Fredericksburg's Holiday Season Is Being Built by Its Neighbors, Down to the Glockenspiel

On a Saturday morning in September, Katherine Tanner stood in period dress at Fort Martin Scott while a camera operator circled her and scanned her from every angle. She and her dance partner, cowboy Christopher Stewart, were standing in for Buck Taylor and Ann Martin, the dance hall couple who will turn on a stage high above Marktplatz once the Glockenspiel Bell Tower Plaza is built. "I'm a fourth generation Texas dance hall dancer," Tanner told the Fredericksburg Standard.

That scan session also explains this year's holiday calendar. Much of what happens in Fredericksburg between early November and New Year's Eve is staffed, organized and now physically modeled by people who live here. Volunteer families run the ice rink. A local bakery co-hosts a contest that has outgrown its room. The square's next permanent landmark is being shaped from the bodies of local descendants. The 2026 season builds on that pattern more visibly than any season before it.

Who is standing in for whom

The Pedernales Creative Arts Alliance, the group that produces Oktoberfest, picked the historic figures. Bell Foundry Christoph is the contractor building the tower, and it is using modern descendants and residents as 3D models for the 36-inch animated figurines. Foundry owner Stan Christoph told the Standard that the models' bodies will be used in the molds and each ancestor's face will be laid over the face. Here is how the figures are cast:

• John O. Meusebach, modeled by Chad Druen-Miller
• Dr. Wilhelm Victor Keidel, modeled by James H. Perry III
• Fort Martin Scott soldier Alexander McDougall, modeled by James McDougall
• Herman Lehmann, modeled by Neal Reeh
• Racehorse trainer Max Hirsch, modeled by Tim Crenwelge
• Schuetzen Fest sharpshooter Gary Frantzen, modeled by Willie Frantzen
• Easter Fires ballerina, modeled by Sutton Dietert
• Publisher Colonel Alfred Petsch, modeled by Andy Ybarra
• Saengerfest band director Alex Frantzen, modeled by Bill Harrell
• Dance hall couple Buck Taylor and Ann Martin, modeled by Christopher Stewart and Katherine Tanner
• Horn player Hugo Klaerner, modeled by Marsh Weiershausen
• Accordion player Arthur Klein, modeled by Ben Wilson
• Beer Man, modeled by Neal Reeh

Chief Ketemoczy rounds out the cast. He and Meusebach will flank the stage on the front of the tower, a reference to the 1846 treaty they negotiated, which neither side ever broke. A peace pipe will sit above the stage, and the date 1846 will appear on the facade.

The figures will be hand-painted 3D polycarbonate built around stainless steel moving parts. The foundry is also making four clocks and 38 bronze bells, which are being cast in Belgium and weigh from 20 to 2,100 pounds. The current plan has the three largest bells, tuned to F, A and C, ringing every day at noon. A keyboard will let musicians play the carillon for special events.

The northeast corner, and what has to happen first

The tower is going on city-owned parkland near the northeast corner of Marktplatz, a footprint of about 2,000 square feet. The Fredericksburg City Council voted unanimously on Feb. 17, 2026, to approve an agreement with the alliance, according to the City of Fredericksburg's release. Three partners split the cost: $400,000 from the alliance, $400,000 from the Market Square Redevelopment Commission and $400,000 from the city's FY 2026 budget. Construction has to be finished on or before June 1, 2028. The alliance has to secure at least 80% of the required funding before it signs construction contracts, and the city has to approve detailed plans before work starts. When the tower is done, it will be donated to the city with a two-year warranty, and the city will own and maintain it.

The next public step happened this month. The Historic Review Board's Oct. 13 agenda included item DEV-2026-154-COA, a request for a Certificate of Appropriateness "to construct a new 'Glockenspiel' Bell Tower and Plaza at Martkplatz" at 126 W. Main St. The city's calendars for this season list no construction start date. For now, the northeast corner looks the way it always has.

The idea is older than most of the current calendar. Fredericksburg resident Kurt Ditges proposed it in 2014 after he saw a reconstructed tower from a 15th-century fortification on a trip to Meusebach, Germany. The work stalled during COVID-19 and started again in 2023, led by alliance members Mike Zenner and Andy Ybarra. Local architect Brandon Weinheimer is designing the plaza with the foundry.

The season on and around the square

Every date below comes from the city's calendar or from Visit Fredericksburg.

Christmas Nights of Lights has music each night from 5 p.m. and a presentation and countdown at 6 p.m. It runs through Tuesday, Jan. 5, 2027. Two nights are off: Dec. 4 for the parade and Dec. 31 for the New Year's event. On parade night, the lighting gives way to Main Street, and the parade's 6:30 p.m. start is close to when the lights would normally go on.

A contest that outgrew the Klein Room

The gingerbread contest has changed the most. For its first two years, about 30 participants decorated houses in the John Wm. Klein Room. For its third year, the City of Fredericksburg Parks and Recreation Department and Clear River Ice Cream and Bakery are moving it to the Pioneer Pavilion at Lady Bird Johnson Municipal Park, which has room for up to 74 houses. The move also adds a new family category, the city announced on Oct. 8.

Registration opened Tuesday, Oct. 27, on the city's Gingerbread House Decorating Competition page, and the city expects spots to fill quickly. The contest is open to children ages 5 to 10 and to families. Entry is $10 in an age category or $20 in the family category, and the city provides all supplies. Contestants get 45 minutes, outside decorations are not allowed, and no one can physically help. A family can have up to four people working on a house at once. Prizes go to the top three in each of four categories: ages 5 and 6, ages 7 and 8, ages 9 and 10, and families.

Two of this season's new events, Neon Nights on Nov. 6 and the expanded gingerbread contest on Dec. 8, are at the municipal park, not on Marktplatz. The square has the lights, the rink, the parade route and the Weihnachten market. Some of the newer additions are going to bigger spaces at the park.

The rink runs on school families

Eisbahn opens at Marktplatz on Saturday, Nov. 21, at 101 W. Main St. According to the city's event listing, it is open daily, weather permitting, except Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and New Year's Day. The city lists a $20 all-day, come-and-go pass that includes skate rental, or $15 on Tuesdays, and notes that prices may change. Opening day runs 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 22, runs 1 to 8 p.m.

The city calendar says Heritage School families volunteer to run Eisbahn, and the school lists Josie Fevig as Eisbahn operations manager. The rink sits a short walk from the corner where the bell tower will stand. Volunteer families staff the rink, a local bakery co-hosts the contest, and the Oktoberfest group is building the tower.

Noon, a few years out

The Glockenspiel committee includes Tim Crenwelge, Rose Marie Mazanke, Blair Nevins, Debbie Reeh, Brandon Weinheimer and Pam Wilson. The Standard reports that the committee put authenticity first and could have chosen a digital carillon. That choice means real bronze bells, cast in Belgium, will ring over the square every day at noon. Ybarra told the paper that "all involved were very excited to be a part of this historic project." The alliance still welcomes donations through its project site or by calling the Pedernales Creative Arts Alliance at 830-997-4810.

This year, Marktplatz has the rink, the lights, the Dec. 4 parade and the Weihnachten market on Dec. 5. Under the city's agreement, the tower that will carry Tanner, Stewart, Druen-Miller and the other models has to be finished by June 1, 2028.

At TXR Texas Real Estate, we follow how Fredericksburg's public spaces and the streets around Marktplatz change, because those changes affect the homes and properties near them. If you own near Main Street or the square and want to talk about how the town's next landmark fits into your plans, Work With Us.