Christmas in Germany

We are going to learn more about Christmas in Germany.

In Germany the advent season begins on Sunday four weeks before Christmas.

It’s the day where many families decorate their houses or flats, begin to bake some biscuits and start to sing some Christmas carols.

One typical decoration is the advent wreath, which has four candles – one candle is lit in the first week, two candles in the secondweek, etc. – and normally stands on the dining table or on the coffee table.

Another tradition, especially for children, is the advent calendar that you hang on the wall. They’ve often got 24 doors and you’re only allowed to open one a day.

Other typical Christmas decorations are a crib, a Räuchermann – a wooden figure that blows flavour of incense cones – in Northern Germany a Moosmann, Christmas pyramids and Schwibbogen and nutcrackers and poinsettias and much more.

Most Christmas markets start in the first week of Advent.

Pupils do a secret Santa with other pupils on the last school days before the Christmas holidays, which are often two or three weeks long.

St. Nicholas looks similar to Santa Claus who brings big presents on the evening of the 24th of December; in Southern Germany Christkind brings the presents.

Most families decorate their Christmas trees on this day with Christmas baubles and tinsel and candles and so forth.

After the Christmas dinner, the whole family sits next to the Christmas tree and exchanges gifts.

• Do you have the Christmas spirit yet? – Bist du schon in Weihnachtsstimmung?

• Do you decorate your house this year? – Schmückst du dieses Jahr dein Haus?
• On St. Nicholas Day gets Julian a little present. – An Nikolaustag bekommt Julian ein kleines Geschenk.
• The Queen takes every year a Christmas Day Speech. – Die Queen hält jedes Jahr eine Weihnachtsansprache.
• The whole room is sweet with cinnamon. – Der ganze Raum duftet nach Zimt.

we hope you enjoyed our lesson about Christmas in Germany