Romantic nights and lights - Christmas Market Munich

German style Christmas markets seem to be a "a thing" recently. Even in the UK I was surprised when Chester, Liverpool and Manchester sprouted off a "German" Christmas market. "Bratwurst" and "Stollen" on hand, they served sweet and savory dishes alongside a Chinese take away booth.

 

In front of the Munich town hall, they always choose the most massive Christmas tree. I think it's a real show-off but at least it makes lots of people happy. That tree must get photographed  more than Britney Spears this Christmas. 

Anyways, for now, let's imagine that we, you and I, will stroll together over the Munich Christmas market! Just take it as it is for now! And rule number one is, that a Christmas market is the most romantic when the lights are on! Now let's grab our bags and go!

Traditionally, if you were strolling with me over the markets, we would stop at a booth and get a "Glühwein" which is a mulled wine, or a "Kinderpunsch" a non-alcoholic punch, to warm us up. Steaming hot in cute decorated mugs we will wrap our hands around the hot drink and make some comments about how cold it is. But a couple of sips of the hot liquid will make us forget the cold anyways.

The lights around us are too inviting anyways to just stand around. Returning the mugs to the stall, we can now look for cute little crafted items to buy as presents for our families and friends.

You might point at something and say "What's that?!" and I will try and explain. Well that is, if I know what you are pointing at.

You might find items and say "Oh so cute!" and I will join you in exclamations. If you have a sweet tooth, we could go and get "Lebkuchen" a spicy German gingerbread, or we could buy different kinds of sausages.

Since they are different kinds, I will offer you a bite of mine and I will be really happy if you offer me a bite of your dish too.Chatting about this and that - we will always stop to stare and marvel at new sights and cute things, and how crafty some people are. Even if the crafts might be too expensive, we will just have a great time browsing and walking through the romantically lit streets of Munich, while people of all cultures around us spend a lovely evening as well.

If our feet get too cold in the end, we will say our goodbyes. Maybe we will take a little gift home that we bought for someone or ourselves. Maybe we will still have ketchup or mustard at the corner of our mouths without knowing. But surely, we will have taken some pictures and a bag of memories home from our stroll over the Christmas markets.

I wish you all a lovely winter time. No matter if you celebrate or not: Enjoy the merry season!

Best winter wishes, from a merry
Cat

Christmas - yet not - St. Nikolaus Day

There are a few funny traditions around Christmas in Germany. To be honest, most things are a bit crazy around that time of the year. Once Christmas season starts, there is a sheer endless stream of special Christmas sweets, biscuits, cakes, candies and traditional baked goods such as Stollen, Lebkuchen and Vanillekipferl. Well and then there are vast amounts of mulled wine, that bring more "merry" into the merry season.

Now right before Christmas there is another puzzling tradition - that of St. Nikolaus Day.
St. Nikolaus is like a Santa Clause, just that he comes earlier. Wait, what?
In order to get the goodies, Germans who celebrate St. Nikolaus will have to follow these steps:

 

1) Be a good girl/boy/transgender/furry/nyancat/...
2) Clean your boots. Ideally select the largest boots you own because large boot = more space
3) Place the cleaned boots in front of your door on the night of the 5th of December
4) Hope nobody steals said boots, therefore ideally place them in front of your living room door
5) Sleep until the morning of the 6th
6) Voila, if you have been good, there shall magically be gifts inside your boots

or 7) If you have been bad, be careful not to get hit

I tried this magical ordeal and indeed, Saint Nikolaus has not forgotten me and I got sweeties. Funnily enough, I think he doesn't deliver to abroad, I don't remember getting anything when I lived in the UK or Japan.

 

Upon looking around Wikipedia, for this post, I actually found out that some traditions of Santa Clause actually revert back to the Saint Nikolaus. Therefore, you can see St. Nikolaus as a pre-evolution Santa. He gives goodies to good kids, and punishes the bad. Apparently he was supposed to hit bad kids, a less-thankful job. So in some parts of Germany and Europe that job thus got done by someone else, the "Krampus", a crowlike dark figure that punishes kids. A bit like the Grinch, just a bit brutal. On parades, those Krampus will still go around scaring people, like it's Halloween. Maybe a Nightmare before Christmas took some inspiration from that.

No matter if you celebrate this year, or if you celebrate the Winter season at all, there are lots of interesting traditions in different countries in this time of the year. If you have some friends from abroad, it's always great to ask them what they do, and what traditions they have.

Thanks St. Nikokaus! You need to sort out your abroad deliveries though!

I wish you a lovely winter season! Don't get caught by any Krampusses.

Oh dear, that sounds really wrong.

Merry winter time!

x

Cat