Hospitality students serve up Christkindlmarket history

There’s a lot to celebrate about Denver’s storied Christkindlmarket this year — a roomy new location on the Auraria Campus, the market’s 25th anniversary, the new Western Carousel, and, of course, the beer tent. 

And, in a new twist: Advent. 

Or, to be precise, a brief history of the market’s 25 years, with a new chapter revealed daily through an Advent calendar created by two Metropolitan State University of Denver students. 

The calendar results from a collaboration between Christkindl organizers at the  German American Chambers of Commerce and Smita Singh, Ph.D., MSU Denver assistant professor in the School of Hospitality. 

Chamber representatives “were looking for a project in which students could design posters, and they wanted a history timeline,” Singh said. They also were hoping for “an on-site activation idea — a way to reach customers that they can interact with.” 

So Singh divided her Introduction to Hospitality class into six teams and had them design posters and brainstorm ways to engage customers onsite by coming up with ideas for an interactive activity. Each team presented their poster and activation ideas ideas to representatives of the chamber, which will print the posters and display them at the market. The chamber members also chose a winner for the onsite interactive project: the Advent calendar devised by Selena Hagenau and Adamaris Ordonez.

It was a timely choice — this Advent season seems to be shaping up as the season of Advent.  

After building up over several years, advent marketing has exploded in 2025, with everyone from cosmetics giant Sephora selling 24 Days of Beauty to 12 Days of TorchBearer Sauces Hot Sauce advent calendar.  Marketing experts say the approach taps into things people  love about this time of year, like anticipation, celebration and fun surprises. 

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Speaking of Advent season surprises, Hagenau said a few classmates probably were shocked when her team’s idea won the competition. “Every other presentation was very detailed and a lot of them tried to use the full budget.”  

Hagenau and Ordonez, on the other hand, made a simple, quick presentation that provided examples of what they would do, but wasn’t a completed Advent calendar. While many in the class are first- and second-year students, Hagenau expects to graduate next fall. Those extra years of learning may have paid off — and demonstrated an approach that probably will serve her well as she pursues a career in corporate event planning. 

“Ours cost $150,” Hagenau said. “I presented it simply and said, ‘there’s plenty of budget left if we need to make changes.’”

That may have provided an inadvertent lesson to her younger classmates: “Don’t spend thousands of dollars when a couple hundred will do,” she said. 

Once Ordonez and Hagenau learned their project had been chosen, the hard work began. The two had days to comb through the German chamber’s 25 years of photos, choose one to represent all 25 years of Christkindl, and assemble the entire calendar. The final product is a cozy cottage, with Santa and a couple of reindeer on the roof, and doors that each open to reveal a photo from one of the market’s 25 years. It’s  displayed where most market visitors will see it — inside the beer tent. 

It was a lot of work, Hagenau said. “Still, it’s pretty cool we were picked. “My parents are proud.” 

So is Singh. “I’m very proud of them all,” she said. “They came up with wonderful ideas.” 

 Learn more about the School of Hospitality at MSU Denver.