Christmas Tree

Christmas trees in Germany are real, you will not normally find plastic Christmas trees like in the U.S. Families go out and pick their own tree at a tree farm, and they are not as expensive as the real trees in the U.S. My host family got their tree for around 20 euros while in America real trees cost around 100 dollars. Christmas trees are not usually decorated until the week before Christmas, using real glass ornaments and not as much lights as American trees have. Usually traditional colors are used, such as red and green, but sometimes blue, silver, and gold are added too. 

Christmas Markets

During the winter people from all over Europe come to Germany and shop at their famous Christmas Markets. These markets are located all over Germany, but each have a different style and size. These historic Christmas Markets offer homemade Christmas gifts, crafts, not to mention roasted chestnuts and other delicious foods. These markets usually start the last week in November and end Christmas Eve, and open from 10 am to 8 or 9 pm each day. 

                                                Christmas Market Bonn, Germany

Advent Calendars

Like in America kids in Germany do get Advent calendars with the most popular ones containing chocolate. Other popular ones have toys, candy, little notes or parts of a story, and I have seen one that was an Advent calendar with different types of tea each day.

This is a picture of the Advent calendar that I got, which contained chocolate!

Another German custom is Advent wreaths, which are normally hand made by a family member. Advent wreaths are made of evergreen leaves and have four candles, signifying  the 4 sundays before Christmas. Even thought the one my host family and I made is not a wreath, it still held the same purpose .

9th of December St Nicholas Day

On the ninth of December children wake up in Germany, and to their surprise they find candy, chocolate, and fruit in their shoes. The night before children are told by their parents to clean their shoes and place them by the door so St. Nicholas has some place to leave the treats. Some people celebrate St. Nicholas in America but most children receive their gifts in stocking instead of shoes.

Food

In Germany, most people eat three meals a day and it is not common to have snacks in between. The meals are big and usually last long, in Germany eating together is a family activity and a social event. Only expect one hot meal a day, the rest are usually cold and consist of sandwiches or some sort of meat. Bread is eaten at almost every meal, and bought fresh from the bakery everyday, and you cannot forget Germany's famous pretzels. Ice cream in Germany comes from Italy and it is very good, the second to last photo is of Spaghetti ice cream, which is ice cream put though a pasta machine and then topped with raspberry sauce.

St. Martin's Day

St. Martin's Day is a holiday, celebrated in Southern Germany on November 11 and it is like our Halloween, but more religious.

The holiday is based off of a religious legend, and one version goes like this; Martin, a Roman Solider, was traveling by horse through a snowstorm. He saw a beggar while traveling dying from the cold, so he decided to save him, he took his sword and cut his cloak in half, and gave half to the beggar. He dreamed latter that night about Jesus, he was wearing half of his cloak; Jesus turned out to be the beggar.

To celebrate this holiday the German children make lanterns out of paper either in their school or at home. On the night of St. Martin's children reenact the legend and then put candles in their paper lanterns to light their way, as they walk to different houses and sing. They ring the door bells and sing songs about St. Martin to the people that answer, in return the children get given candy (just like Halloween)!

Here is one of the songs the children sing.
Ich geh mit meiner Laterne und                                                         I go with my lantern and
Meine Laterne mit mir. Dort oben Leuchten die                       My lantern with me. There above light
Sterne, hier unten, da leuchten                                                         the stars, here below, there
wir. Mein Licht geht aus, wir gehn nach haus.              we light. My light goes out, we go back home    La-bim-mel, la-bam-mel, la-bum                                             La-bim-mel, la-bam-mel, la-bum

Halloween

Halloween is not celebrated in Germany like in America, trick or treating is not done and most kids do not dress up in costumes. Germans do know of the holiday in America and it is become more polular here, but more among the teenagers who want to have halloween parties. Some kids do dress up and go to some houses to get candy, not very common though, but they do not say "tick or treat." Some places and houses are decortated for Halloween but not as extravagent as in the U.S.A and nobody puts up Halloween lights. Carving pumkins has become very popular in the last few years along with watching horror movies around the Halloween time.