Wally Bronner's Christmas clock ticks off the days until Dec. 25 at his legendary superstore in Frankenmuth. But truth be told, every day is Christmas at the world's largest Christmas store in "Michigan's Little Bavaria," located 85 miles northwest of Detroit.
Bronner's Christmas Wonderland, open 361 days a year, is the size of two football fields and offers a world tour of stockings, nutcrackers, lights and more, from aloha-shirted Santas and snowmen in sombreros to blown-glass zebras.
The mind-boggling selection showcases more than 6,000 kinds of ornaments - including many that can be personalized – and 500 styles of Nativity scenes, from the tiniest figures carved in a nutshell to life-size figures for floats.
Outside, 100,000 Christmas lights glow nightly from dusk until 11 p.m. and animated figures draw oohs and ahhs from some 2 million visitors annually.
Shoppers catch their breath in Bronner's Silent Night Memorial Chapel, where the enterprising Bronner himself, now 80, may show up to greet them.
Yet Bronner's is not the only store in Frankenmuth, where all-you-can-eat, family-style chicken dinners are an institution and paddleboat rides are a pleasant pastime. Dozens of shops sell everything from noisy cuckoo clocks to mountains of fudge, chocolates, cheese, roasted nuts, hand-rolled pretzels, stollen and other yummy baked goods.
Frankenmuth rolls out the willkommen mat for its annual Bavarian Festival June 7–10, featuring oompah bands, polkas, a traditional maypole dance, mounds of juicy bratwurst and barrels of German beer.
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