Frankenmuth

At age 12, Wally got an early start on building his customer service skills by working as a clerk in his Aunt Hattie Hubinger's grocery store. At age 18, Wally starts sign painting business in his parent's basement. While designing window displays for Jennison's Hardware in Bay City, Wally meets merchants from Clare, MI looking for Christmas decorations for city lampposts. He creates Christmas panels that mark the start of his career in Christmas decorations. Wally and his wife, Irene, construct their first permanent building in the middle of Frankenmuth. Bronner's experienced many expansions over these years: First, adding on to the original building; then purchasing the old bank in 1966 (Bronner's Tannenbaum Shop). Then in 1971 adding the Hattie Hubinger grocery location (Bronner's Bavarian Corner). Bronner's three stores combined and moved under one new roof on a 45-acre site south of town aptly addressed "25 Christmas Lane." 1939 1945 1951 1954 1963-1971 1977 20 Chicken and Christmas? Growing up in Frankenmuth, I understood that tourism was extremely important to our local economy, but I always wondered, "Why chicken and Christmas?" Was there some reason Zehnder's and Bavarian Inn started serving thousands of all you can eat family-style chicken dinners? And what drove Wally, the founder of the world's largest Christmas store, to take on such a venture. I knew there had to be an interesting story there. Now that I have the privilege of marketing our beautiful destination to visitors from all over the world, the same questions that had me wondering all those years ago, you may wonder about too. This is the shortened version of the history of chicken and Christmas in Frankenmuth. If you're interested in reading more, visit the blog on Frankenmuth.org for the longer version. B Y C H R I S T I E B I E R L E I N Bronner's Through the Years Why

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