Uncover the History Behind this Michigan Town that Celebrates Christmas 365 Days a Year
For many people, the sounds of “Christmas Time Is Here” from the 1965 television special A Charlie Brown Christmas, is a welcomed holiday classic to be playing overhead in your local department store. But, in a little town in Mid-Michigan, the phrase doesn’t exactly ring true as they celebrate the joys of the holiday season 365 days a year.
Frankenmuth, Michigan is a charming, festive and cute German town that has been a beloved tourism spot for several generations, but how did the holiday season become the pinnacle identity for this international destination each and every year? And don’t forget the fried chicken dinners! To get the full breadth of the history of Frankenmuth, we spoke with Heidi Chapman, director of the Frankenmuth Historical Association.
And to our surprise, it actually all began with the chicken dinners and an overnight stay, just 11 years after the town founding in 1845. Nestled in this community half-way between Flint and Saginaw, a main thoroughfare for a traveler or salesman, was the Exchange Hotel, and “those travelers would want to eat which is when the famous chicken dinners came around,” described Chapman. “It was a popular and easy way to feed a large amount of people, and in those early days, a traveler could get a hotel stay and food for them and their horse for 75 cents a night.”
Today, that chicken dinner and a hotel stay has blossomed into a 152-room indoor water park hotel and a 1,500-seat dining room known as “America’s Largest Family Restaurant.” Serving the world-famous chicken dinners in a family-styled fashion, with all of the sides and fixins’ your heart desires in a home-cooked meal, Zehnder’s has welcomed over 30 million guests from around the world in their more than 150 year history.
But it wasn’t until after World War II that Frankenmuth started to grow. The economy was booming, men were coming back from the war, and interstates were being built. “William Zehnder, Jr. was the owner of the hotel and he invested time and money to adopt the Bavarian-styled façade that people see today. At the time, people thought he was crazy, and it ended up paying off. He convinced others to do the same, and people listened, and it worked!”
But why the Bavarian-styled architecture? Many years before, the town was founded by 15 German settlers, and the next year, 100 more arrived in Frankenmuth from Germany. “The goal of those original 15 settlers was to be an American citizen but maintain their German heritage,” explained Chapman. “And even today, the language and many of the traditions are still used.” A dialect of the German language, Bayerisch, is still commonly spoken in Frankenmuth, even though it no longer exists in Germany.
But as for the Christmas wonderland known as Bronner’s, that arrived in Frankenmuth in 1945. What started as a sign painting business for Wally Bronner, it quickly led him to the City of Clare where he created Christmas decorations for city lampposts. Realizing the demand for festive decor, he moved to creating Christmas decorations exclusively. “The original store started on the north end of town, and it continued to grow into new stores, and has since had three expansions since they opened in their current location.”
Today, Bronner’s is the world’s largest year-round Christmas store, cover 2.2 acres of retain shopping space and sitting on 27 acres of beautifully landscaped and illuminated grounds with towering Santa statues, leaping reindeer, colorful light displays and much more. And inside, you can shop through dozens and dozens of Christmas trees, thousands of unique ornaments, tiny-village displays and even have your items personalized by the many artists that the store employs.
“The Christmas idea from Wally Bronner grew as Bronner’s became a destination,” described Chapman. “It’s now a family tradition for many to get their ornaments and meet Santa Claus, and people make an entire day of it. 40% of our tourism each year comes during the two months leading up to Christmas.”
And like the rest of the town, Wally embraced the German heritage from both sides of his family, and adorned the décor of Bronner’s in Bavarian-styled architecture. “We are known as Michigan’s little Bavaria, and people come to visit town and love it.”
And deep within the traditions and festivities of this charming town exists the important history of the people that have made it into what it is today. “There is so much to our history in Frankenmuth, and we try to tie the bigger picture into the important narrative of our history.”
The Frankenmuth Historical Association was founded in 1963 by several local residents that wanted to start collecting the history of Frankenmuth. What started by collecting artifacts to store in the organizer’s basement, later developed into what it is today, including seven gallery exhibits that focus on the history of Frankenmuth, as well as a robust education department that offers field trips and guided tours. To learn more about the historical association, visit the Museum, or uncover more of the history of Frankenmuth, visit frankenmuthmuseum.org.
