A dazzling Christmas tree shimmers with holiday lights while a brass band fills the air with traditional Christmas music. The aroma of roasted nuts, freshly baked delicious stollen, and gingerbread envelopes the air. Visitors sip Glühwein in little boot-shaped souvenir holiday mugs as they stroll through the half-timbered beautifully decorated chalets and wooden stalls selling traditional German handicrafts, art ware, and merchandise. This is the Christmas Market in Chicago.

Daley Plaza, a sprawling square on West Randolph in Chicago, transforms into a magical Christmas marketplace from mid-November to Christmas – a representation inspired by the five centuries-old Christmas market tradition in Nuremberg, Germany.

The market offers all the delights of Christmas festivities in one place. You can watch bakers in action, indulge in some great traditional German delicacies – potato pancakes with applesauce or sour cream, waffles, strudels, and hot pretzels; choose from an array of authentic unique items perfect for gifting – German ornaments, colored glass decoratives, hand-painted nutcrackers,  cuckoo clocks from the Black Forest, aromatic candles, scarves, traditional filigree lace products, German chocolates and marzipan among many others.

It’s a place to immerse in the magic of Christmas and get a true flavor of the traditional European market here in the USA in Chicago.

Year-end holiday festivity is incomplete without a visit to this place.