The pilgrimage has its origins in the pious act of a simple man and the promotion by one of the most important abbots of Garsten, Anselm Angerer (1683-1715).

Ferdinand Sertl was the leader of the Steyr town band and looked after the fire-watchers on the town parish tower. As he suffered from epilepsy, he liked to be alone. He could be in a small wood in Unterhimmel (that is "Under the heavens"). In 1695 he paid 30 kreuzers to a nun of the Coelestine order in Steyr for a small wax image of the Christ-Child (in German, Christkindl) and gave it a home in the trunk of a spruce tree in a hollow hacked out for the purpose. Sertl now made a pilgrimage several times a week to his tree. He soon had no more epileptic fits and attributed this to his devotions. Although he wanted to keep everything secret, the place soon had such a stream of visitors that a wooden chapel was erected in 1699 around the tree. Abbot Anselm began with the building of the present church in 1702 with the Italian builder Giovanni Battista Carlone. To succeed him after his death Abbot Anselm immediately engaged the famous Baroque builder, Jakob Prandtauer (1660-1726).

Around 1720 the altar received a towering superstructure of carved and gilded wood around the preserved trunk of the "Christ tree" to which Sertl once committed his miraculous image.

The pilgrimages continued to prosper more and more until they were abruptly halted by Joseph II's prohibition of pilgrimages.

After the dissolution of the abbey of Garsten in 1787 Christkindl had to stand on its own feet. For this reason the local tradition gives 1787 as the date of the foundation of the parish.

The Christmas Post Office was set up for the first time in 1950. It made Christkindl known to many people all over the world. Since 1976 the parish has been in the hands of Prof. Alois Dinböck as parish priest. With great energy he set about the difficult task of thoroughly renovating the parsonage and the church.