Tag Archives: Christmas
Barbarazweig: A German December Tradition Posted by Constanze on Dec 16, 2020
Guten Tag! Today’s post is about a lesser-known German December tradition known as der Barbarazweig. Have you ever seen a cherry blossom branch in a vase in a German home in December? If so, this post will tell you what that’s all about! Der Barbarazweig This word literally means ‘the Barbara branch’. We will come…
What Will Christmas Look Like In Germany This Year? Posted by Constanze on Nov 25, 2020
Guten Tag! In exactly one month, it will be Weihnachten (Christmas)! And, for obvious reasons, Weihnachten is going to look quite different this year. In Germany, this is no exception. Due to the ongoing Coronavirus restrictions, new rules have been put together for the Christmas period in celebrating countries. The aim is to allow people…
What’s for Dinner with German Christmas? Posted by Sten on Dec 29, 2019
German Christmas has a lot of interesting traditions. But when it comes to Essen… We are just not that traditional about it, it seems! Where other cultures have traditional Christmas dishes, like the French bûche de Noël or Venezuelan hallacas, the Germans don’t. While we make dozens and dozens of Weihnachtsplätzchen (Christmas cookies) and other sweets to cover the…
The Origin Of The Snow Globe Posted by Constanze on Dec 25, 2019
Frohe Weihnachten (Merry Christmas)! We’ve looked at a huge range of German Christmas traditions on the blog over the years, and if you want to indulge yourself simply click the tag Christmas for them all to come up! In fact, many Christmas traditions as we know them today originated in Germany or Austria. These include…
The origin of Stollen Posted by Larissa on Dec 25, 2018
Stollen is a traditional German Christmas cake that is still very popular to this day. In this post I will explain what exactly it is and how it came about. The first ever Stollen dates back to 1545. Nowadays, Stollen is made out of flour, butter, yeast, raisins, almonds, marzipan and spices like cinnamon and…
Christmas & New Year In Untranslatable German Words Posted by Constanze on Dec 19, 2018
Guten Tag and, since it’s almost time, Frohe Weihnachten (Merry Christmas)! Weihnachten (Christmas) and Neujahr (New Year) is the time of the year when people experience a whole range of emotions, from excitement over receiving presents to annoyance about being in the company of certain family members, from feeling nostalgic and reflective about the year…
German Companions of Saint Nicholas Posted by Constanze on Dec 5, 2018
Guten Tag! As you may know, tomorrow (December 6th) is Nikolaustag (Saint Nicholas Day) in Germany. This is a German Christmas celebration separate to that of December 24/25. If you are not yet familiar with Nikolaustag, I recommend reading this post and this post first, to get a good introduction to it. If you are…