Christmas Markets: Helen, GA

Helen, GA

The inspiration of our trip started with a Pinterest search that revealed Christkindlmarkets across the southeast United States. A little Bavarian-inspired town called Helen, GA was listed as having a "Christkindlmarket" - a German Christmas market. Although nothing can hold a candle to the real markets in Germany, or even compare to Chicago's Christkindlmarket, this little town was close enough for a road trip to kick start our holiday season.

Helen, GA hosts their Christkindlmarket in their marketplatz, which is on their Main Street. There's one main little road, with all of the restaurants, shops, and hotels nestled around the square (marketplatz). In the center of the square, there were picnic tables and umbrellas to shield the sun on hot days. But on this sunny, cold day, we grabbed some gluhwein, some beer, a big pretzel, frankfurters, and mustard to snack on. After a walk around the town and a little shopping, a break to relax our legs, enjoy some drinks, and celebrate some festivities was perfect. We grabbed a table just before the lunch rush, and enjoyed the little town around us on what must be a busy weekend for them. 

This little Bavarian town embraces all things holiday - including a holiday train. I learned about the holiday train when looking up all of the festive things we could do in Helen. The train drives on Main Street, taking you through some quiet back roads up against the woods too. The train looks like the classic black and red steam train we have under our Christmas tree at home. Like any 4 year old, my oldest daughter was very excited to ride the train. When she is really excited about something, she tends to get really quiet, but really smiley. She didn't say a word the entire ride, but I could tell she was trying to keep her smile from splitting her face in half, it was so big. I got a little emotional on the train. Trains don't really hold a special meaning for me, but for my Chicago Girl, the fact that she can't experience trains in her day to day life anymore, yet they are something she really enjoys, I was so glad to get to ride the train with her around this little sleepy mountain town. 

At the end of the trip, I asked my daughter, what was her favorite thing we did. Her answer? The alpine forest rollercoaster. In Helen, there is a rollercoaster with a track through the woods! Each rollercoaster car has two seats. I sat on the back, and my 4 year old sat in front. The coaster pulls you up to the top of the track, and then with the gravity of the first fall, you wind downward through the trees until you get to the end. I could control the speed by pulling the brake or pushing forward ("free fall mode", essentially). At the top of the first decent, you are supposed to push forward, letting your rollercoaster car catch as much speed as it can. When we made it to the bottom of that first dip and curve, I could feel my daughters body tense in front of me, and I heard hesitation in her voice - questioning if this was a good idea. I squeezed her tight and shouted that she was safe, but even my tummy did a little flip when I saw that suddenly there were nets around the track! (To catch us? To catch fallen items? I will never know). I pulled the brakes to slow us down, repeating that we are safe (for my daughter? for me?). And after some reassuring words and a little bit of a slower speed through the turns and curves through the forest - my daughter eased into the ride and it was the highlight of her trip. What will she think when she learns that we live in rollercoaster capital of the United States!