CELEBRATING CHRISTMAS LIKE A GERMAN

Cookie baking – if you are remotely into baking it is a must ;) For those not daring to master the art of cookie baking: you can buy prepared baking boxes from Doctor Oetker and others. Vanillekipferl are really nice, regualr butter cookies or anything with cinnamon. However, actually it really doesn’t matter which cookies you do as long as you do them.

Lebkuchen: this is a special gingerbread dough which is pretty strong in consistency and thus is good to build little houses, i.e. the creche. You can buy it at every Christmas marekt or try to bake on your own. Here’s a recipe.

Children will often go to a theatre organized by the school. They go during morning hours. A lot of theatres prepare special Christmas programs, also dedicated to children. Puppet theatre with a figure called “Kasper” is the norm. The theatre’s name, therefore, is often “Kasperletheater.” It is not unlikely that you will find a stage on local Christmas markets, but you can also google for them.

A lot of kindergartens will also prepare a theatre telling the Christmas story. The play will usually be held in the evening so that working parents can attend. If your child is in church, this is also something which the church might organize.

Charity events are another set of events schools often organize. Cookie baking, waffles or self-made Christmas decoration are the products sold for a good cause. You will be expected to give something small, either a self-made cake or bought bags of pretzels or tangerines. Your child or the teacher will tell you. You will be thanked explicitly for if you bring some food from your home country.

A visit to a regional Christmas market is also a custom. You would usually try to combine it with a nice winter walk – well, there is typically no snow, and the weather feels like late November, (umbrella required!)

Businesses are often inviting for year closure dinners, and therefore the working population can get rather busy in the evenings – the same as in most other countries. If you plan for dinner with friends, it is wise to send out the invitation early.

Word Christmas parties occur in December. They are organized by the employer or a local club and dress code differs party to party, so make sure you read the invitation carefully.

“Julklapp” is a game often played at smaller Christmas parties. Every attendee pulls a raffle ticket with another participant’s name and has to buy a gift for him/her. The spend limit is set and must be respected by everybody. You wrap your gift nicely, and if you want to have some fun, you wrap it several times, and only the final one has the correct recipient’s name on it. The gifts are then unwrapped by way of a rolling the dice. It is an enjoyable game. We distinguish between “nice” gifts and “rubbish” gifts (“Schrottwichteln”). How Julklapp is played must be defined before buying any gifts. If “rubbish” Julklapp is played you go searching on your attic for some real kitsch or a single old shoe or the like. Again, you wrap it – the fancier the package the more popular your gift will be and it is hilarious how the attendees fight over getting it into their hands and then finally see their faces when unwrapping it. “Schrottwichteln” is even funnier than regular Julklapp.

Buying a Christmas tree is also important to do in December. Customs do differ by family here; some families place it at the beginning of December, most will only bring it in a few days before Christmas and decorate it only on 24th in the morning. This is a big difference to the customs in UK for example where the tree is fully decorated on 1st December with all the gifts underneath which tortures the children . You can buy the tree in unique pop-up stores, or at DIY markets. You can buy all kind of sizes. You will need an individual tree holder to fix it into an upright position in your home. These can be obtained at DIY stores, too.

The gifts are only placed under the tree shortly before the “Bescherung”, that is the German word for receiving all the gifts. How much value you put into the gifts is entirely your own decision (of course). Christmas is minimum as big as the birthday in Germany and children will tell about their hottest gifts in school. A good average value would be between 200 and 400 EUR for well-off families.

The tree gets binned when it dries out, or the latest the 5th or 6th January. The local Stadtwerke responsible for garbage disposal will publish the last day for Christmas tree pick-up. You simply put it to the side of the street. If you want to keep your tree longer you need to dispose of it on your own – which can be rather messy because of all the dry needles.

Christmas is celebrated on 24th December, not the 25th. At least the big event is on 24th. When dark, Santa Claus, in Germany this would be the “Weihnachtsmann”, would come to the house and deliver a big sack with the gifts. There are actors you can rent for doing this – which works great for small children as well as adults only.

Many people go to church, and the local church and to avoid the crowds, get there early. There will be several messes. A very traditional one to go to with older children is the “Mitternachtsmesse” – the midnight mass. At Holy mass, you will be expected to give some cash for charity. When I was young my mother always took us to church at around 4:00 pm while my dad placed the Christmas gifts and decorated the tree. When my children where young they were told to take a bath and then suddenly the doorbell rang and it was the “Weihnachtsmann” -my children never got to see him in person . The “Christuskind” or “Christkindl” in the South of Germany is also known as an alternative to the Weihnachtsmann.

The “Bescherung” is the word for the giving of gifts – it’s what the children are always dying for to happen as early as possible. Whether it is done before the dinner, in between courses or after, depends on your nerves and the patience of your children.

Festive music is played the whole evening, usually by a family member.   I play some pieces on the piano, younger children play the flute if there is no musician a poem would be cited. I like this tradition, especially if the adults also contribute with a poem. A funny poem can cause great laughter. Some families also sing together. Or somebody reads the Christmas story. A lot of families will simply unwrap their gifts and start playing.

While Christmas is a family event, there are different traditions. The close family, like father, mother, children would celebrate on the 24th, the father’s family i.e. grandparents and uncles, aunts and nieces would celebrate on the 25th and the mother’s family on the 26th. Depending on family size, everybody would come on the 24th. Since we only have one Christmas celebrating family, we spend the 26th with our closest friends.

The real first bank holiday. Celebrations continue after breakfast. Often, this is a day of great travel because families visit each other. Roads are congested. Although, if further away, you would usually spend the 24th together already and then head back on the 26th. The dinners (or lunches) on both days are equally exhaustive, and you would have the same food as mentioned above.

There will be church messes again.

The days between 26th and 31st December are called “zwischen den Tagen” (in between days) and are typical holidays. Many offices are shut down. Supermarkets are open, but smaller boutique shops are closed, too. Cinemas, sports clubs, etc are usually open, too.