2nd Day of Christmas - Germany
Preparing for Christmas usually starts before December 1st. Many Germans set aside special evenings for baking spiced cakes and cookies, and making gifts and decorations.
Germans make beautiful gingerbread houses and cookies. The German Christmas tree pastry, Christbaumgeback, is a white dough that can be molded into shapes and baked for tree decorations.
On December 6th they celebrate Nikolaustag or St. Nikolaus day. This is where they leave a shoe or a boot outside the door on December 5th and the next morning they will find a treat or a small gift, if they were good or a stick if they had been bad.
In parts of Germany, people believe that the Christ Child sends a messenger on Christmas Eve. She appears as an angel in a white robe and crown, bearing gifts. The angel is called Christkind. Children leave letters on their windowsills for Christkind. Sometimes the letters are decorated with glue and sprinkled with sugar to make them sparkle.
There is also a Christmas Eve figure called Weihnachtsmann or Christmas Man, he looks like Santa Claus and also brings gifts.
Some homes in Germany have several Christmas trees, and in all towns across Germany, they can be seen glittering and glowing.
They lay out advent wreaths of Holly with four red candles in the center. They light one candle each Sunday and last on Christmas Eve. Children count the days until Christmas using an Advent calendar. They open one window each day and find a Christmas picture inside. We have adopted the advent calendar tradition from them.
In Germany Catholic boys and girls dress up as kings and carry a star round the village, singing carols. This is done on January 6th to collect money for donation.
So the kids made Gingerbread houses and I think that they might be able to give Germany run for their money.
I set aside the evening for baking, well not really but I made these delicious Oreo treats and then took them to PTO.
Then before the kids went to bed they made sure to put their shoes by their door in hopes to find a present when they woke up.
2 comments:
so if I leave my shoes will I get a treat also? I better. I wish we were there together making christmas treats.
Yummmmm, those PTO ladies sure got a nice treat. I love the little shoes and the perfect treats. Great gingerbread castle and the other pan looked ready to dip into milk. How fun!!! Wish we lived closer.
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