After wrapping up the previous year’s market in January, the next big step takes place in February/March with the designing and ordering of everyone’s favorite souvenir item, the annual Christkindlmarket mug! Our little elves work with a design company in Germany to create the unique and special mugs each year. The German design companies create mug illustrations for many of the over 200 Christmas markets, or as the Germans would say “Weihnachtsmaerkte,” worldwide. That’s A LOT of mugs! Germany is only about the size of Montana though, so it sources some of the production out to other countries for help. Did you know that many of the holiday markets in Germany do not really sell the mugs as collectors’ items? Actually, many European markets collect, sanitize and resell their mugs after each use, much like water glasses in restaurants!
