Post photo: Christmas market | © Shutterstock
Hardly a few months have passed and for some fellow citizens the Christmas season is just around the corner. Also, we have been living with COVID-19 for a few months now and we all know that we will have to deal with it for another few months, if not years.
The Heilbronn Christmas market has hardly been anything special compared to the corresponding markets in other cities and was correspondingly upgraded last year as the Käthchen Christmas market. Nevertheless, it was mostly used by the citizens who were in the city for other reasons and is therefore probably not an independent attraction in Heilbronn for the time being, which draws citizens from the surrounding area or even tourists to Heilbronn.
Therefore, the current situation would have been a good opportunity to examine two alternative options for a Heilbronn Christmas market over the past few months and to put one of them into practice. Both options would have had one thing in common right now, namely that they could have showcased Heilbronn's flexibility and innovative strength and thus made the "Käthchen Christmas Market" brand known nationwide.
Even if the Heilbronn Christmas market does not bring enough customer frequency to make a profit as an independent event, it would certainly have more guests on the Heilbronn Theresienwiese COVID-19 as a "unique selling point", especially in times when Christmas markets are being canceled everywhere due to a lack of a suitable concept and customers enticed than before at its prime. Even if it had not been a monetary gain for everyone involved, it would not only have given the showmen a positive signal and shown that Heilbronn is able to offer alternatives and try new things even in difficult times.
As a definitely viable alternative, a “trunk Christmas market” could easily have been set up on the market square, which would present individual stands typical of the Christmas market on behalf of all the other showmen in a small Christmas market format and send a positive signal during the Christmas season in accordance with COVID-19. Just being there would have given everyone in Heilbronn a Christmassy feeling and hope for the future.
It remains to be hoped that the city administration will succeed in putting up at least one Christmas tree on the market square.
"How I suffer from longing! If only it were Christmas!”
Hans Christian Andersen, The Christmas Tree (1844)
