30+ Holiday Items Suggested by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

30+ Holiday Items Suggested by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

I noticed when I lived in Stuttgart, Germany for 5 years that Christmas Markets (Christkindlmarkts) brought in a large amount of money to the cities around Germany that held them through sales tax on merchandise and food. 

Messiah Chorus Singings by the German composer Handel (who lived in London most of his life) might also make money by selling merchandise.  Messiah choruses have been filmed by PBS for information on what these are. 

Basically, Messiah participants sing one of the 4 main chorus sections they feel they are in with a little tuning up by a conductor with orchestra.  (The four chorus sections are soprano, alto, tenor, baritone.) 

There seem to be 4 things that you need to do to set up a month-long Christmas market like the Germans do in Bavaria (Municha and Nüremberg) and Baden-Wurtëmberg (Stuttgart).

1-Obtain a sales permit that allows you to collect sales tax and pay it to the city or county that issues it

2-Offer free to low-priced activities for children and teens to do while parents shop

3-Sell moderately priced merchandise for preschoolers up to adults

4-Sell limited yet nourishing, warm food selections at a low-price

You should try to set up a budget of all known expenses for your first Christmas fair to know your “break-even point” – where you pay expenses and begin to make profits.

Other expenses may crop up.  Keep track of the unexpected expenses and do simple knowledge management at the end of the Christmas Fair to organize a better budget the following year.

Do the steps below for a “basic knowledge management” assessment of the Christmas Fair.

-Look at the budget estimated for the current year’s fair

-Look at the money actually brought in for the current fair

-If the money brought in for the current fair is larger than the estimated budget, you have a profit. 

If you have less money brought in than the current year’s budget, you have a loss.

-Write up “Lessons Learned” from the current year’s Christmas Fair, so you can improve the next Christmas Fair

-Write up “Best Practices” to Implement for the next Christmas Fair that might make it easier to make sales, collect payments, park cars, get people on buses and transport them to a venue, and pay sales tax faster.

I have already posted a blog on typical winter food items for Germany.  Many communities in the US with German settlers sell bottled white asparagus, braised red cabbage, and sauerkraut in addition to importing these items from overseas.

I have also listed some activities for learning German that could be done at the Christmas Fair.  I have more holiday-themed activities coming, but I would like to deal with merchandise here.

I have 30+ items listed below that different communities might want to sell and that might be in stock in various warehouses around the US:

1-The Game of Life board game that teaches financial management to children 10 and up

2-Stöllen coffee cake made with golden raisins (Sultana) to go with strong German coffee and cream

3-Gingerbread from Nüremberg in decorative tins with scenes of medieval Germany on them – made from recycled aluminum?

4-Handcarved wooden toys (Möbil brand)

5-Handcarved wooden Christmas tree ornaments

6-Tin Christmas tree ornaments – Käthe Wolvert sells these and has a subsidiary in the US

7-Manger Scenes – Käthe Wolvert

8-German coffee

9-German stainless steel coffee pots

10-German herb teas

11-Calendars of German, Austrian, and Swiss sites

12-Bottled sauerkraut – red and white

13-Holiday tablecloths

14-Non-holiday tablecloths

15-Holiday placemats

16-Holiday napkins

17-Dried Fruit and Nut trays

18-Christmas books for children

19-Peter and the Wolf audios, DVDs, and child-sized instruments

20-Bingo game set with metal ball tumbler

21-German jams and jellies (you can use this in tea in place of sugar and put it in rice cooked with milk and vanilla)

22-Kiddy card games – Go Fish, Old Maid, Rummy, Hearts

23-Various ready-made quick breads from bakeries

Banana-walnut bread

Pumpkin bread

Zucchini bread

Carrot cake bread

Applesauce bread

24-Holiday Cookies

Hershey blossoms made with their kisses look like brown-eyed Susans

25-Reusable grocery bags from local merchants

26-Hard, plastic roller baskets to carry items from the supermarket to your car or home – you can wipe them down easily if going through slush

27-Poinsettia plants

28-Various kinds of woks – The Philippines is a Catholic country, too

29-Rice cookers

30-Chopsticks – Vietnam and Japan both have minority Christian populations

31-Fondue pots and set

32-Gently used November issues of family magazines with recipes for side dishes for Thanksgiving

33-German books available from Korn and Berg bookstore in Nüremberg, which has been in existence since the 1400s

These items are suggestions for merchandise at a Christmas Fair Market.

Happy Holidays!!!

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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