Christkindlmarket DSM Mug Unveiling Party a Huge Success
Several people were the first to view Christkindlmarket Des Moines’ 2018 Glühwein mug design at Jasper Winery on Tuesday, April 17.
They sipped the signature drink (warm mulled wine) while shopping a mini market featuring foods and handcrafted items from Christkindlmarket Des Moines 2018 vendors. The first 25 attendees to donate $25 (or more) to guarantee their 2018 mug received a goody bag. Make your donation today!
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.
Andy Klindt Woodcraft | #CDM2018 Vendor
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Tell us about your business
Andy Klindt is an Iowa artisan specializing in chainsaw sculpture, wooden ware, and metal design.
Andy uses native Iowa timbers for his wooden creations, utilizing anything from chainsaws to hand tools. When blacksmithing, Andy uses traditional methods to forge his metal art.
Fanciful , functional, or a fusion of each…watching Andy craft original pieces is sure to delight people of all ages!
What inspired you to get involved as a vendor at Christkindlmarket Des Moines 2018?
Christkindlmarket Des Moines has to be one of our favorite events! From the volunteers that work hard making sure everything runs smoothly, to the patrons that come out and enjoy all that the market has to offer, Christkindlmarket Des Moines is beyond compare! There are so many unique gifts to choose from, the food is warm and wonderful, the entertainment is excellent, and of course the Glühwein alone is worth the visit!!
What products will you be selling at Christkindlmarket Des Moines 2018 and why did you choose them?
This year Andy will have chainsaw carvings (including new designs!), wooden ware, metal art, and Christmas ornaments.
We hope to have something for everyone!
We can hardly wait for ChristkindlmarketDSM 2018!!!
Indianola Glass Creations | #CDM2018 Vendor
Tell us about your business
Indianola Glass Creations is a small business in Indianola, Iowa. We make glass artwork, but we also have all the tools one would need to start doing stained and fused glass on their own. In the store we create seasonal items, jewelry and take custom orders to meet the customer’s wishes. Glass classes are offered through out the month and we have a room set up for ceramic painting.
What inspired you to get involved as a vendor at Christkindlmarket Des Moines 2018?
We decided to join Chistkindlmarket because we felt when you think of Germany you may think of glass. This also allows people to buy unique Christmas gifts for their friends and family while supporting a small business.
What products will you be selling at Christkindlmarket Des Moines 2018 and why did you choose them?
We will be selling unique stained and fused glass gift items as well as hand crafted German Heritage items. There will be a variety of Christmas ornaments, hand painted items on glass, and other small hand crafted items that will make the perfect Christmas gift. At Christkindlmarket Des Moines, customers will only see a fraction of what we have to offer and they can see a larger selection at the store in Indianola.
Steinbach Volkskunst GmbH | #CDM2018 Vendor
Tell us about your business
The Steinbach company from Marienberg in the Ore Mountains has been producing nutcrackers, smokers and miniature figures in the traditional way for over 200 years and stands for top quality from its own production in Germany. All figures are “Handmade in Germany.” Each piece of wood that we love to make in our factory is unique, because wood is a living resource, and every single piece has its own story, a story we continue to write. Each step, every detail and every brushstroke is carried out with care and dedication.The entire production process from creation through sampling to final production takes place in our factory in Marienberg in the Ore Mountains. Experience tradition – experience Steinbach.
What inspired you to get involved as a vendor at Christkindlmarket Des Moines 2018?
What products will you be selling at Christkindlmarket Des Moines 2018 and why did you choose them?
- Steinbach Products: Big Nutcrackers, Small Nutcrackers – Chubbys & Trolls, Smokers, Gift boxes
- Glässer products (products of our partner company)
- Gingerbread stuff like hearts and cookies
Anything else you’d like to share?
Ruhland’s Strudel Haus | #CDM2018 Vendor
Tell us about your business
What inspired you to get involved as a vendor at Christkindlmarket Des Moines 2018?
What products will you be selling at Christkindlmarket Des Moines 2018 and why did you choose them?
Anything else you’d like to share?
Curbin’ Cuisine | #CDM2018 Vendor
Tell us about your business
Food trucks are a rising tide lifting all boats in the local restaurant industry into a growing new ocean. Without a doubt, Food Trucks have grown in popularity in the Des Moines area greatly since 2015 and we did no want to wait one more moment to get in on the fun. But Curbin’ Cuisine did not start then, it launched in 2013 as a street food cart and went to many farmers markets, city festivals and breweries. With popularity growing quickly from their delicious cuisines, in January 2016 Curbin’ Cuisine Food Truck & Catering launched. And within one very quick and great year, Curbin’ Cuisine was voted top 3 Best of the Best Food Trucks by the viewers of City View Magazine in 2017.
Curbin’ Cuisine is exactly as their motto reads, “Eat Good & Feel Good”. Their globally inspired foods will feed your body & soul as they are made with mixed flavor fusion with tasty sauces & spices and prepared fresh & fast with one goal in mind, a satisfied happy customer.
Curbin’ Cuisine’s Food Truck Menu IS one you will NEVER forget. It will keep you coming back for more time and time again! The staff is fast, fun & friendly and most importantly the food is forkin’ delicious.
What inspired you to get involved as a vendor at Christkindlmarket Des Moines 2018?
Curbin’ Cuisine loves to be apart of unique, one of a kind, festivals in the Des Moines area. Christkindlmarket is just that. It is fun, outdoors and the event coordinators are awesome to work with.
What products will you be selling at Christkindlmarket Des Moines 2018 and why did you choose them?
For this years Christkindlmarket we will be selling some German favorites that have Curbin’ Cuisine’s touches (a few were crowd favorites in 2017):
- The Hogfather (Kielbasa stuffed w/ Pulled Pork & topped w/ BBQ Bacon Kraut)
- German Mac n Cheese
- German Hot Potato Salad
- German Beef & Bacon Skillet Cabbage Dinner
- Fried Mini Apple Pie w/ Ice Cream and Caramel Drizzle
- Bottled Water
- Hot Hazelnut Coffee
Dakota Tinworks | #CDM2018 Vendor
Tell us about your business
Dakota Tinworks is a small, family-owned business, based in Estelline, South Dakota. Karl, who is the family tinsmith, makes a variety of practical and decorative tin items, many of which are based on 19th century historical examples, and are made primarily with 19th century tinsmith’s tools.
Karl 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 rural East Nassau, New York.
Karl’s tin work has been purchased by many private individuals across the United States (30 states and counting!), and he has done commissioned work for a variety of people and organizations, including an art museum, a historical society, and two historic sites.
In addition to making tin pieces, Karl also offers 19th century tinsmithing demonstrations. A popular ‘living historian’, Karl’s summer calendar is typically filled with regional living history events, the organizers of which contract with him to interact with the public and demonstrate the art and craft of 19th century tinsmithing.
What inspired you to get involved as a vendor at Christkindlmarket Des Moines 2018?
We wanted to be involved in the Christkindlmarket Des Moines 2018 because we all had such a great experience at the Christkindlmarket in 2017. The organizers were wonderful, the event was enjoyable, the people we met were friendly and interested in what we do, and the sales were fantastic! It was a great way to end our year and we look forward to our return to CDM in 2018!
What products will you be selling at Christkindlmarket Des Moines 2018 and why did you choose them?
We will be offering many of the things we offered in 2017, but plan to bring much more stock with us to meet the demand for items that proved extremely popular like tinsel, ornaments of various kinds, and tree toppers. Karl has already designed a series of new ornaments this year which will be for sale at CDM 2018. In addition, we will be offering candle holders, candle sconces, a variety of lanterns, cookie cutters, cups, and so much more!
Anything else you’d like to share?
We are thrilled to be a part of Christkindlmarket Des Moines for 2018. It’ll be the highlight of our year.
#CDM2018 Vendor Announcement
Christkindlmarket Des Moines 2018 Gift and Specialty Item Vendors
An der Weihnachtsecke (At the Christmas Corner), Imported from Germany
Offering: Christkindlmarket Des Moines 2018 commemorative mugs, hand-painted German ornaments (Glaszauber Lauscha), advent calendars, imported chocolate, baumkuchen, Mozart kugeln, Asbach filled chocolates, assorted marzipan, Haribo, Pandoro, Pannetone, butter cookies, stollen, beer steins, beer mugs, beer glassware, shot glasses and Christkindlmarket Des Moines merchandise. Price Range: $1 – $200
Steinbach Volkskunst GmbH (LLC), Marienberg, Germany
STEINBACH – PURE GERMAN –
Offering: Folk art products like our world-famous nutcrackers, smokers and miniature figures and Lebkuchen
Price Range: $5 – $400
Coal Ridge Crafts, Knoxville, IA
Coal Ridge Crafts will be selling wooden toys, stuffed animals, Christmas ornaments hand crafted from wood, felt and burlap. Wooden boxes and inspirational signs will also be available.
Offering: Wooden puzzles, pull toys, cars, trucks, planes, helicopters,Plinko, Noah’s Ark, toddler chairs, tractors, construction toys, dinosaurs, wooden boxes, nativity scenes, wall hangings and wooden ornaments.
Price Range: $4 – $60
Craic, Grimes, IA
Craic (pronounced “crack”) is an Irish word for good times, but with a bit of irreverence, as is the Irish way. We focus on Iowa and the Irish–our home and our homeland–and local, handmade products with a twist of fun.
Offering: Irish, Irish dancer and humorous goods
Price Range: $4 – $45
DamonLayne Woodworking, Earlham, IA
Beautiful handmade cutting boards and serving trays.
Offering: Cheese cutting boards, Cutting boards, Serving trays
Price Range: $35 – $45
DSM Foundry, Des Moines, IA
Laser cut gifts and decorations.
Offering: Wooden lanterns, glassware, ornaments, decorative maps/signs
Price Range: $1 – $150
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Andy Klindt – Chainsaw Carvings, Des Moines, IA | DEMONSTRATION
Andy is an Iowa artisan specializing in chainsaw sculpture and metal design. Fanciful , functional, or a fusion of each…watching Andy craft original pieces will delight people of all ages!
Offering: Chainsaw carvings, wooden ornaments.
Price Range: $5 – $2000
Pickle Creek Herbs, Fairfield, IA
At Pickle Creek, we use organic herbs we grow on our Iowa farm to handcraft artisanal herbal products, including infused olive oils and vinegars, jams, soaps, salves, salts, and balms.
Offering: Herb-infused olive oils and vinegars, jams, soaps, salves, salts, and balms that we handcraft ourselves using original recipes and the herbs and other produce we grow in our garden.
Price Range: $3 – $22
Icy Craft, Iowa City, IA
Acrylic Christmas decorations with ornaments, musical boxes and religious figurines.
Offering: Christmas music boxes, acrylic ornaments, angel and nativity Christmas trees.
Price Range: $30 – $50
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 design.
Offering: Danish, Danish-American, and Scandinavian items from our Museum Gift Shop: Nisse, Christmas ornaments, candles, papirklip, mugs & glasses, t-shirts, candy & jam, tea diffusers, dish cloths & tea towels, aebleskiver pans
Price Range: $5 – $100
On The Hill, Garrison, IA
On The Hill / Shepherds Market. Old world traditions at it’s best. Keeping the ancient art of spinning and weaving woolens alive. Soothing body and soul from our homegrown lavender products.
Offering: Hand-spun, hand-woven shawls, wraps, scarves, yarn, from our rare Suri alpacas. Lavender products from our lavender field ie: bath salts, lotions, soaps, spritz, sachets. Our own design broach/pins for our shawls also jewelry incorporating yarn from our alpacas. Drop spindles.
If weather permitting I will demonstrate spinning yarn with my spinning wheel or drop spindle and weaving on my continuous strand tri-loom.
Price Range: $5 – $285
Jett and Monkey’s, Des Moines, IA
Jett and Monkey’s offers hunde und katzen (dogs and cats) holiday gifts, including treats and toys. Visit our store in the East Village!
Offering: Pet supplies, including holiday toys, treats, and ornaments.
Price Range: $2 – $25
Indianola Glass Creations, Indianola, IA | DEMONSTRATION
Step inside the world of glass. Indianola Glass Creations designs and creates one of a kind Stained and Fused Glass ornaments, suncatchers, jewelry and home decor. They will be demonstrating blown glass ornaments.
Offering: Fused Glass pendants, rings, earrings & bracelets, ornaments, suncatchers, platters, bowls, coasters & clocks. Stained Glass ornaments, panels & clocks. Blown glass ornaments. Wine bottle lamps, tealights & wind chimes.
Price Range: $5 – $100
Wild Cherry Spoon Co, Rock Island, IL | DEMONSTRATION
Wild Cherry Spoon Co creates one of a kind handcarved pieces from urban lumber.
Offering: Handcarved wooden spoons, spatulas, kitchen utensils of various styles and purposes, bottle openers, pizza cutters, ice cream scoops, pizza paddles, baguette trays and serving pieces.
Price Range: $3 – $125
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
Ukrainian style foods, gifts and desserts
Offering: Perogies, cabbage Rolls, pelmeni, baked goods,,candy
Price Range: $2 – $10
Brunkow Cheese of Wisconsin, Darlington, WI
Our unique Wisconsin Made Brun-uusto is a specialty cheese made to be served warm. Brun-uusto caramelizes and keeps it shape, becoming a crispy, sweet and soft delicacy.
Offering: Brun-uusto Baked Cheese
Price Range: $6 – $25
Chocolaterie Stam, Des Moines, IA
Offering: Hot chocolate, bars, prepacked boxes and fresh stroopwafels
Price Range: $3 – $50
Top of the Hill Nuts, Grinnell, IA
Offering: Roasted almonds, cashews, and pecans with cinnamon or maple flavor
Price Range: $5 – $15
Curbin Cuisine, Granger, IA
State of the art, wickedly designed bright green food truck.
Sugarplums Cakes and Confections, LLC, Altoona, IA
Sugarplums is a local bakery that specializes in traditional gingerbread and other European baked goods for the Christkindlmarket. Everything we sell is made completely from scratch from family recipes.
Parlo Pizza, LLC, Des Moines, IA
Chestnuts roasted “old school style” in a wood fired oven bring an “old world flavor” to this outdoor holiday market. See the fire, smell the aroma, taste this quintessential wintertime delicacy.
Ruhland’s Strudel Haus, Eagan, MN
Hand made, fresh baked strudel and pretzels.
Karam’s Mediterranean Grill, West Des Moines, IA
2018 Call For Vendors
Des Moines European Heritage Association invites you to become a vendor at the 3rd Annual Christkindlmarket Des Moines taking place November 30 – December 2, 2018, at Cowles Commons.
In 2017, this cultural experience attracted 40,000 visitors.
Wild Cherry Spoon Co has vended across the Midwest. From popular indie craft markets in Chicago to small first time shows. Christkindlmarket Des Moines blew them all away in terms of revenue, participation, crowd size, after show sales, interesting things to see and do at the market, and volunteer support. Word of advice to vendors; plan for your wildest sales expectations and then bring 4x the inventory…it sells out fast!
Wild Cherry Spoon, 2017
In addition to food and gift/specialty item vendors, we seek vendors that can provide demonstrations.
- Media Reach: 36,231,061
- Ad Value: $335,171
- News Value: $1.01 Million
- 50,000 website pageviews/year
- 2,230 Facebook Likes
- E-newsletters: 12 issues/year, 1963 subscribers, 32% open rate
I was especially impressed with the advertising for Christkindlmarket Des Moines—I think the organizers did a great job of getting the word out through many different avenues. The volunteers were very friendly and helpful. The booths made for a great ambience, and we loved the signs!.
Pickle Creek Herbs, 2017
View all Vendor Testimonials
Read the 2018 Vendor Guide (Required)
Apply to be a 2018 Vendor
Application Deadline: February 15, 2018
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.
An der Weihnachtsecke: At the Christmas Corner
With just two weeks until Christkindlmarket Des Moines 2017, we’d like to help you get prepared for your visit by introducing our holiday store called “An der Weihnachtsecke”. In German, this means, “At the Christmas Corner”. In it, we will feature the following:
Christkindlmarket Des Moines 2017 Commemorative Mugs
This year’s commemorative mug will only be available for sale an der Weihnachtsecke. Be sure to purchase yours before they run out. You can make a donation of $25/mug before November 29th to guarantee your mug and pick it up at the event.
For this year’s mug design, we again collaborated with German designer Sabine Voigt. She previously worked for Rolling Stone Magazine and continues to design mugs for Christmas markets around the world. We chose to incorporate our new logo this year, designed by Lessing-Flynn Advertising.
We had the pleasure of working with Straub Marketing to procure our commemorative mugs this year. Straub Marketing is a complete brand management company specializing in creative, print, promotional, apparel and fulfillment. The Straub team, with over 40 years of industry experience, creates seamless brand strategies, specifically customized by evaluating the organizational, circumstantial or event needs of clients.
Beer Steins and Glassware
From glass to stoneware, from boot to Maß, we’ve got your beer drinking vessels covered. With a variety of price points, you’re sure to find something for the casual drinker or collector in your life. There are also several limited edition pieces available.
Thewalt Steins
Many of the steins sold at Christkindlmarket Des Moines 2017 are original productions from original Thewalt molds. These steins are produced in the same time-honored tradition, entirely made in the Westerwald (“Western Forest”), just a few kilometers from the original Thewalt factory. Several original skilled Thewalt workers are still making these new steins. Established in 1893 and producing steins until 2009, the Thewalt factory earned global recognition with emphasis on unsurpassed quality, using only the best materials and workmanship.
Gerz & Corzelius Steins
These steins were made from molds acquired from the original factory of Paul Werner Corzelius (some of which are over 100 years old!). These steins was made just a few kilometers from the original Gerz Sessenbach and Corzelius Hoehr Grenzhausen factory sites.
European Confections
We will be offering advents calendars, German/Swiss/English chocolate, Baumkuchen, Mozart Kugeln, Asbach chocolate, a variety of marzipan confections, Pannetone, German/Danish/English cookies and a variety of stollen.
Glaszauber Lauscha
These individually hand-blown and hand-painted ornaments, lovingly made by a family-owned and operated business in Germany, are truly one of a kind. The first Christmas tree ornaments made of glass originated in their hometown of Lauscha in 1847.
Watch a video of how these ornaments are made.
Christkindlmarket Des Moines Merchandise
We had a great time working with Straub Marketing, our 2017 Preferred Brand Solutions Vendor, to design our Christkindlmarket Des Moines merchandise. We will be offering totes, tumblers, knit caps, beanies, mittens and scarves.
