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Carmel Christkindlmarkt, Inc. is a nonprofit organization that serves the community through education about German culture and is a Type I supporting organization under Sections 5019(c)(3) and 509 (a)(3). It’s an honor to provide an immersive cultural experience for all visitors to the Carmel Christkindlmarkt festival each season and provide educational programming throughout the year. Maintaining that educational experience at the festival and in our other programming while engaging in activities that support or benefit the City of Carmel guides everything we do.
As a nonprofit, we rely on the generosity of dozens of local partners to achieve our mission, including the City of Carmel, the Carmel Street Department, Carmel Police Department, local businesses, sponsors, volunteers, and others. The magic of the Market would not be possible without their support.
To engage and educate the community in German Christmas traditions through an authentic, annual Christkindlmarkt festival, while offering year-round programming that celebrates the rich heritage, traditions, and customs of Germanic cultures.
Transform lives through exposure to new cultural experiences.
The Carmel Christkindlmarkt is Indiana’s premier holiday attraction, welcoming more than 300,000 visitors annually. The Market has been named the #1 Best Holiday Market in the U.S. by the USA Today 10BEST Readers’ Choice Awards in 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2025, and ranked #3 in 2024.
Additional national recognition includes being named by National Geographic in 2023 and 2024 as one of six U.S. holiday markets that “feel like a fairy tale,” featured by Fox News as a top holiday market in 2021, and recognized by Taste of Home as Indiana’s top Christmas market in 2017. In 2024, Forbes also named the Market a top holiday destination.
The Market has earned multiple state and local honors, including #1 Tourist/Seasonal Attraction in the Best Things Community Choice Awards – Indy Star in 2023 and 2024, Best Annual Event/Fair in Current of Carmel’s Best of Suburban North Indy Awards in 2025, and three Indiana Tourism Association awards for the 2024 and 2025 seasons: Best Event/Festival – Attraction, Best Digital Marketing Campaign – Attraction, and Best Overall Marketing Campaign – Attraction. In 2025, the Today Show also featured the Carmel Christkindlmarkt in its Merriest Main Street series.