A Visit to Where It’s Always Christmas in Frankenmuth, Michigan
For many people, Christmas is their favorite time of the year. The lights and decorations, the traditional music and carols, gift giving and delicious food are all ingredients for a fun and memorable holiday.
Frankenmuth, Michigan has all of those holiday favorites and more on display year round, making it the perfect vacation spot for anyone that can’t get enough of Christmas. Located about 90 minutes North of Detroit, Frankenmuth is known as “Little Bavaria” because of the heavy German influence on the town, along with being the home to the world’s largest Christmas store.
Frankenmuth Michigan Christmas
The village of Frankenmuth was settled in 1845 with a vision of being a German community in the middle of Michigan. Early settlers made a vow to remain loyal to their homeland, Bavaria, including a commitment to speak the German language. Today, you don’t need to speak German during your visit, but you cannot help but notice the German influence throughout the city.
World Famous Fried Chicken Options
Two of the highlights along Main Street in downtown Frankenmuth are their iconic restaurants, both known for their fried chicken.
The Bavarian Inn Frankenmuth features German classic meals like schnitzel and sauerbraten along with their fried chicken. They offer family style dining of their family recipes, providing guests family memories for generations. Reservations are recommended, particularly in December as well as during the summer.
Directly across the street is Zehnder’s of Frankenmuth. William and Emilie Zehnder started feeding locals and visitors to Frankenmuth in 1856, just 11 years after the town was founded. From the restaurant at the Exchange Hotel, the Zehnder’s built their business that now includes their restaurant and bakery, retail shops and more. Like it’s competitor across the street, reservations are recommended for Zehnder’s especially for peak times of the year.
As good as their food is at Zehnder’s, what sets them apart for us is their bakery and food market located downstairs of the restaurant. Unique canned goods, irresistible baked goods include giant donuts and more provide you with a great dessert or snacks for the road.
Downtown Shopping Options
Up and down Main Street, you’ll find plenty of unique shops. If you’re looking for a special Christmas present or decoration, you’ll have plenty of shops to choose. But they also have plenty of non Christmas themed outlets to shop as well.
Rau’s Country Store was one of our favorite stops. It had unique gifts and collectibles, which reminded us of one of our favorite shops in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. They offered a wide range of items, including unique signs, comfy pajamas and a great selection of jigsaw puzzles to name a few.
If you’re looking for an opportunity to buy local, check out Amazin’ Mitten. This shop features Michigan made products. They offer a well rounded inventory to tempt you, from intricate handmade clocks, to candles and so much more. On our next visit, we’ll be sure to try the Faygo flavored ice cream that they offered.
Zehnder’s and Bavarian Inn each provide large portions of food, so you might already be full as you walk down Main Street. But for those of you not full, there are several other diners, cafes and snack shops to fill your stomach.
We had dessert on our mind, and found it hard to choose between the options. Beignets are always a good selection, which are available at the Norlins Cafe and came highly recommended to us. We settled for Zak and Mac’s and some salted chocolate caramels, along with a special strawberry treat. They feature a cup of fresh cut strawberries covered with your choice of milk or dark chocolate. This is heaven in a cup, and reminded us of one of our favorite desserts we sampled at Borough Market in London.
If you need more shopping than the shops along Main Street, you are in luck. The River Place Shops have over 40 shops and eateries, including a personal favorite – Cherry Republic. Cherry Republic is a store all about Michigan cherries. Cherry Republic serves them up in a unique variety of ways, all worth sampling like with chocolates, jams, barbecue sauce and our favorite cherry salsa.
Like you would expect near a high tourist area, you can also enjoy some shopping at an outlet mall. Birch Run Outlets has over 100 stores to choose.
World’s Largest Christmas Store
The biggest reason people like to go shopping in Frankenmuth is for the biggest Christmas store in the world. Bronner’s Christmas World was the vision and brainchild of Wally Bronner who started his Christmas shop back in 1945.
Bronner’s Christmas store Frankenmuth is over 320,000 square feet of retail area. That is roughly 7.35 acres, about five and a half football fields packed full of every conceivable Christmas ornament.
Hard to find ornaments and Christmas decorations are a specialty of Bronner’s. Looking for a Christmas decoration from a specific country, for a special occupation or hobby? No problem, they most likely have several in stock to choose from. Bronner’s has in stock more than 6,000 styles of ornaments, half of the glass ornaments are Bronner’s exclusive designs.
They have a large selection of nativity scenes and unique collectibles. Pending on when you visit, you might even be there on a day when famous Christmas ornament designers are there, and you can get an autographed version of their latest designs.
Needing new Christmas lights? Bronner’s has enough inventory to light up a medium sized city, including lights for your tree,outside light displays and even commercial lighting displays.
Bronner’s features a fantastic selection of about anything you can image Christmas themed. They have something for everyone and their unique desires, like trims, trees, collectibles, cards, garlands, stockings, Advent calendars, and wreaths for example.
To get a feel for how big and how extensive Bronner’s Christmas Store is, you need to see it. If you’re interested in planning out a trip to this store, check out their virtual tour available online. Planning out your visit to be efficient during your time at Bronner’s is recommended. The sheer size of the showroom can get a little overwhelming, especially if there is a crowd.
Bronner’s is open year round for all your Christmas needs. They offer special events and unique opportunities throughout the year, with more of them planned naturally between Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Frankenmuth has a little something for everyone. You can do like we do and make it a day trip destination. It is also a destination place for family vacations, with several nice resorts nearby including a couple indoor water parks which would be perfect for families planning a visit to the area.
