The 25 Days of Christmas Challenge: Day 1

Day 1: What are some of your Christmas Traditions?

Christmas is probably one of my most favorite times of the year. Its the time that no matter how far I am from my family I make every effort to be with them. I'm an only child so being away from my parents (especially mom) is very hard for me and I think it is for her as well. So you can imagine how Christmas feels for us... I am also German (yes born there and partially raised there) so we have alot of tradition's as well, but since we live in the U.S. a few of the older odd ones have died away over the years and we have adopted new ones. One of the first things we do (even before the holiday season starts) is make a adventskranz or in English advent wreath. The wreath is usually made of evergreen and dressed up with ribbons, ornaments and 4 red candles. The candles on the wreath are lit on Sunday's before Christmas and up until Christmas, for example the first candle on the first Sunday and the first and second candle on the second Sunday and so on.

Here's a pic of moms adventskranz from 2006 (The last time I went "home" for Christmas)

Another of our tradition is the adventskalender or Advent Calendar. Typically these are for kids but I love them still LOL! When I was little mom would make mine for me but these days I tend to cheat and buy the munchkin one, usually from the commissary because they are cheaper there. She loves waking up and being able to open a little window or door and having a piece of chocolate, it also makes it a little easier to count down the days till Christmas.

The munchkin and her first adventskalender in 2008.

And one of my favorite holiday tradition is Saint. Nikolaus Tag, or Saint Nikolaus Day. In Germany it is celebrated on the night of December 5th and his day is December 6th. On the night of the 5th children usually put a Nikolaus Stiefel or Nikolaus Boot out in front of the front door to the house. If Nikolaus feels they have been good all year, he will fill the boot with little gifts and candies and if he feels otherwise the children will get a boot full of Rute a combination of tree branches and straw.

The munchkin with her first Nikolaus Tag goodies in 2008.
She didn't have any boots at the time so we improvised with her shoe lol.

As for the rest of the "Christmas Time" everything else is probably the same stuff you guys do. We watch alot of football, eat alot, and have lots of parties. We put up the tree usually right after Thanksgiving and my MIL and I go shopping on Black Friday, when were together for it. If not its me and Dad (the only time he will go shopping) and usually that entails a trip to Best Buy for the biggest TV they have LOL! My dad is all about TV's! If I'm at my mom and dads for Christmas we have a whooooooole bunch of family and friends over on Christmas Eve, my mom usually makes traditional German finger foods, and we open a few of our gifts. Christmas morning I will usually bake Cinnamon rolls or make pancakes and then we open gifts. After gifts mom and I will usually spend the rest of the day in the kitchen preparing the feast and we will make Ham with all the fixings (dad can only take so much German food LOL!) If we spend Christmas at my In-Law's it typically is the same way considering my mother in law is German too and her and my mom grew up together. The only difference might be the amount of Glühwein (Hot Spiced Cider type of Wine) that is consumed LOL!