ASHEVILLE CHRISTMAS MARKET
Today I went to one of Asheville’s Christmas markets.
There actually isn’t a Christmas market in Asheville anything like the Celle Weihnachtsmarkt. All of Asheville is decorated and gearing up for Christmas. There is a Festival of Lights at the Arboretum outside of town and people have decorated their houses with lights, everyone on in their own way, some with a yard full of white glowing Santa Clauses and all kinds of garish animals that plug in and flash on and off while others decorate with electric candles and miniature lights and greens and muted colors, all styles, side by side.
The closest to a Christmas market is the craft market in Marshall or the Big Crafty, tables of many, many craft people, in the downtown Civic Center or, today, the Uncommon Market at Asheville-Biltmore Technical College in a central hall. Admission was $5 and there must have been 100 or more people selling their crafts.
There were no Christmas decorations. It was a market only while the Celle Weihnachtsmarkt is a celebration with elaborate, professional cabins and elf houses selling food and drinks and Christmas articles along with a merry go round and small Ferris wheel and a small tooting train for the children in a fairytale Fachwerk town in which every store is decorated for Christmas.
The Celle Weihnachtsmarkt is a month long masked festive celebration with a long tradition with the market being the highly decorated town itself.
There is something lively and youthful about anyone in Asheville who wants to, with no training necessary, making handmade things to sell. It is like an elementary school fair. But there is something magical about a Celle Christmas celebration done with great taste and professional standards which makes Celle into a polished, efficient fairyland of lights and color.
The markets are an illustration of the difference between careful, efficient, tasteful, orderly German tradition and go for it, seat of the pants, just do it your own way, unselfconscious American exuberance. I like them both.
BILLYBABA’S WANDERING 