Magical Christmas at the Osthoff Resort
Pamela
O’Meara
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| The Osthoff Resort sits on Elkhart lake. |
Several
reindeer and St. Nicholas dressed in red velvet greet visitors at the Old World
Christmas Market at the Osthoff Resort in Elkhart Lake, Wis., an hour north of
Milwaukee.
In
a football-sized, heated tent, guests can check out around 100 booths of
Christmas gifts ranging from cashmere and silk scarves from Turkey, red, blue
and white blown glass tree ornaments from the Czech Republic, Russian nesting
dolls, German cuckoo clocks and nutcrackers, imported sweaters and lace table
cloths from the former East Germany to wine, chocolate, elk and deerskin
gloves,fine jewelry and pastel
drawings.
Some
booths offer samples such as chocolate truffles and hot mulled wine. The food
court serves a German-style lunch of pumpkin soup, roast sauerbraten, spaetzle,
red cabbage and apple strudel
Vendors and guests come from all over
for the market and other holiday festivities. I had the pleasure of
attending.
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| Buche de Noel is made and served at the Osthoff Cooking school. |
The
Osthoff Resort has played host to this old world-style Christmas market event
for about 15 years and hosts many other holiday events as well. The resort is
dressed to the hilt with beautifully decorated Christmas trees at every turn in
the hall, a 19-foot tree in the Elk Room overlooking Elkhart Lake, pine branches
wrapped around stair rails, poinsettias and Christmas wreaths.
For
families, there’s a chance to visit with Santa and then have breakfast at a
child-sized buffet line. The next day a Christmas brunch with St. Nicholas is
followed by a chance to see a reindeer with a big rack and even a camel up
close. Then there are Christmas cookie decorating and ornament making workshops
and a ride on old-fashioned horse-drawn hay wagon with people sitting on hay
bales. Percherons named Bud and Ace pull the wagon and are gentle enough for
children to pet. Two singers lead the Christmas caroling for all
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| Tatiana Alkata shows off one of her holiday gifts. |
The
cooking school offers a class on preparing a traditional French Christmas meal
with French onion soup, scallops, various breads, hash-brown-style potatoes
embedded with onions and bacon pieces, beef tenderloin and a dessert of buche de
noel, a rolled chocolate cake filled with chocolate frosting, surprisingly light
and delicious. Additional classes are offered on bread and cookie baking for the
holidays.
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| Mrs. Claus offers advice on decorating cookies. |
With
light snow falling, holiday lights all over the grounds and inside the resort,
and people feeling the holiday spirit, I found the Osthoff a magical place to be
just before Christmas.
See more pictures on the photos page
