendner by some of the world’s finest estates.
Danish Windmill | 2021 Gold Sponsor
The Danish Windmill is a proud sponsor of Christkindlmarket Des Moines 2021 representing the Danish of Iowa.
The 1848 Danish Windmill was brought piece by piece from Denmark in 1975 and rebuilt by community volunteers as a memorial to their strong Danish Heritage. The historic 60 foot tall windmill just completed a 2-year major restoration project and now is in working condition and turns by the wind as it once did over 170 years ago in Denmark. The Danish Windmill is open daily and located in Elk Horn, Iowa.
Quilted Gardens Nursery | #CDM2021 Vendor
Tell us about your business
Quilted Gardens Nursery is an independent specialty nursery located south of Indianola, IA. Not only do we carry unique unusual plants and trees, we are also a Christmas tree farm, known for fresh on-site made wreaths and greens and trees. At Christmas time we specialize in glass and Fair-trade ornaments, leather door bells and straps and unique gifts not just for the gardener but everyone on your list.
What inspired you to get involved as a vendor at Christkindlmarket Des Moines 2021?
The unique aspect of the European Christmas Market inspired us to want to be a part of it.
What products will you be selling at Christkindlmarket Des Moines 2021 and why did you choose them?
We provide fresh made wreaths and bundles of mixed greens grown on our farm, Iowa-made leather sleigh bells and hanging door bells, fine blown glass bird and other ornaments (over 20 different bird ornaments) and Fair-trade Peruvian gourd ornaments.
Anything else you’d like to share?
We really enjoy the festival atmosphere of Christkindlmarket Des Moines. It makes Winter a really awesome time of year.
Creative Choice Solutions | 2021 Platinum Sponsor
We’re pleased to have Choice Creative Solutions as a member of our team as a Platinum Sponsor.
Choice Creative Solutions is the brainchild of the group behind the marketing wheel at Community Choice Credit Union (CCCU) in Des Moines, IA. After over a decade of proven success and awards of recognition for raising the awareness/success level for CCCU and pushing the marketing boundaries for a financial institution, it seemed logical to work with other businesses to help them achieve success.
Bravo Greater Des Moines Arts and Culture Program Grant Recipient
The organizers of Christkindlmarket Des Moines are pleased to announce the receipt of a Bravo Greater Des Moines Arts and Culture Program Grant. These funds will be used to support the production of the 6th annual Christkindlmarket Des Moines taking place December 2 – 5 at Principal Park.
Bravo Greater Des Moines leverages community resources to maximize the impact of arts, culture and heritage to advance regional priorities. Since 2006, Bravo has awarded more than 1,000 grants to more than 100 arts, culture and heritage organizations and programs totaling more than $45 million. Bravo is almost entirely funded through Hotel/Motel taxes.
Christkindlmarket DSM Mug Unveiling Party and Open House
We had a great time at the #CDM2021 Mug Unveiling and Open House on Sunday, August 22 from 2 – 4pm. Attendees shopped a mini market featuring foods and handcrafted items from Christkindlmarket Des Moines 2021 vendors The Kringle Man, Three In One Artworks, Schanz Furniture, Fritz Toffee Company and Indianola Glass Creations.
A limited quantity of commemorative Glühwein mugs are ordered each year and with a donation of $25 (or more), you can guarantee your mug to be picked up at Christkindlmarket Des Moines.
