Christmas cultures collide in Okato
The hills around a tiny Taranaki town will be alive with the sound of Christmas this weekend.
Christkindlesmarkt, a traditional Christmas market annually held in Nuremberg, Germany, will be staged for the second year at Okato’s Stony River Hotel between 11am and 5pm on Saturday.
It will feature stalls, traditional gold, silver and green decorations, locally made crafts and toys as well as customary food and beverages including alcoholic and non-alcoholic mulled wine.
The inaugural market, the brainchild of hotel owners Heimo and Renate Staudinger, of Austria, and German national Belinda Lubkoll-Young of Ringcraft Moana, was held in August 2017 and far exceeded expectations.
‘‘We expected 250 people and we got 1500 so we were absolutely not prepared,’’ Heimo said.
‘‘The idea is a New Zealand idea, to have a mid-winter Christmas, and we thought OK if we have a mid-winter and it’s cold why not turn it into a European Christmas experience.’’
Renate said cold weather was needed for a proper Christmas market.
‘‘The smell of roasted nuts and the feeling of the spirit of Christmas.’’
She said the hotel was fully booked for the weekend and they had fielded inquiries from right around the country so a lot more planning and preparation had gone into it to cater for the large crowds.
‘‘We have created quite a lot of interest,’’ Lubkoll-Young said.
An assortment of gingerbread cookies made from an old family recipe, which includes honey, cardamom and cinnamon, would help attendees ward off any chills, she said.
‘‘All of the spices help warm you up because in winter you need energy and the energy you gain from one cookie keeps you going.’’
Heimo believed the market would go from strength to strength and could potentially put Okato on the map.
‘‘It will become a magnet for the area, it will be good for the area.’’
The market is not the only European-style event the organisers have been involved in. Earlier this year they put on the Taranaki Harvest Feast, which attracted more than 1000 people, and the town was fast becoming the European capital of New Zealand, he said. ‘‘We had people saying ‘we had that when we were young but it got lost’ so they were glad to see it back.’’
Father Christmas is expected to make an appearance at the event about 3pm and children’s author Lesley Dowding will be on hand to keep the kids entertained.