Rays of watery, early December afternoon sunlight filter into Daley Plaza as small clusters of elderly women admire windows full of Christmas ornaments. Children bundled up tight against the biting wind clutch small, red ceramic boots filled with hot cocoa or apple cider and attempt to charge ahead of their parents toward wooden stalls filled with hand-crafted toys. Chicago’s annual Christkindlmarket is the sort of event that seems plucked from a Hollywood soundstage.

Organized by the German American Chamber of Commerce of the Midwest, the market is based on the Christkindlesmarkt in Nuremberg, Germany, and is one of only a handful of such markets in the United States.

The market began in 1996 and was moved to Daley Plaza by Mayor Richard M. Daley in 1997. In addition to being Chicago’s largest open-air Christmas festival, the market also provides visitors with the unique opportunity to buy goods from local and international vendors.

According to event organizers, 65 percent of the vendors at Christkindlmarket are from Germany, and five of the vendors hail from the Midwest.

Vendors sell everything from hand-embroidered linens to wooden toys, with the most popular item being the German Christmas pickle ornament.

Because vendors operate independently, there are no official sales numbers, but the Chicago Police Department estimated that one million people visited the market in 2007. Several vendors said sales are much better this year than they were last year.

“Many of our local visitors tell us that the Christkindlmarket has become their family tradition and they come every year,” said Sonja Bauer, assistant manager of the Christkindlmarket. “We also have many people who move away from Chicago and come back to the city in the winter just for the market.”

The market opened on Nov. 24 and will run through Christmas Eve.