Holiday Market Super Sales and Holiday Concerts

With extremely heavy hearts we had been forced to cancel the 2022 German Holiday Market due to expected hazardous weather one day before the planned event. The National Weather Service forecasted winds in excess of 45 mph—wind speeds that can take out trees—for Saturday, December 10, 2022. Rain, we could have handled. However, with our village of tents and facades, wind presents genuine hazards to which we cannot expose our community or the public.

GISSV students, parents, teachers, staff, and friends look forward each year to presenting the German Holiday Market to our greater community. This year, the trucks were loaded, students' performances rehearsed, sweets purchased, sausages delivered, rolls baked, and more.

Holiday Market Super Sales

After cancelling our 10th anniversary market, the organizers made alternative plans: With the help of many GISSV volunteers, they were able to offer multiple sales just over 12 hours from the time of cancellation. And our teachers set up wonderful Holiday Concerts in the last week of school.

Thanks to our dedicated volunteers and caring community, we were able to hold 'Super Sales' events at both campuses. For everyone craving some German Holiday Market cheer, the team set up pop-up sales selling sausages, pies, cakes, Stollen, Lebkuchen, and more starting on the Saturday when the Holiday Market originally was planned and through the following week on our campuses as well as the French American School of Silicon Valley and Ludwig's Biergarten in Mountain View.

Read on here the interview co-chairs and parent volunteers Sheila Muto and Rachel Beckert gave to the Mountain View Voice.

Holiday Concerts

During our last week of school our students were happy to finally got the opportunity to present the rehearsed stage program to their families. They spread some holiday cheer with holiday concerts on GISSV's Mountain View Campus.

Danke!

Thank you to the entire GISSV community for your support, from the Board of Directors to the youngest Kibili student performing on stage, who all had a role to play in the presentation of the German Holiday Market. 

Canceling the German Holiday Market sent a tremor through the GISSV community and, amazingly, through a greater community in the Bay Area. We received the kindest words from complete strangers who look forward to this event every year, requests for a way to donate to the school, and condolences from the Mayor of Mountain View. The German Holiday Market has always been about much more than just fundraising. Through the sharing of our cultural traditions and a presentation of our wonderful community, we cultivate connections and raise GISSV's visibility throughout the greater Bay Area.  

The connections are forged within our community as well, working side by side, parents, teachers, staff and students. There are Holiday Market team leaders who no longer have students at GISSV, and prior GISSV students and employees who come back to volunteer at the Holiday Market. The cherished experience of the Holiday Market has become a bridge between generations of the GISSV community.

How can we thank all the volunteers who signed up? It really does take a village to build a village! An extra huge thank you to the volunteers who nimbly stepped in on Friday, Saturday and Sunday to sprout instant sales stands in MV and SF; shuttled goods back and forth; repacked, rearranged, unloaded and returned trucks; and were generally on-call for any task. 

An especially gigantic, Santa-size THANK YOU to the Holiday Market Team Leaders toiling away in the background for months. The hours spent, the attention to detail, the emails sent, the ups and downs, and, especially, the endless good humor.

And last but not least we are deeply grateful for the generosity of this year's German Holiday Market sponsors DRÄXLMAIER Group USA and Zollner Elektronik AG for allowing GISSV to retain their sponsorship funds, which support the school's programs and help cover lost revenue from the cancellation of the Market.

Please check www.germanholidaymarket.org for updates. And please do visit and support the German Holiday Market vendors listed on the page.

A limited number of the 2022 mugs and the 10th anniversary limited edition steins are available for purchase online. Pick up in Mountain View or San Francisco, while supplies last.

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