It’s hard to believe that Spring isn’t here yet, but at least we’re almost there. We want to thank everyone who came out for our second annual Hygge night. We enjoyed seeing people milling about the town and had a great time with those that came down to the windmill. We still have plenty of our signature hygge-themed t-shirts, crewnecks, and stickers in stock, too.

We’ve been busy at the windmill taking advantage of the traffic lull to make some needed improvements and renovations. Our Welcome Center upgrade is now complete and operational. A new TV broadcasts the daily hours of businesses in town and whatever other information we choose to include such as upcoming events, sales, local weather, or anything else. We’re looking forward to adding our social media wall later this year. The public chromebook is now ready for use for travelers in need of additional resources or those seeking to learn more about our organization and the Danish Villages.

Renovations in the store itself are also underway, with two of the three planned projects now completed. We’ve added shelving space to our Christmas area to make a dedicated space for our very traditional bramming collection. We’ve also added a small wall to our Viking and Candle corners to help consolidate and organize merchandise into a more consumer-friendly display. We’ll even have Viking shields for sale soon to go with our swords, axes, and helmets. The last project is underway and involves a partial upgrade to our kitchen & food area. We’re still waiting on the new shelving to arrive later this week, but we’ve very excited for this new setup and all of the new possibilities we will have for merchandising this part of the store. Part of this includes a full aebleskiver pan display featuring every type of pan we sell and some educational materials on the differences between them. We anticipate this project being finished by March if not a little sooner.

We also have new products on their way to the store. A shipment of books is coming with some excellent new titles, and we’ve also dabbled into some new lines including Maileg’s dollhouse collections and Gry & Sif’s felt ornaments and decorations. These are both quality Danish companies and we’re excited to showcase their top-selling merchandise in our shop. We will also have a new Scandinavian-themed bodycare line starting this week featuring high-quality handsoaps, lotions, lip balms, bar soaps, hand sanitizers, and more in a variety of alluring scents and fragrances. Finally, we’re excited for the return of Lakrids by Bülow and their classic licorice candies. All of this and much more is being made available in the gift shop every day. And if there’s something else you would like to see us carry, let us know.

We also recently announced an upcoming fundraiser. We’re partnering with Elk Horn’s local Kids in the Village daycare center on a multi-day fundraiser to help raise money for daycare. Every Sunday in April, we will be donating all of our revenue generated from tour admissions to the daycare. This is a great way to see the windmill for a wonderful cause. We’ve already secured food options for part of each Sunday for people to plan their trips around, and the windmill will have new educational exhibits on the first two floors. More details on food vendor times will be released soon, but we hope to see a lot of familiar faces touring the windmill again soon. We will even grind if the weather permits.

Finally, the windmill has already received two new volunteers for this year! We can’t wait for them to get started and encourage anyone interested in helping out to come talk to us. There are plenty of fun things to do whether it’s visitor services, giving tours, or even running the windmill. Contact us for more information or visit our volunteer landing page at danishwindmill.org.