What happened if a tiny village somewhere in Germany – hardly anyone’s heard of it – suddenly is filled with thousands of visitors and tourists? And what if one single Christmas wish has brought this unexpected popularity to it and made it a destination that people know about? That would be a real Christmas story.

A Christmas tree, like the famous one outside the Rockefeller Center in New York. This is the greatest wish of the kindergarten children of Crawinkel. Their kindergarten teacher applies for ebay´s Christmas promotion “Your special Christmas gift”.

The team there does indeed find the right tree on eBay. It is standing in Lörzweiler in the Rhineland-Palatinate. It’s due to be cut down anyway so it is quickly transported all the way across Germany to Crawinkel. Overnight a 21-meter-high Christmas tree is erected on the market square. With 2,800 balls, 600 meters of fairy lights and 800 meters of garlands.

eBay posts a video on Facebook and the children’s sparkling eyes touch millions on the social web. The story could end here. But now the marketplace starts Phase 2. eBay promotes the Crawinkel Christmas tree as an excursion destination. It is advertised in newspaper articles, on the Internet and by video.

The video and its story touch millions. 1.5 million views on Facebook alone. 4,000 likes, 1,000 shares and 230 comments. Total social media reach: almost 4 million. But not only the social web, also media report enthusiastically with a total reach of 5.3 million.

It is not only people from the local region who visit this otherwise peaceful place. 150,000 visitors from all over Germany come in December to see the unique Christmas tree. The village has never seen crowds like this in its entire history. The market square is constantly full of people for weeks on end. The street stalls and stores are selling like never before.