Simply Christmas in Germany

A small wood Christmas scene.

Like a warm breath in a winter morning, the soft smoke from chimneys puff into the crisp December air. Gingerbread colored roof tops are lightly sprinkled with a thin powder of snow. It’s just enough to have your heart swell and know that it’s Christmas time. A time to reflect on one’s worth, to begin the journey of understanding the great price that was paid for the human race. Christmas is a time of Lebkuchen, Stolle, Spekulatius, Marzipan and colorful straw stars hung in frosted windows. A German Christmas is not excessive, but what is shown and communicated is of sentimental value (most likely hand-made) and of importance. This Christmas I won’t be sipping on warm eggnog instead I plan on trying a German favorite, eggcocoa (raw egg and hot cocoa). In this post I would like to describe to you what I have experienced as a German Christmas. To start, here is a picture of Boizenburg, the biggest village in my area that is about a fifteen minute drive from my house. In the large empty space you see in the middle is where our Weihnachtsmarkt takes place.

To state the differences, Christmas is celebrated on the 24^th which is called ‘Heilige Abend (Holy Night)’. Here one would attend church, open gifts after enjoying a meal of duck, red cabbage, and potatoes. The day after is called the First Christmas Celebration Day where one celebrates with everyone outside of the immediate family. The  day after is the Second Christmas Celebration Day which is another day to share meals, and commune with aunts, uncles, cousins, grandpa's and grandma's. Another large difference I noticed a week into December..the Christmas tree is put up and decorated the day before Heilige Abend. 



Boizenburg Church

 

Adventskranz



Every Sunday a candle is lit in an ‘Adventskranz’ which is a wreath with four red candles to create a geometric square shape. The lighting of a candle only represents the amounts of weeks until the three day Celebration of Christmas. Specialty Christmas foods include; Spekulatius (vanilla cookies with ‘festive’ spices), Stolle (dense vanilla cake with rasins and powdered sugar), Lebkuchen (gingerbread almost always chocolate covered..no problem) and Gluhwein ( offered with and without Alcohol). I tried the alcohol-less Gluhwein and if I had to compare it to anything it would be cranberry, apple cider, and ginger. Every small village and big cities too, such as Hamburg, Leipzig, etc.. have a Weihnachtsmarkt (Christmas Market). Here one can buy candied almonds, straw stars, Christmas tree ornaments, Gluhwein, Quarkballchen (little puffs of fried dough) and small hand made collector items. A very traditional and very dangerous decoration are live fire candles, now it is common to have electric powered candles instead. A film that is played throughout the Christmas time is ‘Drei Haselnüsse für Aschenbrödel’ , which is a twist of the classic Cinderella. That is a sum of what German do have, here is what they don't; no nativity scene sets in front of houses, no coffee flavors (whatsoever), eggnog, Christmas movie marathons or extravagantly decorated houses.




Adventskalender: each number is a little door that one opens on the appropriate day for a piece of chocolate!



Last week I was honored enough to be asked, among four other AFS students, to participate in a radio interview with the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern radio station. It was not a live interview (phew!) but it will be sent out this week for the entire state to hear. The interviewer asked me questions about a 'typical American Christmas' such as 'what do you eat?' and 'do you and your family go to church together?' Then she asked me for a very common song, and to my confusion seconds later I was singing ‘Dominque the Donkey’. Honestly, don't ask me why, I find it annoying 98% of the time it's played on the radio. Thankfully, not the whole interview will go out. ‘Only a few sentences that sum up the energy of your homecountries’ Christmas’ she said. Hopefully doesn’t include me singing ‘clinkiti clink he-haw-hehaw’. The picture here was after the interview, a fellow AFSer and I lip sang just for kicks to give the appearance that we were singing on the radio. :) I chose this picture to sum up the interview experience which was fun and relaxed. 

 Here is a quick story from last week. Friday I baked Christmas plätzchen (cookies) with a friend Kerstin. We made the traditional dough but I got to choose the forms. You know me :D Afterwards I created a little cookie scene on the cutting board and explained the Orgeon Trail! Do you see it?

 In America the traditions differ within every family but here I am apart of traditions that date back hundreds of years. Because of this, I found it hard to explain what a 'typical' American Christmas is to my host sisters English class. What I was able to describe was that the main focus of Christmas, aside from the 'holiday hype' ,is still about Jesus' birth. I asked my host parents what their celebration of Christmas entailed in the former DDR time. More than anything it was a time to get together with what family you could and simply celebrate being together (not neccesarily Jesus' birth). What I’m looking forward to within this next week is being home with the family, rest from school, enjoying (hopefully) the snow to come, and baking with my host sister.

In the meantime I'm reflecting on my time so far here. Yesterday marked the 100th day since I arrived in Germany. I have learned so much since then. As I mentioned in the latest article (about writing down what you learn everyday) I cherish every snippet of wisdom I receive. With six months and counting I cherish every moment I am with my new friends and family. I pray that you all also have a wonderful Christmas. I would love to hear your comments on a German Christmas, or answer any of your questions.

God Bless, Genevieve!