Frankenmuth is a holiday wonderland to out-of-town visitors
Bronner’s Christmas Wonderland is a major attraction in Frankenmuth, Mich.
Back in the early 1970s, the British glam-rock band Wizzard cranked up the amps to “wish it could be Christmas everyday.”
In Frankenmuth, Mich., it pretty much is Christmas everyday.
One of the most-visited attractions in a state that boasts the Henry Ford Museum outside Detroit, Mackinac Island in the north and sandy beaches in the west, the small burg of Frankenmuth looms large in Michigan’s energetic tourism industry. Started in the 1840s, just a stone’s throw from the shores of Lake Huron, it was a quiet, insular settlement for Germans at its inception. Now, an estimated 3 million people pour into Frankenmuth every year, seeking a slice of Christmas cheer and Bavarian ambiance.
They are drawn primarily by two things: First, the world-renowned chicken that is served at Zehnder’s, a restaurant that can seat up to 1,500 patrons at one time.
Second, is Bronner’s Christmas Wonderland, an epicenter of holiday shopping that stretches over three football fields and allows visitors to linger under the mistletoe, bask in the tinsel and nibble on candy canes all year round.
Frankenmuth has “great family-friendly activities,” according to Christie Bierlein, director of marketing and sales for the Frankenmuth Chamber of Commerce, and that even includes the Oktoberfest that unfolds in September and features the alcohol consumption typical of such events.
And since downtown Frankenmuth is dotted with boutiques and other specialty stores, Bierlein says she tells people contemplating a trip to Frankenmuth to “come for the chicken and Christmas, and stay for the atmosphere.”
The visitors who trek to Frankenmuth every year are, naturally, drawn from Michigan, the northern part of Ohio and neighboring states, but Bierlein says Frankenmuth draws a considerable number of visitors from outside the United States every year. Since it’s been a reliable destination for decades, particularly in the fall, Bierlein says “feelings of nostalgia” are part of what brings people back over and over to Frankenmuth.
Marilyn Henricks, a resident of the Toledo, Ohio, suburb of Maumee is one of them. She has traveled to Frankenmuth frequently over the last 40 years, and recently made a point of taking a longtime friend there.
“It’s really an interesting place to go,” she said. “The place is just amazing. Everyone is so friendly. It’s a very friendly community.”
In the lead up to the holidays, Frankenmuth will be hosting a holiday home tour, German-language worship serves at a Lutheran church, visits by Santa and more.
Frankenmuth is located about 360 miles from Pittsburgh, 250 miles from Cleveland and 90 miles from Detroit. For additional information about events in Frankenmuth, call 800-FUN-TOWN (386-8696) or visit frankenmuth.org.