Christmas in Germany

Christmas in Germany is a bit different to Christman in the USA. It´s let's say quite more concentrated on the three days from December 24 to December 26. In fact,  December 25 is the day when we celebrate the birthday of Jesus Christ, although we dont know on which date his real birthday is.

In former time the Christmas gift giving took place in the morning of December 25 but nowadays it has become common to bestow on Christmas Eve mostly after dark maybe at 6.00 pm or so. Most people here decorate their Christmas trees on Christmas eve although As far as I remember when I was a boy in my hometown Heidenheim some families I knew did this already on December 23 and my daughter just told me that many people nowadays here in Aalen do so too.

The time before christmas is the Advent here and starts with the new church year on the first of the last four sundays  before Christmas. We than have an Advent wreath in the house typically made of fir twigs with four candles on it. On every one of these four sundays one more candle will be lit. I dont know how many families still really celebrate these Advent Sundays in the old way, but we  do: My family and me sit together round the Advent wreath, I take a guitar and than we sing some Christmas songs and eat Christmas cookies.

Christmas than really starts on Christmas Eve. As I already mentioned, the Chrismas tree gets decorated and after nightfall or a bit later we have diner. At bottom you shouldn't eat meat than because Christmas Eve isn't already Christmas but still belongs to Advent which actually is a fasting season like Lenten Season. I guess the tradition to have fish especially carp for diner on Christmas Eve is a relict of this old rule. But nowadays many people have meat than anyway and I guess most don't know at all what it really is about Advent.

After diner comes the bestowing and after that we sit a bit together and sing christmas songs. Later - or in many families maybe immediately after the bestowing - the kids start to play with their gifts, the grown up people talk a bit and maybe drink one or another glass.

On the next day, December 25, we have a feastful meal at noon or a bit later, some people also go out for eating. Some families visit grandma and grandpa or other relatives, maybe already at noon to eat together or later, in the afternoon for coffee time.

December 25 and 26 are holydays in Germany and what we call "gesetzliche Feiertage" what could be translated as something like "legal holydays" what means that these days are work free but employers anyway have to pay their employees like they would work. New Year also is such a "gesetzlicher Feirtag", Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve are sort of half ones: You have to work in the morning but have the afternoon off but get payed for the whole day. Many people take the other halves of these days off too and also the working days between Christmas and new years eve. In some parts of Germany like here in Baden Wuerttemberg January 6, Epiphania or twelfthday also is such a payed holyday and ift possible people take off until this day ore even the rest of the week too.

Because of the good possibility to get two or even three weeks of with just a couple of vacancy days also many people in Germany go on holyday over Christmas and New Year.  Some travel to ski resorts and some into southern countries to flee the winter. Some even travel to places which are merely known as summer holyday resorts and enjoy e.g. the very special charme of the North Sea in winter.

I myself don't like to travel over Christmas. In my opinion the winter holydays are some kind of counterpart to the ones in summer: The latter are for traveling and adventure, but wintertime is a resting time and over Christmas I like to enjoy my home and sort of hibernate.