AIS German Christmas Market A Community Hit

By Tom Schwartz, AIS parent and Christmas Market chairman

Our fifth annual German Christmas Market was a fantastic time enjoyed by all in attendance. More than 1,800 guests from around the Atlanta area enjoyed the market festivities that included authentic German food, Swiss raclette and waffles, stollen, gluhwein, and shopping for unique gifts and items for the home. This represented a 20% increase in attendance over last year.

A new addition to this year’s market was stage performances by some wonderful local talent both from AIS and the surrounding area. Choirs from the AIS Primary Spanish track, AIS Middle School Honor’s Choir, and Suzuki School Children’s Choir sang to the delight of all. Special performances from our own Ms. Welp’s string players and students, Max Hewett and David Martinez, welcomed all in attendance. The children were delighted by a visit from Saint Nikolaus strolling through the market, making crafts, and hanging ornaments on our Christmas tree, provided by Little Rob’s Christmas Trees.

Dr. Brindley joined us for our first Christmas Tree Lighting ceremony held at 5:30 p.m. The evening was topped off by one of our own, Franziska Rutte, winning two round trip tickets to Germany in our annual raffle. A special thank you goes to sponsors Lufthansa Cargo, who sponsored our raffle, and Heidelberger Druck USA for printing our newly redesigned market flyers.

Local German institutions supported the event through external marketing and by participating as vendors. These institutions included the German-American Chamber of Commerce, German Consulate General, German Church, German School of Atlanta, Goethe-Institut, and the Swiss American Society of Atlanta. We continue to add more vendors each year of various cultural backgrounds from the AIS parent community and beyond.

The Christmas Market would not be possible without the Deutschvergnügen (German Culture Club at AIS) organizing in true German fashion. Everything went so smoothly again this year. Special thanks to all the Parent Organization volunteers and teachers from all three language tracks, Primary and Secondary School, who donated their time and energy to make this such a wonderful event.

Special thanks to parents who graciously volunteered their time as committee heads and assistants in organizing this year’s event:

deLille Anthony – Vendor and AIS Admissions Coordinator
Chris and Jutta Archer, Nadia Seidler – Hot Drinks, Mugs
Almut Beck and Anne Baucom – Kid’s Crafts
Jay Denslow – AIS Special Events Coordinator
Christelle Fichtmueller – Entertainment Coordinator
Anke Fischer – Raffle
Bettina Koenigstein, Barbara Geiger, Johanna MacMaster - Food and Drinks
Deniz Oktar-Gray and Maria Goodall – Marketing, Signs and Flyers
Theone Rutledge – Volunteer Coordinator
Daniela Schmidt – Finance Coordinator
Birgit Schwade – AIS Development
Anett Thun-Freyny and Uli Topp – Advent Wreaths

Through the hard work of these individuals, more than 130 event day volunteers, and our supportive community, over $5,000 was raised at the event to support the German academic program at AIS.

We welcome your comments or suggestions for next year’s market. Please email us at christmasmarket@aischool.org