December in Germany is great as they are known for their Christmas Markets and I can vouch that they are all unique in their own way. I had the opportunity to visit four, from Heikendorf’s one-day market to the sprawling Hamburg Christmas Market.
Heikendorf’s Market had a lot of Christmas themed items but a lot of non-seasonal items that would make good presents. Here I purchased some ornaments and little Christmas trees carved from a pine branch. Talking about branches, they seem to be a traditional Christmas decoration. You see a lot of dark brown branches peppered with red, gold and silver ornaments and bows hung up on the walls, just so. It’s quite simple but still very festive. At the Heikendorf Market I also found St.Nicholaus with a bag of goodies ready to be given to children if they recited a poem. Of course I did a quick translation of “Roses are Red” and received a chocolate Santa the size of my forearm - score!
The Kiel Christmas Market operates for about a month and that’s where I ended up finding my best purchases. To keep people coming back to Christmas Markets each year, they don’t just focus on handmade objects but about half is dedicated to food and the famous mulled wine. They serve the wine in cute souvenir mugs that you can only purchase at the Market. Your drink costs about 2-2.50 euros but the mug costs 2 euros. You pay 4 euros and get a ticket so if you return the mug with a ticket then you get your two euros back. I decided this would be a great opportunity to collect these mugs since you can’t buy them anywhere else. The food here is also delicious so I had a hard time choosing what to sample. They had a LOT of candy, too. I would guess that if food is half of the Market, a fourth of that would be chocolate and candy stands. It’s amazing the variety of choices! A lot of the items at the markets have to do with lights with lots of candle holders and cool hanging lamps. They had some stations with wool and others with wood keeping you shopping as you kept discovering more variety of products. A highlight at the Kiel Market was eating inside a little tent like enclosure, constructed inside a tree where the trunk held the tarp creating a unique shelter.
Heikendorf’s Market had a lot of Christmas themed items but a lot of non-seasonal items that would make good presents. Here I purchased some ornaments and little Christmas trees carved from a pine branch. Talking about branches, they seem to be a traditional Christmas decoration. You see a lot of dark brown branches peppered with red, gold and silver ornaments and bows hung up on the walls, just so. It’s quite simple but still very festive. At the Heikendorf Market I also found St.Nicholaus with a bag of goodies ready to be given to children if they recited a poem. Of course I did a quick translation of “Roses are Red” and received a chocolate Santa the size of my forearm - score!
The Kiel Christmas Market operates for about a month and that’s where I ended up finding my best purchases. To keep people coming back to Christmas Markets each year, they don’t just focus on handmade objects but about half is dedicated to food and the famous mulled wine. They serve the wine in cute souvenir mugs that you can only purchase at the Market. Your drink costs about 2-2.50 euros but the mug costs 2 euros. You pay 4 euros and get a ticket so if you return the mug with a ticket then you get your two euros back. I decided this would be a great opportunity to collect these mugs since you can’t buy them anywhere else. The food here is also delicious so I had a hard time choosing what to sample. They had a LOT of candy, too. I would guess that if food is half of the Market, a fourth of that would be chocolate and candy stands. It’s amazing the variety of choices! A lot of the items at the markets have to do with lights with lots of candle holders and cool hanging lamps. They had some stations with wool and others with wood keeping you shopping as you kept discovering more variety of products. A highlight at the Kiel Market was eating inside a little tent like enclosure, constructed inside a tree where the trunk held the tarp creating a unique shelter.
The Hamburg and Lubeck Christmas Markets are the biggest and best in northern Germany. I joined a group of AFS students (Mihai from Ohio, Jake from NY, Maria from Mexico, Caroline from Ohio, Carolina from NY and Tamara from Bosnia) for a day trip. We took advantage of being a group and purchased our train tickets for only 10 euros (a fourth of the regular price) providing our round trip travel.
We stopped first in Lübeck. Since we have all toured Lübeck before, we focused solely on the Christmas Markets. I saw about four markets but there were about seven total. We went to one market and I didn’t really find anything specific there but the experience was great. One of the students brought his drone allowing us truly a birds-eye view as it traveled over the Lübeck market. We then hopped on a train to Hamburg. Since it gets dark by 4:30 pm, the evening sky provided a great backdrop to the Hamburg Market lights. The main street was closed off creating a festive atmosphere for the thousands of shoppers (I would guess more than 5000). We walked down the street enjoying exploring the little pocket markets while entertained by various street performers on the main street. We had a guy drumming on plastic buckets, a brass group, some people doing tricks and even a breakdancing group. Oh, another highlight of these Christmas Markets are the crepes. MY GOODNESS they are so delicious! And mesmerizing when they pour the crepe batter and swirl it into a perfect circle. A highlight of the Hamburg Market was the parade. We watched Santa, his sleigh, reindeer, dancing candy canes, snowmen, ice princesses and many versions of St. Nicholas costumed marchers. It was fun and really added to the whole experience. While most markets have one mug, Hamburg decided to have three different types. I went a little crazy with buying them all, determined to get one of each design. Getting to experience both Markets in one day, even though most say Lübeck is their favorite, I think Hamburg won.
Celebrating Christmas was a different experience beginning with when Christmas trees are purchased – December 23. Most families wait until the week before Christmas to put up the Christmas tree and all the decorations I saw were simple, with quality over quantity. We had some pretty cut circles out of paper and some other ribbon stars my host mom had made. Since a big Christmas tree would be too big and over the top, my host family purchased a half size tree that was able to fit in the window on the wide window sill, or in a corner of their living room. In our church, however, they had a 20 foot tall Christmas tree which is donated from someone’s garden each year.
Christmas officially starts at 12 p.m. on the 24th, but many people celebrate the whole day. Shops are closed beginning the afternoon of the 24th to the 26th, but since the 27th was a Sunday, the shops were closed longer this year. We did an errand run on the 24th since we couldn't go shopping for another four days. We had cookies and played games with the whole family since my host brothers were home for the holidays and my host mother's brother also joined in on the fun. We baked out a Reese's cookie mix I brought so the house smelled like freshly baked cookies. Once it was around 5 or 6 p.m. we started opening presents. Every family has different traditions, and my family used a dice to determine who would be the next gift recipient. If you rolled a six, you could go to the blanket under the Christmas tree and grab a present from underneath. We then saw who the gift was for with that person opening their gift. However, after two people ended up rolling a few 6s in a row, we changed the rules. Once all the gifts were given, we cleared the table for Raclette dinner.
Christmas officially starts at 12 p.m. on the 24th, but many people celebrate the whole day. Shops are closed beginning the afternoon of the 24th to the 26th, but since the 27th was a Sunday, the shops were closed longer this year. We did an errand run on the 24th since we couldn't go shopping for another four days. We had cookies and played games with the whole family since my host brothers were home for the holidays and my host mother's brother also joined in on the fun. We baked out a Reese's cookie mix I brought so the house smelled like freshly baked cookies. Once it was around 5 or 6 p.m. we started opening presents. Every family has different traditions, and my family used a dice to determine who would be the next gift recipient. If you rolled a six, you could go to the blanket under the Christmas tree and grab a present from underneath. We then saw who the gift was for with that person opening their gift. However, after two people ended up rolling a few 6s in a row, we changed the rules. Once all the gifts were given, we cleared the table for Raclette dinner.
Raclette is a type of cheese but the meal is Swiss-German. Each person gets a little pan and fills it with meat, onions, bell pepper, corn; whatever you want then you put it in the Raclette grill and wait until it is cooked to your liking. Then you put a slice of Raclette on top and pop it back in. Once it’s all melted and delicious you slide it onto your plate and eat it with potatoes. This is a slow dinner and great for holidays since everyone is talking. The machine itself is also quite hot so we were all sitting in thin long sleeved shirts or t-shirts having a ball. Once we finished up dinner we slowly cleared the table then took a family picture. After that we had some dessert of marzipan flavored ice cream dipped in chocolate in the shape of a Christmas tree. Yum!
December 25th we celebrated Christmas with my host dad’s mother in Plön. We ate at an Asian restaurant on the water that provided a splendid view and great food. We then walked around to the Plön castle, now an optometry school, and through the little town's historic main street. It was nice to see St. John’s church, built around 1685, where my host mom and dad were married. We spent the remainder of Christmas Day at Oma's home playing games.
The way holidays are celebrate is an important part of any culture and having the opportunity to fully experience this in Germany, not from a tourist perspective, has been a lot of fun. The Christmas markets were so much fun and the décor so simple, but so pretty. Christmas was nice in that they really take three days off to celebrate and, when most business are not open, you find you spend more time with family or just hanging out together at the house. (Online slideshow follows.)
December 25th we celebrated Christmas with my host dad’s mother in Plön. We ate at an Asian restaurant on the water that provided a splendid view and great food. We then walked around to the Plön castle, now an optometry school, and through the little town's historic main street. It was nice to see St. John’s church, built around 1685, where my host mom and dad were married. We spent the remainder of Christmas Day at Oma's home playing games.
The way holidays are celebrate is an important part of any culture and having the opportunity to fully experience this in Germany, not from a tourist perspective, has been a lot of fun. The Christmas markets were so much fun and the décor so simple, but so pretty. Christmas was nice in that they really take three days off to celebrate and, when most business are not open, you find you spend more time with family or just hanging out together at the house. (Online slideshow follows.)