However you choose to celebrate, though, it’s always a big deal. Ultimately, it comes down to food (if you have it, and do you have enough), family (if you have any, and have you remembered everyone), and presents (if you have any to give, and do you have enough for everyone). And, of course, you need the money to survive the season unscathed.
And many of us simply don’t have enough.
But there are some nice things about this time of year. I always love looking at the lights strung along the trees and storefronts. In Germany, people here don’t really do their houses, if they live in one. Not very much. Not like Americans, anyway. But people do decorate Christmas trees in their living rooms, and place candles and lights in windows and along shelves. Unless you have a Kaminofen, there aren’t many fireplaces to speak of and relatively few mantelpieces to hang socks. But it’s still a colorful and decorative holiday, like any other Christmas any other place in the world that celebrates it.
A Kaminofen is a romantic way to warm up, day or night!
There are some culinary treats that come with this holiday, too. Among them is Glühwein. This is a mulled wine, drunk piping hot in little glass mugs. German wine is notoriously sweet, and this is a perfect beverage to top off a cold day of shopping in the local Weihnachtsmarkt, or outdoor Christmas Market.
What’s making these gentlemen visitors to the Münchener Weihnachtsmarkt so happy?
Why, the Glühwein, of course!
Another goodie is called Kriststollen. This is a heavy, dense, lozenge-shaped cake. The cake itself isn’t very sweet, but the raisins it’s filled with really heighten the experience. It can come plain (with raisins—the little fruit is an essential ingredient), or with a marzipan filling in the very center. (Marzipan is a very sweet, almond paste.)
The other thing that makes Kriststollen the particular treat it is, is the powdered-sugar coating. But the powdered sugar isn’t exactly what you’d expect, stateside. It has a texture to it that makes me suspect it’s mixed with granulated sugar crystals, so it's a little... crunchy. What will really surprise you is that this sweet delight is usually eaten with butter--at breakfast! Oje.
Kriststollen; a buttery treat to sweeten up a Sunday morning.
The Weihnachtsmarkt is also a special enjoyment, and Stuttgart holds one of the larger and more popular markets in the region. People come on buses from all over to enjoy the Stuttgart Christmas market.
The streets of downtown are lined with wooden booths, and merchants selling their wares—everything from sweets and Glühwein to Alpine hats and pins, Christmas ornaments, special cooking ware, woolly felt slippers, cutlery and dishes, jewelry, candles, scented oils, all kinds of odds and ends you might associate with an outdoor Christmas market. There's even an ice rink.
In Stuttgart, the market is held every day of the advent, closing on December 23. Most markets are quite a bit smaller, and open for only a weekend.
The Stuttgarter Weihnachtsmarkt: A view of only a portion of the market.
An interior perspective of the photo above.
You don’t really need a lot of money to enjoy this part of the holiday season. Glühwein is extremely cheap at only 1.50 euros per bottle (about $2), and the Kriststollen is about the same. Assuming you can keep your wallet in your pocket while you’re there, the Weihnachtsmarkt also is a cheap thrill, though you’ll have to pay around 4 euros for a glass mug of Glühwein, which includes the deposit for the mug. You get one or two euros back when you return the little mug, but it’s not a bad price, overall, when you quietly slip that mug into your rucksack as a little keepsake. I’ve got five of them, myself, discreetly collected over the years. I had six, but one went missing last year. I plan to restock soon.
Wouldn’t it be nice if we could focus on the joyous part of the holidays, the color, and chill, and warmth of fires and fiery beverages, without all the other crap that goes along with it?
I much prefer the small things.
It’s the bigger stuff that makes this season so unsatisfactory.
