You look happy--did you see a kitty or find a sticker on the ground or something?

Ok Chicago—at this point it may not be possible for you to be any cuter. Seriously, I don’t understand why anyone would go to Disney World if they lived in Chicago, because to kids who grew up here it probably looks rather glum—a sad and hollow specter of what a really charming and adorable town should be. Because today I realized that Chicago doesn’t leave the cute in its near suburbs or in-town neighborhoods—Chicago brings the cute to the business district.

I’m currently freaking out from cuteness as a result of the Christkindlmarket, and month-long annual German marketplace set up at the Daley Plaza in Chicago’s downtown Loop. I went there today during my lunch break with a couple of friends from work. It is primarily German-themed (and I’m talking real Germans manning and womanning the booths), although I saw booths from Peru, Ukraine, and Poland as well. The Daley Plaza is outside the Daley Center which houses, among other things, the Cook County Circuit Court. For the month before Christmas, it is transformed into a freaking German village, complete with indoor attractions including the most authentic German candy store I have ever seen and a BAR (of course they constructed an indoor bar in the plaza outside the building housing the Cook County Circuit Court. This is Chicago! There might be a bar inside the actual Daley Center for all I know). There are no fewer than three candy shops, two stands that seem to sell nothing but intensely elaborate beer steins, and more Christmas ornaments than you can shake a stick at. And I’m talking about the ludicrously colorful yet terrifyingly delicate kind my Grandma got from my Great-Grandma and gave to my Mom, not some southern Christmas Store crapola.



There is also a life-size crèche and although I am not entirely comfortable with the appropriateness of a life-size crèche outside the Cook County Circuit Court building, to be quite frank the unmitigated adorableness of everything else kind of made up for it (that’s how they gettcha, isn’t it? Seriously: all you insane southern county judges, if you had been smart you would have surrounded those old ten commandment slabs with a couple of litters of French bulldog puppies NO ONE WOULD HAVE NOTICED your silly reactionary tactics.)

In any case, I will be back to Christkindlmarket ASAP and I will buy lots of candy, eat some sweet cheese fritters and potato pancakes and possibly buy one of the many pickle ornaments
for my Christmas tree. Happy Holiday season!!!!





ALSO there is a Holiday El Train...that carries Santa around with the commuters.