HARMONY — Harmony Museum on Mercer Street is getting ready for one of its largest holiday attractions.

The annual WeihnachtsMarkt, a German-style Christmas market, will be Nov. 14 and 15.

“The entire town gets involved. There are a lot of things to do while people are in town,” said WeihnactsMarkt chairwoman Gwen Lutz.

The market’s thousands of visitors can shop among “quality artisanal” vendors and enjoy entertainment and foods and refreshments.

Lutz said the market attracts 3,000 to 5,000 visitors each year.

Visitors also can learn about the historic community’s German roots.

Harmony was founded in 1804 by pacifist German Lutheran separatists who fled militarism and religious intolerance of a state-church system in the Stuttgart area of what was then the Duchy of Württemberg.

Their Harmony Society became one of 19th century America’s most successful communal groups and moved on to establish New Harmony, Ind., and Economy that became Ambridge, Pa.

“Part of our mission statement is to create a venue for public education,” Lutz said.

Market hours are 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Nov. 14 and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Nov. 15. Admission provides all-day access to the market, entertainment, the Christmas-decorated museum, which includes Nativities, and historic district wagon rides. Proceeds support museum operations.

Lutz said most of the activities will be outdoors.

Nearly 50 specialty vendors and traditional crafters were chosen to participate for the “quality of their offerings.”

These items include green ware; wood carvings; Shaker boxes and other woodcrafts; jewelry and metal ware; artwork; antique maps, foods such as roasted nuts, pretzels, candies, mustards, jams, teas and oils and vinegars; pottery, glass and stained- glass; fiber goods; clocks; Jackware leather goods; soaps and lotions; dolls and toys; forged iron ware; Christmas ornaments, decorations and holiday items; furniture, and birdhouses.

Visitors also can sample regionally produced wines and see museum quilters, spinners and weavers at work at the Harmony Museum Weavers Cabin. They also can tour Ziegler Cabins, where the interior will resemble 1800s life and style.

Children’s activities, including an ornament crafting tent, will be set up.

Youths can get a head start to the holiday season by writing letters to be mailed to Santa Claus for free at the Museum Shop/Village Post Office.

“It’s a very family oriented type of event,” Lutz said. “The kids are excited to be there.”

The museum also opens its Christmas season model railroad displays at the market. Horse-drawn wagon rides will take people on tours along Mercer Street in Harmony’s National Landmark and historic districts.

Musical performances will be given in the big entertainment tent by the Alpen Schuhplattlers of Pittsburgh’s Teutonia Mannerchor, The Bavarian Club of Pittsburgh and Karl Lukitsch and The Autobahn Band.

The Seneca Valley Intermediate High School girls chorus will sing Christmas carols as the museum’s Christmas Giving Tree is lit at 5:30 p.m. Nov. 14. Visitors are invited to participate in singing with the chorus.

Lutz said the market started out as a craft show in just one room. In the past 18 years, the show has grown into a full, festive market.

“As time has gone on, we have added more interest to it. We’ve added events that people are very much drawn to,” Lutz said.