Bay Area’s Christmas markets add Old World flavor to holidays
From Mountain View's Weihnachtsmarkt to San Francisco's Dickens bash, European-style yuletide markets have become popular across the Bay Area.
Christmas is around the corner, and you’re warming up with a steaming mug of glühwein, taking in the aroma of bratwurst cooking on a nearby grill and trying to decide if you should opt for a another fruit-filled slice of stollen.
It may seem like you’re in Europe, where Christmas markets abound in countries like Germany, Austria and Switzerland — but this is actually Mountain View and the annual Weihnachtsmarkt, hosted by the German International School of Silicon Valley.
“We strive to create an authentic experience, and I think people are drawn to that,” said Sheila Muto, a parent volunteer who helped launch the event in 2013. “Some people want to experience this traditional market that they remember from Germany.”
Outdoor winter markets in Europe date back centuries, with the oldest in Germany believed to have been founded in Dresden in the 15th century. No matter where you find them, they share common traits, like small wooden booths, locally made crafts, often a large Christmas tree, warm holiday food and mulled wine. Modern European markets, which go on for weeks, include concerts — everything from children’s choirs to swing music — as well as attractions like carnival rides and ice rinks.
In recent years, California has embraced the tradition like a Patagonia vest, with markets popping up in Sacramento, Cambria, Orange County and, of course, the Bay Area.
If you take a jaunt up Highway 101 on Dec. 14, the same day as the Weihnachtsmarkt in Mountain View, you can step into an Italian Christmas market in Palo Alto. Last year, Saratoga played host to a French Holiday Market. Prefer something with a more English flavor? No worries, guv’nor, as the Victorian-era Great Dickens Christmas Fair re-creates the world of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” at the Cow Palace in Daly City — right down to the packs of street urchins running between the stalls.
Carlotta Addante with Bay Area Italian Events, which organizes the annual Italian market titled “It’s Natale in the Bay Area,” said about 30 vendors are expected to fill the Mitchell Park Community Center for the daylong event, selling Christmas ornaments, Italian baked goods, olive oil and more. The secret to the success of these European holiday fairs, she said, are due to the Bay Area’s famous multiculturalism.
“On one hand, we have Italians that want to reconnect with local communities on special occasions like Christmas,” she said. “On the other hand, a lot of Americans and other immigrants are more and more curious about approaching a new, different style of food, music and culture.”
Which is why you might find a Vietnamese family sampling panettone in Palo Alto or a Bangladesh-born tech worker enjoying a gingery spice cookie called lebkuchen.
Muto, whose husband is from Munich, Germany, said the school volunteers do their best to re-create the atmosphere of the open-air winter markets there, framing the vendors’ stalls in wood and providing an eclectic mix of performances throughout the day. There’s a petting zoo and even a train for kids to ride. This year, Opera San Jose singers will perform selections from “Hansel and Gretel,” and the Zicke-Zacke Band will perform German and Swiss music to close out the evening.
“We traditionally have the school community choir lead a singalong, with holiday songs in both German and English,” Muto said.
About 10,000 people came to the Weihnachtsmarkt last year, and its success has prompted the event to expand. Instead of taking place right in front of Mountain View City Hall and Pioneer Park, a couple of blocks of Castro Street will be closed off, allowing more space for attractions and vendors selling handcrafted wares for holiday shoppers.
Ironically, the one Bay Area event that’s closest in both spirit and tradition to the European markets is a purely American invention: San Jose’s Christmas in the Park, which draws more than 100,000 people during its five-week run from the day after Thanksgiving through Jan. 5. With its lanes of decorated, illuminated Christmas trees, nightly entertainment and booths selling a multicultural array of food, the 30-year-old tradition puts an American spin on the European village atmosphere in Plaza de Cesar Chavez.
“So many people were raised on the tradition of going to Christmas in the Park with their families during the holiday season,” said Christmas in the Park executive director Jason Minsky. “The event has created so many memories over the years and is a throwback for many who grew up in a different era.”
The only thing missing is real snow. It may feel like Europe, but it’s still the Bay Area.