We start our tale way back when a camera and a phone were two different things and the height of any weekend was a trip to the Blockbuster. Even then, the Christkindlmarket was a twinkle in the eye of a jolly man – no, not Santa – his name was Ray Lotter. Ray had grown up in Germany and loved to share his heritage and traditions with those close to him. In 1994, Ray began working for the German American Chamber of Commerce of the Midwest in Chicago. He had the mission of finding a way to help German companies gain market entry into the US. It was with this idea, and his passion for German culture, that the Christkindlmarket Chicago was born in 1996.
