Our family has strong German roots with our grandparents being first generation immigrants after WWII (my maiden name is Schatz meaning sweetheart or treasure in German). Thus, everyone really embraced the German Christmas theme in 2017!
Food
We had quite the German feast including homemade pretzels, wurst (sausage), bier käse (beer cheese), chicken schnitzel, bierock (stuffed rolls), kartoffelsalat (potato salad), sauerkraut, braunschweiger (nostalgic spreadable pork meat), kipfles (family favorite cookie at every Christmas), German chocolate cake & martinis, glühwein (mulled wine), and Weihenstephaner hefe weissbier (Scott’s favorite German beer). Here’s the Rezape food album with all the recipes (request to be my friend if you don’t have access).
We did a nerd/STEM theme for the white elephant – there were a lot of Instant Pots and sous vides in the gift exchange this year!
Costumes (Belsnickel & Lederhosen)
Belsnickel made a special appearance to coordinate the gift exchange and determine who was impish or admirable via his magical jelly beans. Of course Scott and I were in our German lederhosen and dirndl. Layla wore a cute lederhosen! I had fun doing a crown braid in my hair.
Decor
I went with pretty traditional colors – red, green, and gold for the German decorations. The Christmas pyramid and nutcrackers were the main German items we added to our holiday collection this year. We buy a nutcracker every year so we had quite a few to display, even a couple authentic ones we bought in Germany. For this special German Christmas, we added the big nutcrackers for the fireplace.
Advent
We even celebrated Advent with fun German-themed activities each day leading up to Christmas! I posted on Facebook for every day (see links to videos and a slide show of pics below).
- Day 1: Craft a Familie ornament. We attempted a German paper star ornament.
- Day 2: Sing along to O Tannenbaum in Duetsche and English?
- Day 3: Snap a goofy Weihnachten foto shoot.
- Day 4: Write a letter to der Weihnachtsmann with your Geschenke requests ?
- Day 5: Shine your schuhe (shoes) and place them outside your door
- Day 6: Wait for der Nikolaus to bring some sweets on St. Nicholas’s Day. Naughty kids watch out for Krampus!
- Day 7: Gemütlich (cozy) up to the kamin (fireplace) with some heiß kakao (hot cocoa) & marshmallows.
- Day 8: Play a board game while cuddling by the Feuer (fire)
- Day 9: Bake Plätzchen (Christmas cookies)
- Day 10: Participate in a Plätzchen Austausch (cookie exchange)
- Day 11: Text/post a funny scherzo (joke) or meme
- Day 12: Lay out a blanket by the Tannenbaum and have a picnic
- Day 13: Post a dumm pic on social media – like you trying to kiss someone under Mistel!
- Day 14: Dance to festive Weihnachtslieder (Christmas music) in front of O Tannenbaum
- Day 15: See a film in theaters (Star Wars)
- Day 16: Dress up and go out for a formales Abendessen. (Scott’s work’s Roaring 20s holiday party ?)
- Day 17: Don your Weihnachtsmann suit and join friends for a holiday Feier (celebration)! (Yay for hanging out with the best volleyball team! ?)
- Day 18: Have a DIY Schneeball fight in the house ❄️ ⛄️
- Day 19: Make a puzzle while munching on nuts cracked with a Nussknacker
- Day 20: Watch a Favorit Weihnachten film (Love Actually)
- Day 21: Watch and participate in Weihnachtslieder (Christmas carols)
- Day 22: Stroll through some beautiful Weihnachtsbeleuchtung (Christmas lights)
- Day 23: Read a Christkind story and listen to Stille Nacht
- Day 24: Wear PJs (onsies!) all day and sip Wassail/Glühwein
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