6 German Christmas Decorations Americans Have NEVER SEEN
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- Опубліковано 9 лип 2024
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Even though the US and Germany are both passionate about the Christmas (Weihnachten) Season and have shared traditions through the years, there are still some fascinating different ways in which Americans and Germans DECORATE for the holiday! Today we talk about 6 things we had never seen before or owned before moving to Germany and celebrating Christmas here. 😊
1:20 - Intro
1:52 - Adventskranz (Advent Wreath)
5:20 - Adventskalendar (Advent Calendar)
8:17 - Räuchermann
9:44 - Skillshare Ad (Sponsored)
10:48 - Weihnachtspyramide (Christmas Pyramid)
12:45 - Weihnachtsbaumkerzen (Christmas Tree Candles)
14:53 - Herrnhuter Sterne (Moravian Stars)
16:38 - What we have left
17:24 - Bloopers
This video was sponsored by Skillshare!
Filmed: Kaiserslautern / Ramstein, Germany - December 2020
#AmericansInGermany #German #MovingToGermany
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One thing we didn't cover in the video is WHEN you put up your Christmas tree?? We put ours up extra early this year but normally wait until immediately after Thanksgiving. When do you put your tree up and decorate it??
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The Christmas tree will be up one or two days before the 24th and decorated at the 23rd or 24th.
We put up the Christmas tree on the 24th
Here you put up your tree 1-2 days before christmas.
Ich stelle den Baum mindestens eine Woche vor Weihnachten auf, oft aber auch schon Anfang Dezember.
Er steht dann einfach länger und ich möchte so lange wie möglich etwas von meinem Baum haben!
You forgot the "friesischer Weihnachtsbaum" aka "Jöölboom aka "Kenkenbuum"
We still put real candles on our tree every year, the light is so much nicer
Wow! That is so cool to us who had no idea that was still done 😃
My parents still put real candles on their tree every year.
Same in our house we put real candles on our tree every year and I absolutely love it. Wouldn't have it any other way
Same here. 🙂👍
My parents still do it too, I'm worried every year.
Canadian here 🇨🇦. My German side of my family came to Canada in the early 1820s. We always have an advent wreath that we light each evening and keep it lit until after dinner (or once we leave the dinner table). We have a white candle in the centre for Christmas Eve. It helps with our cold dark nights.
We also grew up with Advent calendars. As we grew up, the chocolate calendars were replaced with calendars that had little paper doors that had bible verses on the inside. Then, when our first-born arrived (he was born Dec 1 which was the 1st Sunday of advent that year), I had a man make a box with 25 small drawers. We used to put small chocolates in the drawers. When the kids grew up a bit, I continued the tradition and put miniature decorations in each drawer. We placed a small tree beside the advent calendar and decorated it each day until Christmas when we put a star on top of the tree.
We had one of the wooden pyramids growing up at my grandparents’ place. Many years ago I bought 2 similar candle whirligigs made out of thin brass. I may have bought them at IKEA(?), and we light those on Christmas Eve.
We decorate our stairs on the first Sunday in advent with Christmas decorations and lights with a large garland. Every decoration is pewter or blue and the lights are all blue. We were told this was part of our German heritage to celebrate Mary.
We have a traditional nativity set. We keep the Jesus figure hidden until the eve of the 24th. We also have the wisemen figures travel around the house. The wisemen join the rest of the nativity scene on January 6th (Epiphany) when we celebrate “little Christmas”. The children receive one last gift on that day. Again, it was a part of our German family tradition.
We still put real candles on our tree and we light those each night. Again, with the cold dark nights all of our decorated candles cast a beautiful light. We are very cautious of watching all of our candles and thankfully we have never had a problem (except hot wax once discoloured one of our tablecloths.
Lastly, I think the only other German tradition is we put an ornate glass star as our tree topper.
As I look around our sitting room now, I realize we have carried on some wonderful German tradition passed down for nearly 200 years now!!
Thats very nice that you still have the traditions
The Adventskranz should be lit in a cozy mood, on the Advent sundays mornings for breakfast or in afternoons for coffee. It"s lighting family time, you sit together for half hour and enjoy the light. (You may sing the song "Wir sagen Euch an den lieben Advent".)
Or another Advent songs.
Ah! Great tips! We for some reason though this would be done in the evenings but really had no justification for that 😂 Thanks!
On Advent sunday afternoon take a little time, sit with your family or friends, listen to chrismas music, sing, eat some of your chrismas cookies have coffee or glühwein let the Räuchermännchen smoke and light the advents candle.
@@PassportTwo During the week we light the candles on the evenings, too, while doing the normal stuff like reading, watching TV, etc.
See, Advent is called "die stade Zeit" - the calm time. It's for slowing down, taking time, stop hustling and bustling. The quality time with the Adventskranz helps a lot.
Advent, Advent,
ein Lichtlein brennt.
Erst eins, dann zwei,
dann drei, dann vier,
dann steht das Christkind vor der Tür.
Und wenn das fünfte Lichtlein brennt,
dann hast du Weihnachten verpennt!
Danke Micha, das letzte hatte ich nicht mehr in Erinnerung, und immer noch, seit der Kindheit , ist es ein guter Reim, auch fuer Kinder, die Deutsch lernen.
My family is originally from Germany. My mother has always had a Advent wreath, and she made us advent calandras. With lighting of the candle on each Sunday we come together as a family, turn off all lights and light our candle. We serve cookies, and a drink, wine, schnapps, hot chocolate or eggnog are some of the choices we have done over the years. We also remember the years past, we also say a little prayer, of Hope, faiths Joy and peace and love. We enjoy the time.
Where we live now, in a region in southern Baden-Württemberg there is a tradition called "Weihnachtsbaum loben" . Visiting neighbours or friends (Not in Corona times though) you tell them what a beautiful decorated tree they have - schöner Baum - and if they don't get the hint you tell them again and again because you get a schnaps for admiring the tree.
The Christmas tree is a Christmas not an advent tree, so in the 23rd or even 24th of December. Children are supposed to see the tree at Heiligabend the first time, fully lit.
As a Kid I always had a self-made calendar from my parents or grandparents. My mom also makes the Adventskranz by herself every year.
We love the crafting spirit of those things! 😊
In Franconia we have Zwetschgermännle. A small figurine made from nuts, dried prunes and a walnut for the head.
The characters are usually a drunk, leaning on a lamp post, or a granny sitting on a bench. Small pieces of left over fabric is used to give them clothes. If you have a post-box, let me know. I will get you a Zwetschgermo. Straw stars are also a traditional thing here. To build them, the family takes a bundle of straw, cut them open, iron them flat and make stars and other deco for christmas. This is as important as the annual cookie baking.
Früher war mehr Lametta :-)
Ja, in den USA auch 😊
@@PassportTwo "Früher war mehr Lametta" ist ein legendärer Spruch des Comedians Loriot (Vicco von Bülow, 1923-2011). Loriot hat in den 70er Jahren die Weihnachts-TV-Comedy "Weihnachten bei Hoppenstedts" gedreht. Ein Klassiker, läuft heute noch oft an Weihnachten im deutschen TV. ua-cam.com/video/F7ijGAng4jI/v-deo.html
🤣
Und Engelshaar! 🙂
IMO, Loriot has (or had, at least) an important influence on German culture. Quotes like "Früher war mehr Lametta" (and there is a whole bunch of them) are are something that most people in D will have heard of (and possibly used). But Loriot´s humour seems to be something of an aquired taste: I have heard of many non-Germans that do not find it funny. But for real immersion into German culture you should watch some Loriot. Besides many skits he also made two films (Pappa ante portas and Ödipussi) which, I think, are currently running on German Netflix. Add these to your christmas watch list :-)
Thanks for your channel. I really enjoy watching! Stay safe and have a "fröhliche Weihnachten"!
We lived in Karlsruhe in the 70s and added German candle lights to our tree then. Still use them stateside as the 220v bulbs last forever.
Other German ornaments we use are wax ones from Oberammergau and other places we visited; small, delicate wooden butterflies, and my favorite, lots of small mushrooms (red cap with white polka dots) to put on the end of branches.
Of course it is good to buy ornaments from places you visit as it brings back the memory when you decorate the tree each December - glass from Basel, silver icicles from Copenhagen, regular ornaments from street vendors or Markts, fragile clear glass balls from Mann Mobilia.
When I was a kid there were only Advent calenders with little pictures behind the doors, no chocolate, candies or gifts. For my kids I made calendars by myself (sometimes with other parents in the kindergarten) with little boxes, sacks... filled with small gifts, sweets and so on
But the good calenders smelled behind some doors like vanilla, or so. Loved them! :)
@@luckyqualmi never had one with a smell, maybe I am older than you :-)
About the Adventskalender I got a surprise last year. My husband and I we unfortunately have no children and so we're to all the children in our family and friends the fun uncle and aunt to play with or reading long stories etc. and they loved it very much when visiting us. Last year I saw a picture on facebook which said "Lena has to make you an adventskalender" and the only Lena I knew was my cousins daughter and I send her the picture for fun. But she thought remembering the fun time she had with us in her childhood "Why not!". On 1st december last year I got a surprise visit from my cousin and her daughter Lena and they brought us a self decorated adventskalender with uge pakets of tea, chocolate, beauty items and more. This was so adorable and we were so touched I never forget it.
Eine sehr schöne Geschichte!
Lighting the candles on Sunday is always quality family time. We sit together - as kids we used to sing Christmas songs, read Christmas stories, drink tea or hot cocoa, bake cookies..
Im from Germany. In my family the tradition is to light the candles on the wreath before a meal and blow it out afterwards. This is true for every meal we are having together as a family.
This is true for Catholics in the USA too.
Hello! I am from USA. Very interesting in Christmas traditions In Germany 🇩🇪. I didn’t know that German People usually put candles on Christmas trees! That’s amazing ❤️
My family used to have „Kaffee und Kuchen“ on Sundays and especially every Advent between 4 and 6 in the afternoon almost the whole Family comes together (my parents, grandparents , my siblings with our partners or spouses and sometimes also my aunt with her husband and children too) and we sit around the dinning table with the light up Christmas wreath and spending a cozy time together while we drink coffee and eating homemade cake or Christmacookies
the wreath is just decoration and we don’t celebrate the lightening of the candles
(only one thing is important: every Advent you can only light up one more candle per advent so that only at the 4. and also last Advent Sunday of the year all 4 of the candles finally being light up)
As for the Chrismas tree: We always put it up and decorated on the 24th, one of the children was allowed to decide "the style" of the decoration each year, whether to use only red and gold or many colours, self made stars from straw (Strohhalme) or from coloured tin foil, whether Lametta should be included or definitely not ... as we children used to argue about that, my parents invented the solution of one child being in charge every year 😀. There always were real candles, only the last 5 years my mother turned to electric ones. But when my father was still alive, he always moisted the tree each day spraying the twigs with water for safety reasons. The most beautyful tradition was a tiny golden bell hanging in the tree. Wenn all of the family had put their gifts under the tree, only my father stayed in the living room. We older and younger children had to go outside. The young ones stood excitedly with their ears glued to the door. When we heard the soft tinkling of the bell we were allowed to come in again. The room was dark and the candles on the tree were shining. The tree always looked so beautiful at this moment! We gathered in front of the tree singing Chrismas carols, my father and mother often singing tenor and alto voices along, so it sounded really nice. My grandmother always was asked which should be the last song. And each year she said "Oh Tannenbaum". After that each member of the family of four generations had to wish "Fröhliche Weihnachten" to every else hugging each other. After that, gifts were given and opened. Merry Chrismas and Happy new year to all of you, Claudia
Same for me. We always put up our tree on the 24th. And usually keep it for a month (Grünabfuhr bestimmt wann genau😅)
Same for me, I can still remember when my brother and I were getting "to old" to believe in the Christkind and told our father that we knew it was him ringing the bell... Then, on Christmas Eve, when we were waiting for the signal, or father came out and went to the kitchen.
And then, the bell rang inside!
We were totally shocked...
It saved the childlike innocent Christmas spirit for years...
He had recorded the bell ringing on a cassette, with a few minutes of silence before, started playback and came out...
Even thinking about it still melts my heart!
We make and arrange our wreath ourselves and often sing Christmas songs when lighting the candles.
I still get a home made advent calendar with a mix of sweets, useful stuff and christmas decorations in it from my sister's god mother and we usually make one for her and her kids :)
As you may know, many Germans are big on coffee time in the afternoon, especially on weekends. The Adventskranz usually is lit during the advent coffees with the according number of candles lit, giving that christmas feel alongside the traditional cookies, stollen, other decorations and listening to traditional Christmas music.
The advent calendar used to be with pictures. Then came the ones with small chocolate pieces. The big advent calendars haven't been around for a long time...
We always made our own advent wreath. We collected fir branches from the forest and then made and decorated the wreath. My mum usually made home-made advent calendars for us kids. They varied in form (little sacks / small presents hung on a wood tree-shaped cutout) and filling, but mostly sweets. Although we sometimes hat the occasional 1€ lottery tickets.
The wreath was big enough to fit a plate in the middle with Christmas cookies. In the evenings we often sat around it and sung Christmas carols. We put the tree (with real candles) up on the morning of the 24th.
We have a very special tradition in my family. The "big day" for the children in Germany is Christmas Eve, not Christmas itself. It's at the Eve where you go to the church (if you haven't, do it. Christmas Mass and Easter Night are the two most interesting masses you can attend to. I'm normaly not a church person, but those two nights I actually love going to church for that reason), it's Christmas Eve, when you get your presents. Christmas itself is more about eating with the whole family, visiting relatives etc.
So with that said, my cousin was born December 24th, so we always kick off Christmas Eve with his birthday party. It's when the families come together (ours and the one of his wife), we have birthday coffee with both families and afterwards a Christmas dinner with only our family, while the children get more nervous with each passing second. When it is finally time that the doors to the living room will open (after the "angel" - most times my aunt - rings the bell, of course), we move on to the most chaotic experience of our Christmas, the "Bescherung" (presents!). We always try to make it in a clean, coordinated manner (with the children fetching the presents and giving them to the person mentioned on the wrapper), but with 15 people it normally ends in a full blown chaos, wrapping paper lying around everywhere, people piling up their gifts in Leaning Tower fashion and everybody having more fun with each others faces over their gifts then with their own (as it should be, I guess). As I am younger then my cousin, I never experienced christmas any other way, so the sitation last year felt a bit dire for me, tbh.
And back when I was a child, we had all that forbidden room and christmas bell ringing stuff at home, too (where we celebrated with my parents and grandparents a second time, mostly after Christmas Mass). My GRandparent and I waited in the kitchen for the angel (or was it Christkindl? Not sure anymore) to arrive, lit the tree and ring the bell. And my Grandfather always provoked me to peek through the keyhole into the living room, to get a glimpse of what was going on. I remember this moments very fondly, for some reason, while most other memeories around Christmas at home seem to blurr into one giant mess.
We still use real candles and in addition we have Christmas lights so that there’s still light when the candles are burnt down. The candles are made from Beeswax. My sister and I always decorate our tree like one or two days before the 24th. When we were kids our parents taught us how and where to put the candles in the tree so that it’s safe (or at least less risky).
As decoration throughout the house we only have things from the “Erzgebirge” (because my fathers side of the family loves it so much and I do too. We go there every year for a few days and spend lots and lots of money on additional Christmas decoration). In our living room we have a Schwibbogen, two pyramids (one small and one big), countless little figures, houses and trees carved from wood. All the houses are litt with tiny lightbulbs and together with the figures and trees they form a little winter village. Even I in my room have a pretty large scenery with a pyramid in the middle. And that all is only like half of the decoration we have throughout the house. ☺️
Actually, every Sunday one MORE candle is lit.
1st: i
2nd: i i
3rd: i i i
4th: i i i i
The candle in the middle of the advent wreath are not very common in Germany.
@@petranubaum7431 Und wenn die fünfte Kerze brennt,
dann hast du Weihnachten verpennt!
Thats what we say here in Northern Germany
We use real candles for sure. It is an important part of Christmas eve in our family to sit around and watch all the candles burn out one by one, until it is completely dark in the room.
We use candle holders that have weights to keep the candles upright, and one must make sure that the candles are not placed below other twigs, and keep a bucket of water somewhere - but we never had to use it.
we get our christmas tree the weekend before Christmas and decoration happens the 24th. (with candles of course!)
we light our adventskranz in the morning for breakfast and in the evening for dinner. Mostly when spending time together for eating or playing.
My mom used to offer me my "Adventskalender" every year. And since she passed away i get me one in her memory even as a grown man...
What you forgot is the "Weihnachtskrippe". We inherited ours from my parents in law and it represents the christmas crib with the nativity scene.
We set it up the first advent and it lasts until 6th of january when the three mages arrive. just look for it.
Vielleicht nicht so sehr üblich, aber wir haben jedes Jahr echte Kerzen auf dem Baum.
Die Kerzen vom Advendskranz werden das erste Mal jeweils am Sonntagmorgen angezündet, beim Frühstück. Und dann zu jeder passenden gemütlichen Situation. Viele singen auch, wir allerdings nicht ;)
Eine schöne Advendszeit euch!
Du bist die zweite Person, die sagt, dass du den Adventskranz beim Frühstück anzündest. Wir sind davon ausgegangen, dass es am Abend gemacht wird. Gut, dass wir noch einen Sonntag haben, um es richtig zu machen 😂 Vielen Dank!
@@PassportTwo Bitte NICHT den Kranz anzünden sondern nur die Kerzen ;-)
@@PassportTwo Meine Familie zündet die Kerzen bei jeder Mahlzeit an, eben immer, wenn man im Esszimmer sitzt, der Kranz steht auf dem Esstisch. In meiner Wohnung haben wir den Kranz im Wohnzimmer und zünden die Kerzen abends an, wenn wir im Wohnzimmer sitzen - ich denke, es gibt hier kein Richtig oder Falsch - zündet die Kerzen einfach dann an, wenn ihr Lust drauf habt!
@@PassportTwo You can light the candles whenever you want. As a child, I loved the sunday breakfasts when one more candle could be lit and christmas was a bit nearer. And even on schooldays my mother would eat breakfast with me in the dark kitchen with only the adventskranz on, and every week, the kitchen would be a bit lighter with more candles. I loved that
Wir zünden die Kerzen auch zu jeder Gelegenheit an, ansonsten bekommt man sie nicht abgebrannt bis Weihnachten.
We haven't had any decorations for over a decade now, because our cats always destroy everything. But we used to put up a tree in the morning of the 24th (a real one) and we had an Advent wreath. At home we just lit the candles for a few hours, but in Kindergarten one child was chosen to help light a candle each Monday (cause Sunday was off obv) and we sang a few songs like "Advent Advent ein Lichtlein brennt" or "Wir sagen euch an den lieben Advent". The latter expands by a stanza each Advent Sunday. Then on Christmas Eve we lit the candles (real ones) on the tree, which my grandparents still do as well, & at my stepgrandfather's house, before he passed away, we always sang a lot of Christmas songs. Now all that remains of the Christmas spirit is the Advent calender I still get every year. Especially this year it's even less Christmas spirit, since we chose to not meet up with our family. Also, I have never seen a Christmas Pyramid in Austria, but it's kinda cool.
The Christmas before I left my parents home, a hundred years ago or so, I got an Adventskalender with 24 envelopes. Everyday I opened 1 and inside was a recipe of a meal my mom used to cook and at the 24th there was a bigger envelope with a ring binder in it to store my 23 recipes.
That was the best Adventskalender I ever got.
I am a German and English teacher in Mexico and I just got to see your videos. They are awsome, I like them. I like it how you are comparing the culture. They are great videos for my students who learn both languages. Have a nice 2021
Since I was born, raised and am still living here, I have a seen a lot of advent wreaths. My mother always make them herself and so do I. Its just a personal Thing to us and it kind of gets the christmas mood going.
The original Räuchermännchens are archetypes from the Ore Mountains, like the miner, the forester/hunter, the shepherd, the soldier or as source of the scents and the tobacco, the turk. And I never had anything else than real candles on the Christmas tree. The type of star you have is a Sebnitzer Stern, not a Herrnhuter Stern. Sebnitz is not far away from Herrnhut, and both are at the Czech border.
The name Herrnhut (literally God's Wake) was given to the town by the Count of Zinzendorf. Here, some the Unity of the Brethren found a new home after they were driven out of Czechia during the Counter-Reformation and the Thirty Years War.
When they showed the detailed star I thought it is a Herrnhuter. But I'm no expert. Maybe you're more in the differences of those two stars.
@@ruth6883 Short answer: The spikes of the Herrnhuter star point in all directions. Each spike is a separate part. They are assembled to the complete star. The Annaberger star looks similar, but it is a single piece that can be unfolded into its 3D shape. The Sebnitzer star has spikes only in one circle, which makes it more flat, but better suited to be hanged into a window. It can be folded into a flat shape (like the Annaberger star) for storage during the Non-Christmas-time.
I didn't mean any one of the flat stars I meant the one with this Gerippe of paper between the separate spikes.
My favorite Christmas decorations are: The Christmas pyramid, the nutcracker, the candle arch with traditional Erzgebirge motifs and incense smokers. For the latter, I prefer to use incense burners with the scent of frankincense and sandalwood (red) or fir (green). I was born in Saxony and grew up with the Christmas tradition in the Ore Mountains. And although I haven't lived there for several years now, I still traditionally decorate on the Saturday before the first Advent and leave everything up until February 2nd.
We would always sit together as a family each sunday in the afternoon, have some tea/Glühwein, Plätzchen and Stollen, light the candle on the Adventskranz and often watch an old fairy tale movie on tv like Schneeweißchen und Rosenrot, Drei Haselnüsse für Aschenbrödel, Frau Holle... I loved this tradition as a kid and still like to do it this way today.
Yesterday ARD showed "Der Kleine Lord", so, cookies ready, candles on, time to get into the christmas mood while watching a bunch of servants rolling their eyes.
You know what makes it enjoyable 100% the video + funny moments behind the scenes
When I was little, advent calendars usually did not have any treats in them but pictures. So every day you would open a door and see a new picture. My mom being thrifty (wartime generation), she re-used the calendar by sticking the little flaps shut again with a tiny piece of Scotch tape. :) And we only had ONE calendar for the whole family. We kids took turns opening the doors.
My mother always used to make her wreath using a straw ring and then wrapping fir or pine branches around that with thin green wire. The candles were then attached with holders that had a big pin that stabbed the straw wreath.
That's too much work for me. So we have a different tradition where I use a big silver plate, put a bed of moss on there and stick four small glasses in between for the candles. Then we decorate that with mini baubles, pine cones, small fake apples etc.
It looks really cool.
This year I bought more generous advent calendars because corona Christmas sucks so much. My son has a Playmobil advent calendar which has a different item from a toy set every day and my daughter has a Harry Potter advend calendar which has stickers, pens, patches with the house symbols etc. and I have a seed calendar which has packs of seeds for the garden, some more unusual herbs and vegetables. Very cool.
Traditional foods in our home were Grünkohl and Mettwurst on Dec 24th and in the evening a traditional herring salad from the Rhine Area which has salted herring, beets, apples, pickles, potatoes and mayo. On Dec 25th there usually was some kind of roast with potatoes or dumplings and red cabbage. In my husband's family they had Silesian white sausage with sauerkraut and mashed potatoes and a sauce made from a particular biscuit/cookie ("Kemmsche Kuchen"), so a slightly sweet and spicy gravy on Dec 24th.
We don't really have a tradition yet. I don't usually eat meat or poultry, so I often opt for a vegetarian version. Last year we had a vegan Wellington which was pretty good. :)
I grew up mostly in Ohio, USA. We had an advent calendar or candle (tall candle that counts down) every year. Usually with pictures but sometimes chocolate. I continue the tradition as an adult and have had ones with chocolate, socks, and beauty/spa samples. We put up our tree usually 1 week after Thanksgiving or sometimes Thanksgiving weekend.
When I was s child we always had real candles on our Christmas tree and I found the flickering light amazing. In my family since our children were young we use electric candles as they are much less dangerous. And also, because we like to "switch on" the Christmas tree in the morning and admire it the whole day, not only for a couple of minutes. The disadvantage are the cables which are always difficult to install. We once had cable-less, remote controlled led-lights, but we found their light to be less shining and bright, so we switched back.
We put up our Christmas tree on the 23rd or a day before and decorate it, so it smells fresh and "foresty" and we can admire it once we have all cooled down from the mess with cables 😊
I'd like to share two unique christmas traditions from Franconia (a region in northern Bavaria) For one the "Zwetschgenmännla" a handcrafted figure made of dryed plums (Zwetschgen) threaded on wire or wooden sticks and a walnut head with a face painted on and dressed in differend costumes to represent different professions or hobbies. The second one are the "Schneeballen" (snowballs) a delicious pastrie made of shortcrust and covered with powdered Sugar (traditionally). Nowadays of course you get them with all the different coatings like granulated sugar or dark-, milk- or white chocolat pure or sprinkled with crushed almonds, pistachios or hazelnut.
In our family it is usually traditional to have advents Kaffee together with family and friends. Enjoying Christmas stollen and Lebkuchen. For the 24.th my mum also prepares - beside of the tree-decoration - a „ bunten Teller „ or colorfully plate . With different types of typically Christmas sweets like Marzipan Kartoffeln, bethmännchen, Domino Steine, Lebkuchen and more Marzipan .
In Croatia the Christmas season starts on the first Sunday of Advent and ends on Epiphany. We decorate the Christmas tree on the Christmas eve and exchange gifts on the morning after. We have Advent wreaths and Advent calendars, but not any of the other trinkets shown in the video.
I'm from the northeastern US. Advent calendars are very common here. We always had one with chocolate and I usually get my kids one with Lego or Playmobil.
The stores here also sell the advent wreaths and LED candles. I personally always make my decorations instead of buying them,but that's because I'm cheap and most of the ingredients grow wild here . Lol.
In parts of Rheinland-Pfalz December 27. is "Bündelchestag". You grab some friends and Glühwein and go for a hike. Usually ending in a pub or at some Picknick. The origin of the day is that in old days the employment contracts for servants ended after Christmas, so they be bundled their stuff and went out to search for new employment.
Hadn't heard of that one! Thanks for letting us know 😃
de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/B%C3%BCndelstag#:~:text=Der%20B%C3%BCndelstag%20(auch%3A%20B%C3%BCndelchestag%2C,und%20Knechte%20ihren%20Jahreslohn%20ausbezahlt.
I love how you are so open to learning about German Christmas traditions and trying so many of them for yourselves! Have a happy holiday season! 🎄🕯
Thank you! You too 😊
Advent Calendars are a huge marketing thing in the US. You can get them from cosmetic companies, toy companies, chocolate companies, even liquor producers.
Probably the most popular one in the US is LEGO. People will pay way above market price to acquire a LEGO advent calendar.
Normally we would light the Adventskranz during Adventstee (Coffee and Cake time on each Sunday, where we sit together, drinking hot drinks, eating christmas cookies, listening to christmas songs and often making plans for the christmas time or christmas eve).
Out of all German Christmas traditions that you pointed out, only the Christmas pyramid (never knew what it was called before) was something my maternal grandmother had in her home. She was a first generation US born citizen to 2 parents born from the former Austria/Hungary (today, her mother was from Austria on a border town, near Germany, while her dad was from Moderna day Slovakia). I don't know about Austrian traditions, but she had this in her home, and hers was a bit darker . I don't know if my Aunt Nancy has it now, but I miss seeing it. I have seen many Advent calendars at some stores, but local to me, Aldi seems to promote the Advent calendars the most. At stores allowed to sell beer and wine, they offer an alcohol version of the Advent calendar, but there's a limit of one or 2 per customer, and Aldi sells out of the alcohol ones immediately. To get those, whatever day they're for sale, you wit in line and get a ticket to reserve one.
We still have real candles on our tree but we put up the tree itself just right before cristmas (~22.12) and down on 06.01. Like that the tree itself isn't dried out and less of a fire hazard. Also it is only lit when 1 or more people sit directly by.
I'm not that big on decorations, but I do have an Adventskranz (selfmade by my mom) and an Adventskalender (selfmade by my mom when was a child, and a bought one with chocolate as an adult). And a a Christmas Tree without real candles is no go for me. And yes, this works even with small children, cats and dogs in the house.
I put up the tree at the 24th and the candles get lit in the evening if the 24th for the first time.
We still use real candles at my parents home to decorate our tree. These are usually made from beeswax. In addition to that we have fairy lights for the moment you can't keep your eyes on the tree.
Sounds so beautiful! Thanks for sharing 😊
We buy the advent wreath pre-made, but from real twigs, not plastic. When the children were younger, we went to Advent wreath building social events, where material was provided and the families made their own Advent wreaths. Nice way to accidentally meet other parents and old childhood friends who had grown up to become parents themselves.
I have always decorated my own „Adventskranz“ and now that we live in Japan I’m so glad I invested in decoration that I can keep using over and over again. 🥰🎄
Yesterday I learned about the Weihnachtsgurke. This was total news to me. In Saxony nearly everyone has a Schwibbogen in their window. It looks so nice when you walk down the street. Here in BaWü I think it is not as common.
For the candles in the tree: my family uses real candles on the tree. Also, my aunt likes to go one step further and uses Wunderkerzen. Yes. Hanging IN the tree and also lit in the tree...
Very interesting video. Frohes Fest und guten Rutsch!
Thanks for sharing all of these fun Traditons! We have never heard of Wunderkerzen 🤔 Gonna have to look those up! 😊
@@PassportTwo Wunderkerzen are common on Silvester. You hold them in your hand and everyone lights them on midnight. They sparkle just for about a minute.
@@PassportTwo You probably know them as Sparklers. They are fairly bright and sparkes flow off of them, so they are a huge fire hazard for a Christmas Tree. :D
@@MrJackardson not if the tree is fresh...I would not recomend it to hang them on ant dry tree though
Also a must watch: "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation" (Schöne Bescherung)
We have Rauchermann that is playing golf. Very comical. I love all of these traditions. Opening presents Christmas Eve was definitely a bonus compared to my American friends
A kind of Christmas tradition of mine is to invite friends over to bake Weihnachtsplätzchen and drink Glühwein (some of us bake more, others drink more ...). It feels like a party, but it is more productive. It's so sad that we could not do it this year.
With the advent wreath there is not a ritual as such, but it is usually lit for afternoon coffee and cake. When my brother and I were little, my mother would read christmas themed stories to us in the afternoon at the lit advent wreath - with us kids drinking hot chocolate and eating Spritzgebäck and Spekulatius.
Also, my parents still have real beeswax candles on their christmas tree, but they are only lit on Dec. 24th for "Bescherung" (exchanging of presents). For the other Christmas days it's electric candles that are there along with the real candles on the tree.
Another important difference to US Christmas is that the Christmas tree is only put up the night before Heiligabend - and chilren are told that the tree is brought by the Christkind along with the presents. The tree remains set up in homes until well after Holy Three Kings day (Jan. 6th) until mid-January.
Next after lightening the candle is cookies ad hot chocolate. The inner area is either used for nuts, or, well, a Weihnachtspyramide, so combining both.
Ofc, only real candles on a tree - electric ones are meant for the tree in your garden (which is to be set up around Nikolaus).
Thanks for the history on the 25-point star, I had no idea. Last week I was in our village and it was dark out and there was one single red star and since it was the solitary deco, it was that much more beautiful.
Also: real candles on our tree. Every year. For one hour in the year, the house is lit brightly without electricity. "Wie wird dann die Stube glänzen/von der vielen Lichter Zahl/schöner als bei frohen Tänzen/ein geputzter Spiegelsaal..."
That sounds beautiful! Thanks for sharing 😃
For sure... Christmas would not be complete without the light of a christmas tree lit by real candles. Red is THE color, but candles from bee wax give a typical christmas smell on top. 🌲🌲🌲
@@PassportTwo The quotation about the illuminated room is from a famous (I think 19th cent) German Xmas song: "Morgen, Kinder, wird's was geben", google for whole text.
Als Kind und als Erwachsener hatte ich immer 2 Adventskalender: 1 mit wunderschönen kleinen Bildchen, die gegen die Kerzen gehalten wunderbar leuchteten, und 1 mit Schokolade, der aber meistens am 2. Dezember schon leer war :)) Und unser Weihnachtsbaum wurde erst am 24.12. nachmittags geschmückt, und wenn ich dann mit der Oma kam, war er fertig :)
We always have a very small Christmas tree, so we only use one string of lights. But my parents always have a string of lights and real candles. They are simply part of Christmas.
Funny enough: In December I found a Christmas pickle ornament at TK Maxx and simply had to buy it for my tree, because I found it so funny to kind of bring that absolutely-not-german-'german' tradition into my home. I showed it to all of my friends, told them this strange story and it amused them so much that American think, we're doing this, which we are not - expect I did it because we don't do it. I just liked that twisty train of thoughts of mine :D
Thank you for your great video!
We always decorate our Adventskranz ourselves and every sunday throughout advent we would have a cozy breakfast with the whole family. We would light up the wreath again for each meal that we share together. For that we sometimes need one or two new candles. 😄
Advent calendars really come in all sorts: Last year, I had one that wasn't numbered, but you had to solve a riddle every day to find the next one. It had a story and all, just like an escape room!
Christmas is so much fun. Thanks for adding to the spirit of the season. I like your pyramid. We have three but none with tear drop candles which I kind of like and will look for one next time we're in Germany.
Germany shuts down at noon on December 24th, and commercial programs on the radio are replaced with Christmas music. You do not hear Christmas music the day after Thanksgiving as in the USA. Parents, one or the other take children for a long walk, which allows the other parent to set up and decorate the Christmas tree; decorate the house, and await the arrival of the Christ kindle. The Christmas gifts are opened on the 24th, after dinner (a roast goose). At the Weihnachtsmarkt, you buy gluehwein, and lebkuchen.
It's our family tradition to have real candles lit on the tree on Christmas eve. Apart from our dog getting a bit of wax in the fur there never have been any accidents. It's safer than you might think. And it looks so much better than the fake stuff.
My grandmother still uses real candles (even though she became blind a few years back 😥). We're always a little worried for her, but she refuses to turn to "electric candles" and actually I think that the lights on her tree are way more beautiful... so that's a win for the tradition, I guess. Actually, coming to think of it, I observe especially younger generation germans these days turning to the real thing again, too. Maybe it'll have a revival ^^
I forgot, baking Christmas cookies and Christmas Stollen is also one of the old german Christmas traditions. Some families are listening to traditional Christmas carols or playing their most famous Christmas records. The Weihnachtsoratorium by Johann Sebastian Bach ist very famous in that time, if you like it classical.
Hello!
My Mother is 91 years old and she mentioned that when she was a child that the Christmas Tree was put up on Christmas Eve and then decorated with real candles. Also, they were not wealthy so you had a few special gifts. Nothing like the excessiveness of today. She also said that you were always given chocolate, nuts and an orange. It was special and a tradition.
So that is where that came from. The chocolate, nuts and an orange. We usually got lots of peanuts because they were cheap! And hard candy.
We would get a bag after the church Christmas program.
Hi Anne,
Talking to my Mom it really was a big deal. With that said, Hope you and your family have a wonderful Christmas. 😊
oh i had a special advent calendar last Christmas a home-made one. my mother made 24 individual bags on a string and hung them in the living room. i liked it very much because of the personal touch.
bigger sweets too. imagine opening like the 9th advent-`door` and getting a full-size snickers bar. or get like 10€ on the 6th one.
Our kids get hand made Adventskalender s filled with some sweets but also little games, pens, a pair of Christmas stockings and other tiny gifts. This year we got one ourselves crafted by our son and filled with a suggestion of a family game for each day to play in the evening. So every day, we have some extra family time now.
That's an awesome idea! Thanks so much for that idea actually 😃
In my childhood "branded" Adventskalender were not the rule, but only for the lazy. Instead many were "recyclable" as they were thought for multi-years use and refillable. I think my first was made by an uncle out of wood, and it was used for some years. In the kindergarten we even tinkered our own calendars once - the most simple ones consisting of little, nicely packed presents and cord (to be hung from the ceiling like a mobile or dreamcatcher). Commercial Adventskalenders in these days were mostly not filled with one brand only (like the Lindt ones), but with assorted sweeties of different kind.
I buy mostly an Adventskranz without the candles and put them later on. My mother - raised at a farm - used to bind the wreath herself, but since some years she bought them at the church bazaar held the Sunday before advent.
14:45: Never used electric candles or chain of lights and never will indoors. Rather I will put some candles less in the tree. And they have not to be red, also - I prefer beeswax even if it is a bit pricier.
16:30: We did never have an Herrnhuter star. We decorated our windows with self-made (by us kids) stars, mostly made from black cardboard, which you had to fold in a certain way to a triangle and then cut pieces out. If you did it right you got a star shape with regular windows in it if folded out. Then you glued colorful translucent paper over the windows and hang it in the window, along with some stars made from straw. If you were very talented, you could be allowed to use a special metal foil for decorations (one side golden, the other silver) instead of black cardboard. ;)
Straw stars were (and are) also the main Christmas tree decoration, along with a small set of baubles. Most of this stars were originally made by my mother as she was a young girl, and some of them were very elaborated. (Some were even a present by my grandma to my mother.)
My parents were using real candles in the christmas tree over here in Germany when we were kids. But of course we couldn't leave the tree unattended for a second then. The first time we saw the christmas tree was on christmas eve.
Your Christmas tree is so beautiful! Over all, you seem very well prepared :) Merry Christmas!
Thank you so much! Merry Christmas! 😊
The tradition of the "Adventskranz" has a beautiful history. It was invented by a guy named Wichern who opened an orphanage for little boys who suffered due to the industrialization. The boys were so exited for Christmas and had such a hard time waiting, that he took a wooden carriage wheel an put on it 24 candles, four big red ones for the sundays and between them white ones for the weekdays. Each day one more candle was lit. Later it found its way into many homes with just the four (red) candles on a wreath made from fir.
hi, light up a kandle at the advendtskranz always happens, in most of the people, familys that i know, with coffee or tee, with stollen and christmascookies so at 15:00 at sunday while chrismasmusic plays in the backgtound.
Frohe weihnachten! Hapoy Holidays!
When I was little my dad and I were responsible for the tree. We usually bought one on the 24th "auf den letzten Drücker", when the open-air Christmas tree vendors were already getting ready to close. Then we "rescued" one that no one else had wanted. Usually after some intense haggling by my dad. More often than not, the tree was a bit loop-sided and had a few bald spots, but it was "ours" and had "character". I now think that my dad was probably a bit of a cheapskate when it came to Christmas trees. which only had to survive for a couple of weeks anyway. At home we wrestled it into the Christmas tree stand that for reasons unknown was always too narrow, pruned it to make it more symmetrical, and rotated it so that the bald spots faced the wall. We used electrical lights from the 1960s, which were probably as much a fire hazard than open flame ones. When my kids were small, we lived abroad but came home to Germany to visit my parents and there was always a Christmas tree. My parents have passed away and my kids have grown up. These days, we only have an Adventskranz and a Christmas Pyramid. I am glad that they are traditions in Germany. They are a good compromise when you don't want to bother with a big natural Christmas tree, but can't live with a plastic one either.
We put up our tree the day after Thanksgiving and take everything down on Jan 1st. That is really neat about Martin Luther having the first Christmas tree. I guess that explains the writing of "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God" as a direct paraphrase of Psal, 46 lol. I have not been to Germany during Christmas in a very long time but I remember seeing the lit candles on the trees. I would love to do that here but I would be afraid of catching everything on fire, lol. We do the Advent candles at church but after seeing what you came across I would love to start that tradition in our home as well. . Thanks guys for another AWESOME video. I wish you and your family a very Merry Christmas/Fröhliche Weihnachten. :)
One correction: The Advent kicks off at the Monday after Eternity Sunday AKA Dead's Sunday. And our family had a gettogether. The only light were candles, there were advents songs, tea, christmas candy, nuts of all kinds and we generally sat down and have a good time with family and friends.
Oh, and the best Räuchermann in my opinion is the Drosten one. Just Google Drosten Räuchermann.
Hallo Ihr beiden, wieder ein schönes Video! I put my christmas tree up normally close before 24th of december. When I grew up my parents/father put our tree (we almost had a real tree, which we cut on our own in the forests nearby) up just close to the Heiligabend. We celebrate to decorate the tree and it belongs to this day. Another reason putting it up "so late" is, that it can stand for a longer time in the room without losing the needles. And you have to cut a little slice from the tree trunk before putting it in the Baumständer (with water in it!), so that the tree is able to suck water while standing in the warm living room :-)). Ich wünsche Euch schöne Weihnachtstage. Vile Grüße aus dem Westerwald
Thanks for telling us about your history and traditions! We do have our tree with the bottom cut and with water 😊 In the US, if someone does use real trees, the part they cut from the bottom then becomes an ornament for years to come. They will drill a hole in it and write the year on it so then they have a part of all of the trees on their current tree 😃
Christmas tree is put up and decorated on the 24 December
Various Christmas decorations on the first advent Sunday
As for the advent calendar: I still buy the very simple ones with chocolate with a pretty picture on the front - likes the one we got as children. It’s only in last few years that every company sells advent calendars - like Lindt or Lego and so on
And of course we watch on Christmas all 3 parts 'Sissi' and 'Die Hard' :)
Yes! No Christmas without all 3 parts of Sisi!
Still using real candles for Christmas Eve for an hour or two and then for the rest of the holiday the fake candles we also put on the tree
There are too many comments already to read and see if people have already said this but I wanted to add to things. The Räuchermännchen is only one variety. Here in Thuringia, Räucherhäuschen are more common I think (or at least that's what we had growing up). The concept is the same, only that it's the house or church and the smoke comes out of a chimney.
My favorite Christmas decoration are Schwippbögen. They are carved, wooded arches with candles (noawaydays LEDs similar to Christmas tree lights) on. They original from the Or mountains also, and are only common in the eastern regions. When I was little I used to take walks around the neighborhood with my grandma on December afternoon and count the Schwippbögen in the windows. I still love to do that today, actually. It's a nice pastime during those grey weeks.
Personally, we never had real candles on the tree, but we had a cat ever since I was little, so that would have been way too dangerous. And of course the tree doesn't go up until the 23rd or 24th of December, like many have said already. Biggest difference, in my opinion!
P.S.: If you do buy a Schibbogen, please get a "real" traditional one like this: d25jvev7az6onj.cloudfront.net/images/product_images/highres_images_square/4250755508771_105-47-207_47207_w_b.jpg
They have lots of different motives, incl. Christian ones, but the mine workers are the "original" ones I think.
There's sex toy advent calendars too. A lot of people like to make their own though. I'm 30 and my mum still sends me one over every year, a cord with 24 small satchels to hang full of a mix of sweets, snacks, nuts, hand lotion, hand sanitiser this year, etc. Other Germans make ones with vouchers, pictures and letters for their special someones.
We also still put real candles on the tree. Between Christmas Eve (first time to light real candles) and 6th of Jan (usually the time you throw it out) we go through about 4-5 sets of burnt down candles. Obviously, you only do it for special stuff at a time like Christmas dinners, Kaffee & Kuchen, Neujahrstag, Dreikönigstag etc.
my best friends mother still puts real candles on her christmas tree every year :)
As a child our advents calendar had Bible verses under the doors for each day. Every day we got excited about opening the door and reading the verse together. Since it was verses and not candy, we used it every year.
We still put real candles in the tree. We only light them once on the night of the 24. and have a big bucket of water close by for safety reasons.
It is funny to see that you guys are opening your advents calendar in the evening. German kids usually open theirs as the first thing in the morning. Chapeau to your restraint!
We don’t know what we’re doing 😂😅
We only use Christmas tree lights that look like candles but not real ones. Mostly for savety reasons with cats around and we don't have much space so the tree basically stands right next to the wall/couch. Candles would be impossible here ^^ But our church puts real candles on their Christmas tree inside the church every year for the Christmas mess. I think I saw parts of the tree catching fire twice in the last 2 years! ^^
Thanks for your nice new video. I really like how you adopt our Christmas traditions. One tradition, which I personally love is decorating a Christmas manger (Weihnachtskrippe). This originates more from southern germany and we have classical Schwibbbögen, which is a ore mountain tradition, in all of our windows. If you like, I can send you some pictures.
Very nice video, as usual. Of course you should make your own Adventskranz, and you also should make your own Adventskalender. With regards to candles on the christmas tree, I have to admit that we have LED candles too. But we also have real candles on the tree, which we light at christmas eve. Most of our friends handle it like this
An advendkalender is always selfmade and is lighten by manches. That's our tradition in our argentinian/ german household ;)
I am American and was raised Lutheran and my parents have a small wooden log cabin that burns insents and the smoke come out the chimney also I grew up with advent calendars last year I got one with socks in it
Normally in the doors of my Adventkalender has a small choclate. In my childhood, we had some self-made ones. And in each door was a small gift like a matchbox-car.
Lindt chocolate is a really good choice! The next step would be to make one for each other with little personalised gifts. :)
U can reuse the cheap Adventskalender as forms if u wanne make your own candy ir to make little "Ton" stonefigures to paint