DECEMBER MONTHLY CHALLENGE

Baking Christmas Cookies, Decorating Fir Trees and Playing Piano Before Unwrapping Gifts

Traditions about a religious celebration in my family

The lights are being switched off and everything focuses on the candles. It’s not dark. Those candles produce a very warm light. And it’s quiet. Everyone just remains still for a moment.

This month we were asking our writers to share stories about Christmas and other celebrations are the world. While I have spent the last 7 winters outside of my hometown spending Christmas in Ghana, Thailand and in the desert of Namibia, I’d like to share today the traditions I grew up with.

And to get the wording right I’d like to add that Christmas in Germany is a little different. Once I learned English, I got confused with what they meant about Christmas day and Christmas Eve. I thought Christmas translates to Weihnachten but while the word gets easily translated, the traditions aren’t the same.

Weihnachten — 24.12.

1. Weihnachtsfeiertag — 25.12.

2. Weihnachtsfeiertag — 26.12.

All shops are still open on the 24th but close mostly around lunchtime. We celebrate Christmas on the 24th. Usually, with your family, you get a Christmas dinner after which the ceremony will start changing from house to house a little. Presents will get opened that night.

There are no other rituals about the following two days but the 25th and 26th of December are public holidays and are usually spent visiting aunts, uncles, and cousins.

My first Christmas

Let’s talk about my first Christmas. Not that I have any memories of it but I found the picture below. A girl, 3 days short of turning one, with wide-open eyes not knowing why so many presents were all for her.

That’s me.

Lebkuchenhaus

While this might be a German tradition, I don’t remember ever having a gingerbread house at home. This picture below is also from my very first Christmas where apparently, we had one. But I think we did celebrate the day at my uncle’s house. That’s where the sweet house came from.

Gingerbread houses usually get decorated by children who afterward are allowed to eat them.

Playing the piano

Growing up, I did learn the piano which was a year-round obligation of mine. Some months I enjoyed it more than others and finally stopped playing the piano at 14 when I got serious with the sports I used to play.

For Christmas, I always had to practice one or two songs which I would perform in front of my parents, grandparents and maybe other visitors on the following days.

Next to the piano practice I also had to study Christmas poems. Learning them by heart I then had to present them that evening.

We would sing Christmas songs altogether and mix in between the other presentations we children had to do. There was some work involved before we would be allowed to get to the presents.

Unwrapping gifts and playing with lego

The fun part was then of course to unwrap our presents. You would maybe know something you had wished for and hoped to get. But the ones I still remember are those lego boxes.

I loved playing with lego and when I got new parts on Christmas, I would start building the new project. That night still.

Decorating the "Adventskranz"

The month of December and the weeks leading up to Christmas are almost as special as the actual day of unwrapping presents.

The four Sundays leading up to the 24th of December are marking the time called “Advent”. It’s when the serious Christmas preparations start.

Every Sunday evening my family would sit down together, sing a song or two and practice the poems we had to learn for Christmas. Every week one more candle would be lit until all four candles were shining bright on Christmas.

Yes, I am talking about the wreath or Christmas wreath. However, you call it in English. In German, it’s the Adventskranz.

While you can spend lots of money on buying one, you can also make it yourself. And no, there won’t be any fake fir branches on ours. I’d go into the woods, cut a few twigs and then come home and decorate it.

My uncle was an enthusiastic nurseryman and would hold every December a large event presenting Christmas decorations, mainly wreaths.

The preparation for the expedition day was huge and often started in summer already. I would join during November and December and was allowed to decorate them from beginning to finish. And yes, those were sold too.

I really enjoyed making those wreaths. It’s where my creative side could go wild. My uncle gave me no restrictions.

Making and eating Christmas cookies

Talking about preparations for Christmas, I can’t leave out the Christmas cookies. My mom is a big baker and would start in November already with the first batch of cookies.

The children always helped her with the baking until we got tired. Yes, the baking mostly happened in the evenings.

I didn’t find a plate with all the varieties of cookies my mom made, but I found a few I made.

Decorating the Christmas tree

Of course, the Christmas tree. How could I leave that one out? So here’s the deal.

• It’s a real tree
• We decorate the tree on the 23rd
• It only gets real candles
• The candles must get blown off before we start unwrapping gifts.

We used to buy the Christmas tree about a week before Christmas and my sister and I would walk with my dad to the place where they sell the trees.

It was never an easy choice of which one to get and mom was never happy when we came home but it is what it is.

All three of us carried the tree back home and then placed it on the balcony. It would only come inside on the day before Christmas and then stay until the next year.

I never understood that because it would be decorating our home after Christmas and not during the time of advent.

At one point I remember I convinced my parents to bring the tree inside a week earlier and then decorated it. I loved the process of decorating the tree. It was part of it all. The anticipation of the big day ahead.

Celebrating a white Christmas

Something I now miss more than ever possibly has to do with the fact I haven’t spent a winter in a cold climate in more than seven years but it is what it is.

Christmas for me must be cold and white. I love snow. And there must be snow on Christmas. Or something is not right.

I still remember Christmas 2008. It was cold and it was snowing. There was already a thick layer of snow outside and while the rest of my family went to church that afternoon of the 24th, I asked my mom if she would do a walk with me.

It was getting dark already but it felt so good. The air was fresh and everything was so peaceful and quiet.

Today, this is my favorite Christmas memory of my time growing up. That walk through the snowy winter wonderland together with my mother.

“Christmas isn’t a season. It’s a feeling.” — Edna Ferber

This is a writing prompt response for Globetrotters' monthly challenge. Read about the guidelines here:

Read about other submissions:

Janice Macdonald with “Nothing Says Noël Is Just Around The Corner More Sweetly Than Glittering Pyramids of Ferrero Rocher”

Bell KS with “Flying Home for Christmas”

Ronald Smit with “Unusual December celebrations”

Susie Kearley with “Striking Winter Lights & Lasers 2022”

Adrienne Beaumont with “My First Christmas In Europe”

Simon Whaley with “Lincoln’s Christmas Spirit”

JoAnn Ryan with “The Last Showing of the Osborne Christmas Lights Display at Walt Disney World”

Jean Elizabeth Glass with “And So This Is Christmas”

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