Wow, the 2025 holiday season has been a whirlwind! I intended to release this post before Christmas, but some things (like family and friends) are just more important than keeping up a personal blog. Now that Christmas has come and gone, I’m finally sitting down to write about our trip to the Christkindlmarkt in Carmel, Indiana. Rated as one of the best Christmas markets in the United States, the Carmel Christkindlmarkt was the perfect kick-off to our 2025 Christmas season.

At the end, I’ll share my tips for how to make the most of your Christkindlmarkt experience!

What makes Carmel’s Christkindlmarkt so special? For starters, the food. Then there’s the shopping. The food. The entertainment. The food. Did I mention the food? It’s a lot to take in, especially if you’ve never been to a Christkindlmarkt.

No plans to visit Carmel, Indiana during the holidays? No worries. Search online to find a Christkindlmarkt closer to home. I bet you’ll find one!

What is Christkindlmarkt?

Christkindlmarkts are best described as festive Christmas themed street fairs featuring lots of vendors selling food and crafts, often with a German flair. Their origins trace back to the 13th century winter markets in Germany where people gathered to stock up on supplies for the coming cold and leaner months.

Over time, the markets became influenced by the Christian religion and became known as Christkindlmarkts, or Christmas markets. The tradition has since grown and been adapted by cities all over the world. Christkindlmarkts typically begin at the end of November and end on Christmas Eve.

Carmel Christkindlmarkt Basics

Just a few basics you need to know when planning your visit.

Location: Christkindlmarket is held at 10 Carter Green, a public green space in Carmel, Indiana’s Cultural District.

Dates: The week of Thanksgiving thru Christmas Eve. (Closed Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day.)

Hours of Operation: Open Wednesday-Sunday. Hours vary.

Price of Admission: Free (Food, drink, ice skating not included.)

Check the Carmel Chistkindlmarkt website for more information.

The Food

Come hungry and prepare to eat- a lot. Tantalizing food and drinks will entice you at every turn. Food vendors line the walkways selling everything from handmade pretzels, authentic German and French pastries, brats, gourmet candies, craft German beers, mulled wines, and steaming cups of hot chocolate. It’s a bit overwhelming. Go on the food offensive. Do some advance planning.

You can find lots of YouTube videos about Carmel’s Christkindlmarkt. Watch a few to see what food other people have tried. Laura on the Move’s video helped us get our plan together. In fact, her video sold us on making the trip.

Here are the foods we tried and how we rated them.

Raclette Sandwich

Raclette is one of the most popular Christkindlmarkt items and a must-try for any first-time visitor. The sandwich is made with a pungent Swiss cheese (raclette) wheel that is melted under a broiler and then scraped onto a long piece of crusty bread. Various meats and condiments are available as add-ons. We ordered the “Bresaola” with cured beef, onions, and cornichons (tiny pickles) at the Raclette Chalet. A good start to our food journey, but next time I’ll stick with, “Just the cheese, please.”

Be advised, these sandwiches are filling, so plan to share. Not hard to do when the sandwiches are $20-$22 each. Remember, there is lots more food to try. You don’t want to get too full right off the bat.

Pick up a market map when you arrive, but you won’t need one to find a raclette stand. When the smell of dirty feet begins to overwhelm you, you’re there. Raclette is the epitome of stinky cheese, but I promise it tastes nothing like it smells! Trust me on this.

Schnitzel

A common German food, schnitzel is a cut of meat breaded and fried. Kind of like what we southerners call country-fried steak. The huge shareable portion of pork we ordered was served with a side of sauerkraut, a surprisingly nice complement to the fried meat. (Maybe I’ve judged sauerkraut too harshly in the past.) To be honest though, I thought the frozen pork schnitzel we buy at our local Aldi grocery store was just as good and definitely more budget friendly. Our Christkindlmarkt schnitzel plate was $17. I wouldn’t order it again.

Kartoffelspiralen (Chips on a Stick)

My husband was so stoked to try the chips on a stick after seeing numerous YouTubers rave about them. As soon as we finished our raclette sandwich, he made a beeline to the schnitzel and kartoffelspiralen stand. I will admit the freshly fried potato chips served on a ridiculously long stick were visually impressive, but… they were stone cold within a couple of minutes. I won’t blame the cook, though. The temperature was below freezing outside, so the chips didn’t stand a chance. But even if the chips had been piping hot, I thought they weren’t nearly salty enough. And I would have appreciated a little ketchup. Maybe ketchup was available and we just didn’t see it. Out of everything we ate, the kartoffelspiralen was the biggest disappointment.

Crepes– Our Christkindlmarkt Favorite!

OMG. You have to find a creperie at Christkindlmarkt! We stumbled upon Ma Creperie as we made our way out of the market. Serendipity!

If you’ve never had crepes, you’re in for a treat. Crepes are very thin and delicate pancakes folded over a sweet or savory filling and if made properly, they are to die for. I love a good savory crepe, but after eating the raclette, schnitzel, and kartoffelspiralen, we settled on going sweet and ordered the crepe with the Biscoff cookie filling. By far, this was the best thing we ate at the market.

Glühwein

Everyone should give glühwein a try at Christkindlmarkt. Glühwein is a warm mulled wine with spices commonly associated with apple cider. Vendors offer varieties made with red or white wines with different flavor profiles. Just because it was the coolest location, we went to the Glühwein Pyramid in the center of the market. I got the Baked Apple for $9 and loved it! It was literally heartwarming in the bitter cold, and the souvenir boot mug made it even better! I recommend getting one of these collectible cuties.

Hot Chocolate

There are a few hot chocolate vendors at the market, but we decided to grab a cup at award-winning Bob’s Belgian Hot Chocolate. Velvety. Rich. Delicious. A decadent blend of dark and milk chocolate ($9) topped with whipped cream and a gingerbread cookie. I’ll never drink the cheap stuff from the grocery store again!

You can order Bob’s hot chocolate mix online. And I will.

And That Wasn’t All!

That wasn’t all we wanted to try, anyway. That was just all we could eat! I was so disappointed we weren’t able to try the German roasted nuts, truffles, bratwurst, potato pancakes, mushrooms, chestnuts…the list goes on. I seriously overestimated our stomach capacities. And after we dropped $100 on what we did try, we didn’t want to spend the money for any more food that could potentially go wasted.

Shopping

If you’re on the hunt for some unique gifts, Christkindlmarkt is the place to go! Vendors showcase their wares in adorable wooden huts lining the walkways of the market. You’ll find all sorts of interesting products from Christmas ornaments to handmade chocolates to cuckoo clocks. My favorite vendor was Weihnachtspyramiden, a purveyor of high-quality nativity pyramids (often referred to as “windmills”). I stared wide-eyed at the vast selection which brought back fond memories of the simple pyramid my parents always put out at Christmastime. Maybe one day I’ll splurge on one of these fancy ones for myself.

Entertainment

Believe it or not, there’s more to do than just eat and shop at Christkindlmarkt. You can listen to live music at the Winter Pavilion, hear holiday storytelling at the Spielhaus, kick back with friends in a warming hut (if you’re lucky enough to find one available), attend the annual German singalong and ornament exchange, and ice skate (or just watch). There are so many other things to do, too! Just walking around and admiring the decorations was a treat for us, but watching the skaters was the most fun.

If you have kids, you’ll want to check out Kinderecke where kids can make crafts and participate in other holiday themed activities. The best part- it’s free!

Be sure to make a quick walk-through of the Kulturecke history display before you leave. You’ll learn some interesting facts about the German origins of common Christmas traditions. I especially liked reading about the history of Advent wreaths.

Check the Schedule page on the Christkindlmarkt website before you visit. Some activities are only offered on select days.

My Tips for an Even Better Christkindlmarkt Experience

Go midweek. Locals told us you can barely move through the market on the weekends. We went on a Wednesday and although the market became busy after 5pm, we never felt uncomfortably crowded.

Get there early! If you want to experience the whole market and try lots of different foods, you need to get there early. I recommend heading to the raclette hut first. We arrived when the market opened at 4pm and were second in line. Within minutes, the line was crazy long as were all the other lines for food. Start eating early!

Take leftover storage containers. You might as well keep what you can’t eat after you’ve paid the inflated prices for all that food.

Take a backpack. For situations like this, I love to carry my Osprey Daylite pack. You need a place to put those leftover storage containers and any trinkets you purchase so you’re not having to carry them the whole time. I also stashed a couple of freezer packs in my backpack to keep our leftovers cold. When we got back to our hotel, I transferred the food to the mini fridge.

The best thing I put in my backpack was a container deep enough to hold my souvenir boot mug. I wrapped the ceramic mug with a few napkins and put it inside my container for safekeeping. I didn’t have to carry it in my hand the whole time and it made it home with no damage!

Have a thermos of your favorite hot beverage. Of course, I recommend trying the glühwein and hot chocolate, but if your budget doesn’t allow for refills, you may want something warm to sip on in between. I wish I would have thought about this before we went. There was no way I was paying $9 for glühwein and $9 for hot chocolate refills with the cost of all the other food we tried.

Take your own water/sodas. Why pay $3 or more for a bottle of water or soda? If you have a backpack, you can easily take your own.

Have battery operated hand warmers or Hot Hands. You’ll need a coat, but even with a coat and gloves, I was still freezing within the first few minutes. I thought my fingers were going to get frostbite they were so cold. Ultimately, that’s why we left the market earlier than we planned. Having hand warmers would have helped tremendously.

Christkindlmarkt Wrap-Up

So, that’s a wrap! We really enjoyed our trip to the Carmel Christkindlmarkt. We plan to find a Christkindlmarkt a little closer to our Tennessee home next year – or maybe we’ll find one in Germany. I hear Germany’s nice.