Free previewStop 8 of Chicago Christmas Walk: Magnificent Mile Lights to the Christkindlmarket
The Mayor's Son and the Market
You're standing in Daley Plaza, in the Loop, among the wooden stalls of the Christkindlmarket. Find the big Christmas tree, then look past it to the giant rust-colored steel sculpture rising over the crowd. That's the Picasso, and it's been watching this market for most of the market's life in Chicago.
The Christkindlmarket didn't start here. In 1996 the German American Chamber of Commerce of the Midwest set up a Christmas market modeled on the famous one in Nuremberg, Germany. They put it on Pioneer Court, the plaza beside Tribune Tower that you passed earlier on Michigan Avenue. It was a pleasant idea on a windy riverbank.
Then the mayor got involved. In 1997, Mayor Richard M. Daley asked the organizers to move the market here. Think about where "here" is.
That's the opening. The rest plays at stop 8 of Chicago Christmas Walk: Magnificent Mile Lights to the Christkindlmarket (3 min in all). Unlock the tour to hear it all, or try stop 1 free first.
