Now I want to tell something about us:

We live in the northern part of Germany between the two big cities Bremen and Hamburg in a rural area.

The landscape is very flat and there are a lot of villages with farms. East of the village our school is situated we have a big nature reservation called "Luneburg Heath". There are a lot of tourists in August when the heather is blooming.

In our area we speak an own language . It is called "Lower-German". But normally we have conversation in High-German. Only when we talk to farmers or to elder people we speak Lower-German.

Our school has more than 500 students. They come from 15 villages around by school bus.

We have grades 5 - 10. Our school is nearly a comprehensive school.

School starts at 7:45 am and ends at 1:05 p.m.. We have six classes per day. We have vacation in fall (2 weeks), Christmas (2 1/2 weeks), Easter (2 - 3 weeks), and summer (6 weeks).

I wish you and your class  Merry Christmas

Juergen Koerber

Christmas time in Germany

I want to tell you something about Christmas customs in Germany:

In Germany Christmas time starts on the 4th Sunday before Christmas Eve. We call this time "Advent" time in Germany customs: families have an Advent wreath with four candles. The wreath is made of pine branches. You need four candles, because there are four Sundays till Christmas Eve. The families decorate the Advent wreath with ornaments, ribbons and other things, which are decorative. My family has a big Advent wreath. The diameter is 1 meter because we have a big room. We hang it up. It looks very decorative.

But it is not usual to have such a big one, most families have a small one (diameter 30-centimeter) and they put it on the table. Each Advent Sunday you light one candle more: 1st Sunday - one candle, 2nd Sunday - two candles and so on... I forgot a very important day for the kids: It is the 1st December. On this day they get an "Advent calendar".

This is not an ordinary calendar, because kids find a little gift or a small present in that calendar each day until 24th December. -Do you know this custom, too? If not, you can introduce it! Talk to your parents!

The most important day for German kids in the time before Christmas Eve is the 6th December: Saint Nicholas Day. The kids are very excited when they go to bed before 6th December. They believe that Saint Nicholas comes very secretly in the night down to earth and brings a gift and or some sweets and chocolate to them.

But nobody is allowed to watch him. That's why the kids put a big shoe or a boot outside their room in front of the door. And in the morning of 6th December they find gifts, little presents, fruits and sweets inside their shoe. You know, what is happening in Germany on Saint Nicholas Day parties Advent parties the weeks before Christmas Eve a lot of Christmas parties take place in, companies and schools.

The managers of those parties mostly hire a man is disguised with a red coat, a red cap, a long white beard, black pants and boots. He carries a big sack full with gifts and little presents on his back. Most important equipment is a cane, made of lots of thin long branches from special bush. Sometimes he hits bad boys or girls with the cane on their behind. You can imagine that the worst boys are very calm when Santa comes into the party room. They are very afraid to be hit on their behind.

Outside and inside which have an own house with a garden in front of decorate their gardens.

They put electric light chains looking like candles on pine trees or they use light chains with very small bulbs in bushes and trees. These small lights looks like little blinking stars when the branches are moved by the wind. The house people decorate their windows with ornaments and other things, electric candles that are constructed on a wooden (we call it "Schwippbogen") are flashing on the windowsills

At night, people put pine branches onto the walls of their flats, decorated with and balls in various sizes. Eve Christmas Eve has come. In Germany we celebrate Christmas only on 24th December. Days before Christmas Eve my family visits a farmer who sells Christmas (pine- or fir trees) fresh from the forest or his plantation. But you can also buy Christmas trees on market places or in public malls. Christmas Eve's afternoon we decorate our Christmas tree. First we put it in a stand and bring it inside the house, usually into the living room. Mostly we have a tall one, just as high as the room (2,60 m). We decorate it mostly in one color, which we change from year to year: white or red or blue/gold or purple. Everything we use to hang up has that color.

We hang balls and ornaments, small packets and other things on the tree. My family puts nothing on top of the tree. Some people put a star or another thing on top. We use wax candles, other families use electric candlelight chains. But we think wax candles are more romantic than electric ones. Services big German religions (Catholic and Protestant Church)hold special Christmas Eve-church services. The highlight of these services is the Midnight Mass.

You can observe that also people who are not religious go to church on Christmas Eve.

I think they go because of the sentimental feeling, which this day spreads.

There are different ways to perform the opening of the presents. Which have little children hire a Santa Claus. In Germany we call him "Weihnachtsmann". He is dressed with a red coat, a red cap, black pants and boots and wears a white long beard. He carries the presents into a big sack on his back. He also has a cane. He comes into the houses through the front-or backdoor.

Grownups tell the children, that „Weihnachtsmann" sees all the good and bad deeds of them and he writes the bad deeds into a big book. By this knowledge the children are very worried when Santa knocks at the door and comes into the room. The only chance for the kids to make him gracious is to recite a Christmas poem by heard. The most famous poem is

Lieber, guter Weihnachstmann!

Schau mich nicht so boese an!

Stecke deine Rute ein!

Ich will auch immer artig sein!

Recitation mostly Santa rises his warning finger with the words:

„Yes, I do!"

The child replies with down hanging head. That ceremony Santa hands out the presents and the children are happy. The people which don't hire a Santa lay the presents secretly under the Christmas tree. Unwrapping the presents the families sit down in the dining room or in the living room or in the kitchen to have a light dinner. German housewifes make potato salad (each German housewife has her own recipe) with Frankfurters. Some families have a bigger and longer dinner like Raclette or Fondue. Later they sit together and drink something or play with the presents.

Days after Christmas Eve 25th and 26th December (both days are public holidays in Germany) German families often visits their relatives or parents/grandparents. On these days we have our big dinners. But we have no typical Christmas roast in Germany. We eat a complete menu: soup, roast beef or roast pork or duck or goose or rabbit or deer or simple Schnitzel with potatoes or dumpling or chips, vegetables and salad. Ice cream or other desserts finish the menu. The afternoons we have big Christmas coffee morning with Christmas cookies and other specialties of baking. Christmas and its holidays most people have put some kilos on weight.

27th December a lot of people run to the shops and changes the presents they have got. It is very important to go shopping because the fridge and the cellar are mostly emptied and must be filled again with food and drinks. The next party starts on 31st December: New Year's Eve, we call it „Sylvester" We have big parties with a buffet, a lot of drinks (soda, lemonade, juice, beer, wine, champagne and liquors), funny games and some people are disguised. Families have „silent" Sylvester, that means they sit together, eat cooked carp or other things, talk together and remember the good and bad events of the gone by year. People have good resolutions what they will do or don't anymore (perhaps they start on to stop smoking...) in the New Year. Our some symbols for Sylvester, which are lucky charms: Chimney sweep, little pig, toadstool and four-leafed clover. Midnight nearly everybody welcomes the New Year with fireworks and crackers. You wish your friends, relatives and neighbors a Happy New Year.1st January is a public holiday. Some people need this day to recreate because the last eight days had been so hard

For them.2nd January normal life goes on.

Juergen Koerber