The Top Sure-Fire Ways You Know it is December in Germany

The Germans do know how to do Advent and Christmas. December arrives with great fanfare here.

Among the most telling signs of Advent are the ubiquitous Christmas Markets. While there are a wide variety of market options – from our small town, 2-day affairs to month-long crowded and famous markets – any uniqueness that may have existed decades ago appears to be lost. One can universally find gluhwein stands intermixed with candy and warmed nut stalls and vendors selling woodworking goods such as nutcrackers, nativity sets and the traditional German candle “pyramids.”

We have been to half a dozen markets over the past two seasons and find that these three variations of vendors comprise 99% of the market. Literally, you can walk from one “gluhwein” vendor to the next in less than 15 paces – and, they are all busy! This mystifies me – in my mind, all that needs to be said about the appeal of gluhwein is in the first sentence of the recipe: “start with an inexpensive, full-bodied red wine.” Add to that serving this German version of mulled wine in a small ceramic cup to be drunk while standing in the cold among 50 other people drinking from their cups before standing in a long line again to return the cup to the vendor for the return of your 1 Euro deposit. It’s a good thing there are so many vendors as this drink appears to be enormously popular with the Germans, judging by the crowds at each and every booth!

We did have a nice experience in Mainz in mid-December as the weather was beautiful, the crowds sparse, there was fresh snow and we were in tremendous 

 Christmas spirit after listening to an all-French Horn concert of traditional Christmas Carols featuring Audrey, our budding French Horn musician. Her teacher provided the entrée to this annual performance. French Horn players ages 6 – 80 gather each year to practice for about 90 minutes and then perform in the city concert hall in downtown Mainz. It was truly a treat. And, just steps away was the Christmas Market which featured a gigantic “pyramid” at the entrance. If you look closely at the bottom tier of the pyramid you see, inexplicably, a character who looks like a character from "South Park" mixed in with the St. Nickolaus, angels and nutcrackers!

We naively enjoyed the light snowfall and brisk weather during the day, not realizing what it would lead to that evening. Molly was due home from Minnesota for her Christmas break the next morning. Her flight to Amsterdam that night was on time but, we learned her flight from Amsterdam to Frankfurt was cancelled and after over an hour on hold with the airlines, found that there was no other available flight for three days because of the weather-related havoc wreaked upon the airports of Europe!

So, Gary jumped in the car at 9:00 that night and drove to Amsterdam so he could meet her plane at 7:00 the next morning. What should have been an easy 4 hour drive each way turned into an 18-hour ordeal of snowy driving with a brief 4-hour stop-over in a hotel along the way. They arrived home exhausted but safe by mid-afternoon, just 3 hours after Molly’s flight would have arrived if it weren’t cancelled. Audrey and Ethan had the snow shovelled just in time.

Last year, I didn’t recognize this as a December ritual but, when it happened like clock-work again this year, I now realize it is a predictable routine – the Apfel Frau selling her fruit door-to-door. She parks her truck at the top of the street – the snow plow doesn’t clear the whole width of the street so the truck would get stuck if she drove onto our street – and, wearing a green apron over her winter parka, she knocks on each door in turn. When I declined her offer of apples (which store for weeks in the cellar, I was assured), she had clementines and pears to offer as well. With near-daily grocery trips a requirement here, I am not sure who finds the once-a-year need for fruit delivered to the door! I wonder how she makes a living?

Her arrival at the door reminded me of the visit last year by the knife and scissor sharpening vendor. Thankfully he arrived last year while my German tutor was here so she could explain to me what he wanted. A young boy of about 12 years old, also clad in an apron, rang the bell and offered to sharpen our knives and scissors. For some reason, this struck me as a quaint but outdated custom of the distant past. I told this story to the kids and no more than a day later, who should appear at the front door? Yep, the scissors and knife sharpening boy! I guess December is as good a month for the annual visit as any – with scissors put to frequent use in gift wrapping and art projects and knives put to the test with all the holiday dinner preparations, right?

My Christmas shopping in recent years has gravitated to as much online shopping as possible but, over here, it has become almost exclusively online for simplicity. The nearby mall this year guaranteed my reliance on my computer as they are in the midst of a parking garage construction project that has nearly halved the parking capacity. This mall is already known for parking conditions rivaling a busy Christmas season even mid-day on a weekday during the non-holiday season (a recent trip after school to buy Audrey new basketball shoes included 20 minutes looking for a parking spot and 15 minutes in the store!).

All of this online shopping means the postman and I have become buddies. He is patient with my German and I am grateful for his memory of his grade-school English! Because our mailbox is quite small and the Germans frequently require a signature at delivery, I see more of my neighbor than usual as she brings the packages left at her house when I’m not home. She must think we’re nuts (mail order shopping is still not so common here).

Just when you think you’ve mastered certain processes though, something new comes along. The combination of needing European Region DVD/xBox discs (PAL rather than NTSC – I’m just showing off my hard-earned ‘tech-savvy’) and preferring movies and video games in English sent me to the British Amazon site for several orders. This led to some new mail order adventures. I received a package notice that immediately had me second-guessing my primitive German reading skills. A quick check with Google Translate however, confirmed I’d read it right – my package was to be picked up at the “Tierriech” in the center of Konigstein. “Tierriech” translates as “Pet Kingdom.” Hmmm. Turns out, this was absolutely correct. The local pet store, called “Pet Kingdom” doubles as a local outpost for the common British package delivery company – not so common here in Germany. Thankfully, when I walked into the pet store with my delivery slip in hand and a confused look on my face, the non-English speaking clerk knew immediately why I was there – even if I wasn’t so sure!

My next stop that day was the regular post office to pick up a package that could not be left at the neighbor’s. A video game ordered for Ethan, which had a “teen” rating in the US is clearly considered much more dangerous over here. It required delivery to a person over 18 years old. I brought my passport with me but after standing in line for 15 minutes, discovered that because it was ordered under Gary’s Amazon account, he was required to pick up the package. Of course, the post office hours are only during a normal work day. The clerk, a young man, must have taken pity on me and offered that if I could bring Gary’s passport and return to his line, he would give me the package.

I returned an hour later and he scanned Gary’s passport number telling me he wouldn’t look at the picture so that he wouldn’t know it wasn’t mine! Good thing those regulations are in place to control delivery, huh?! Actually, I was quite grateful for this very un-German reckless disregard for the rules. He couldn’t resist a parting response to my question of ‘who knew video games could be so difficult to buy?’ observing that, “everything from America is dangerous.” What?