Frohe Weihnachten

I happened to be fortunate enough to vacation in Vienna, Austria, three weeks before Christmas. I have been to Europe before, but not during Christmastime. Vienna is famous for their Christmas markets like Holland (Amsterdam) is famous for their tulips. They pop up in almost every town and are of varying sizes and complexities; drawing vendors, craftsman, and bakers from hither and yon. As I sipped my Gluhwein and noshed on a pretzel the size of my head, I wondered what it might take to plan a Christmas market.

I wrote about street fairs and flea markets (you haven’t seen that blog yet) and I anticipate there are many similarities, however, there are some stark differences and some interesting observations I made while I walked.

As with any outdoor city-wide event, there will be permits required to close streets or parkways, install temporary structures, run electric, and sell alcohol. When you gather a large number of people in one place, there will need to be portable bathrooms, hand-washing stations, places to sit, and something to eat. When running cables across a thoroughfare they have to be covered so they are not a tripping hazard, and I anticipate when placing a booth on a street, you need to be mindful of where drain accesses, manhole covers, pot holes (at least where I live), light poles, and street signs are positioned.

There will be the typical event planning aspects such as marketing and advertising (I hope anyway-if you want people to show up), safety inspections to schedule, booth layout designs to have approved, supplies to order, seasonal help to hire, and contracts to send out, track down, and collect on.

One of the unique aspects that I totally appreciated was that all of the booths were designed as cute little wooden houses and were basically identical. Every one of them lined the perimeter making a quaint little wooden-house city. Each one decorated and filled to the brim with wares and food and drinks. There had to be on average 50-60 little houses at the markets I visited. They are probably 10-feet wide by 8-feet deep with full roofs and eaves with scalloped edges. The real question is where do they have space to store all of these? I mean, even broken down, that’s a ton of wood! And, these are definitely not rebuilt from scratch every year, they’re well-worn, loved little booths that have seen their share of markets.

There is another feature that struck me that people here probably take for granted if it’s a regular occurrence. The location of their porta potties and hand washing stations was completely enclosed with 8-foot fencing all around. The bathroom area was private because every square inch of the outside of the fencing was covered in advertising. Genius! Privacy for everyone to do their thing, additional sponsorship opportunities (and these were huge panels with great visibility on the walkway), and extra money in the host organization’s pocket. Win-win-win!

Depending on which market I visited, there were carousels, Ferris wheels, children’s play areas, outdoor skating rinks (quite elaborate ones I might add), lots of lights, and moving decorations. When we arrived it had snowed, then froze, then thawed just enough to make it liquid to freeze again. You would think the market hosts would have been all over shoveling, deicing, salting, and safety for their patrons. Not exactly. Clearly in this part of the world it’s understood that you’ll bundle up, put on your spike-bottom boots and show up anyway. This is one thing I observed that I figured someone smarter than me who has been doing Christmas markets in Vienna a long time figured out worked for them. This is where it pays to be an expert in your location and within your niche event market.

I’ll share one last observation that I thought was clever. Several booths served a signature drink, the Gluhwein I mentioned earlier. It’s a mulled red wine. When I visited Vienna it was 20-degrees Fahrenheit, so any warm port in a storm was welcome. When you purchased your concoction, you “rented” the adorable stocking-shaped mug. You would think everyone would want to bring theirs home, and if they didn’t want to, you’d see them sitting on every flat surface around the market (especially from those who frequented these booths). However, when you returned your rented mug, you received the rough equivalent of $5 back per mug. Brilliant! This solved the problem of running out of mugs and having to clean them up from all around the market. Again, someone had their thinking cap on.

So the Christmas market; another unique event with it’s own nuances that probably 90% of us never thought of, couldn’t imagine planning in our areas (especially the warmer ones – I’m looking at you SoCal), and appreciate when we get the opportunity to experience.

Have you had the opportunity to plan an outdoor Christmas market? Especially one in a climate that’s cold and snowy? What didn’t I mention that we should know? Share it here or send me an email! We’d love to hear about your experience!

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Here are a few bonus pictures!