By BRITTANY FHOLER
Cove Leader-Press
The 31st annual Krist Kindl Markt returned to Downtown Copperas Cove last Friday for the second year after a brief period of being held at the City Park, turning the downtown area into a bustling shopping market for the weekend.
The event kicked off with the Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony on Friday evening in the Santa Fe parking lot, and it continued through to Sunday.
This year’s market featured approximately 10 food trucks and 83 market vendors selling various goods that made for perfect holiday gifts. In addition to the shopping, there was also a tent for free pictures with Santa as well as entertainment in the form of live music on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, featuring the following bands: Junction, Brother Jon and the Rainbow Hearts, Whitestone, and jazz musician Richard Hegens.
New this year were the contests: Santa’s Beard Decorating Contest, an Ugly Sweater Contest, and a Christmas Cookie Eating Contest. Prizes from local sponsors were given to the first, second and third place winners in each contest category.
The annual Christmas Parade was held at 6 p.m. Saturday night, with 47 entries.
Local downtown businesses, like Herb and Earnie’s, Main St. Mercantile, Nelson’s Brew Works, Five Ol’ Heifers, and more, extended their business hours for the weekend, according to Chamber of Commerce President/CEO Beth Galick-Carney.
“We’re really excited to just bring the community downtown,” Galick-Carney said. “Lots of people have been investing recently, buying these buildings, refurbishing them, like at Refresh. Somebody’s purchased this corner building (at 217 S. Main Street), and she’s working on refurbishing that, so we’re excited to see life coming back, and we’re happy to be part of it, since we’re downtown now, too. It’s wonderful to see so many people down here and so many people committing to revitalizing the Downtown.”
For the weekend, The Cove Theater played showings of “It’s A Wonderful Life” and sold concessions for the parade.
Galick-Carney said that she loved having the Christmas market back in the downtown area. She added that she was a little nervous with the shift back to downtown and how it might affect the number of vendors they could accommodate and how well those vendors did with their businesses, but when the Chamber of Commerce did a vendor survey last year, all the vendors agreed that they loved having the event downtown.
“We knew we made the right choice,” Galick-Carney said. “It’s going to be here for the future, as long as we can still do it down here. The city is so supportive.”
She added that the street sweeper was cleaning the streets before Krist Kindl Markt was set up, and employees from the Parks and Recreation Department set up the Christmas tree in the rain last week.
“It’s just nice to have the support of the city and the businesses,” Galick-Carney said. “The EDC is so supportive of us, and the EDC and the Chamber are working together to help kind of revitalize the downtown, and I love to see that, because I’ve been here 30 years, and I’ve been through when it was kind of bustling, went down, and now it’s on its way back up again.”
This year’s event sponsor was T Fiber. Parade sponsors included Signature Care Emergency Center and Nyle Maxwell CDJR Killeen. Entertainment sponsors included T-Mobile, H-E-B Plus of Copperas Cove, and Navy Federal Credit Union. Reindeer sponsors were Card My Yard and Providence Christian Academy of Central Texas. Advertising sponsors include the Copperas Cove Leader-Press and the Fort Hood Sentinel.
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