Christmas and New Years in Deutschland

Derek, Adam and Marius

Our Christmas holiday was spent with our German family in their hometown of Oberstenfeld and Gronau. After arriving back to Zwingenberg from traveling to Berlin and Hamburg, we unpacked our bags and repacked with clean clothes and gifts, and then headed to Oberstenfeld for a shortened holiday week. We spent the first few days relaxing around the house and even went to the cinema near Stuttgart to see The Hobbit in 3-D. We ate dinner with Derek's Aunt Lori and cousin Kristin from the U.S. before they headed north to Denmark, and Derek and I even took a short run through the bare vineyards.

On Christmas Eve, we walked a short ten minutes down the road to a quaint Evangelical church in Gronau where we watched a Christmas story reenactment performed by children.  In the past, I have only been to a Catholic church on Christmas Eve, so an Evangelical service was definitely a different experience, but pleasant. After church we headed back to the Müllers and gathered around the table for fondue. When I first heard that fondue was on the menu, I thought of cheese and chocolate (and yum!).  However, we had three different fondue pans on the table, two containing vegetable oil for frying and one of vegetable broth, a healthier option. With a variety of choices, we filled our fondue sticks with cauliflower, mushrooms, broccoli, zucchini, steak, turkey, etc. It was delicious, and a new favorite tradition that Derek and I want to take home. 

Dinner took a while since we actually cooked our food in front of us, and therefore we had more time to just enjoy the Christmas dinner. After dinner, it's German tradition to open presents on Christmas Eve from your immediate family. Earlier in the week, Derek, Adam and I had gone shopping at the U.S. Military Commissary in Wiesbaden and were excited for the Müllers to open their gift of our favorite American foods. We filled an American-sized gift bag of pancake mix with maple syrup, microwave popcorn, chips and salsa, Reese's, beef jerky  and more.  (Somehow, it ended up all being junk food!) 

Table set for fondue

Our American gift of favorite foods

On Christmas Day, we had a relaxing morning and then went to Hilde's for the Nestel family Christmas. It was very similar to my family's Christmas back home, with everyone squeezed into their seats at an extended table covered in so much food! We enjoyed chestnut soup, pork with spätzle, vegetables and salad. And the food didn't stop coming. Throughout the evening we had sheet cake with a white wine sauce, an assortment of kuchen, breakfast pastries, mini sandwiches and chocolates. I suppose that’s how most get-togethers are in a bakery-owning family. Later in the evening, Werner shared his fish that he had personally spiced and salted. It was tasty and reminded me of a delicate, delicious sushi. At one point, everyone received a sheet of music with popular German Christmas carols. We all sang a practice round before calling Derek's Grandpa, Opa, in Minnesota to say Merry Christmas and sing a carol. This has been a long-standing tradition at the Nestel Christmas.  

Derek and I 

Hilde looking over the family tree with Derek

German Christmas carol

After dinner was cleared, another German tradition made its debut. The Feuerzangenbowle is created by placing an extremely large sugar cube over a pot of glühwein. The mixologist then takes a serving spoon filled with rum, lights the rum on fire, and proceeds to pour it over the sugar cube. It’s a very interesting, and somewhat dangerous way to make a drink, but tastes scrumptious!

Feuerzangenbowle

After two pots of Feuerzangenbowle, the men in the group decided to take a trip to Werner's keller in the old town of Oberstenfeld. The story goes that at one time several years ago, Derek and Adam's dad, along with Günter, Wolfgang, and Werner (all of the German dads), were locked in this keller by the women of the family. Therefore, they had nothing to do but try different wines. They left one bottle from that time, back in the early '90s, turned opposite of all the others and our goal of this Christmas evening was to find that bottle. While in the keller, we tried wine from 1983, 1985, and 1987. To everyone's surprise, all tasted delicious. The best wine I've ever tasted, and oldest. And yes, they did find the odd-turned bottle that was placed there in the early 1990's.

Derek, Günter and Adam in the wine keller

The women in the keller

Wine from 1985

Our wine selection of the evening

In Germany, Christmas is celebrated on December 24, 25 and 26. For the second Christmas Day, we went to Günter's brother’s house for Christmas with his side of the family after taking a nice walk through the countryside. Here, we indulged in another European tradition called raclette. Originally from Switzerland, this dining option is popular at German Christmas and New Year's. With a hot skillet oven in front of us, we took turns filling our mini skillets with potatoes, eggs, peppers, etc. and then topped the dish with a piece of raclette cheese. After about seven minutes of baking in the skillet oven, the delicious mixture was ready for devouring.

For this Christmas, everyone also participated in a gift exchange and we enjoyed watching everyone open their gifts. It was a lovely evening and a great German Christmas experience!

Raclette time!

Doro and Marius

Second Christmas dinner

For New Year's Eve, Derek, Adam and I were invited to our friends' house - Nadine and Denis - where we enjoyed another evening of raclette, German board games, fireworks and champagne. It was the perfect way to spend the evening, with good friends, food and laughter. Thanks to Derek and Adam's mom, we even had a festive New Year's party kit. Since Germany doesn't celebrate the Fourth of July or a similar holiday with so many fireworks, fireworks are a large component of the German New Year's. Here's a few photos of the night:

New Year's Eve dinner

Happy New Year!

Nadine and I

Raclette dinner

Group photo!

Additional Notes:

• German Christmas was very similar to how we celebrate in my family in the United States. I think the excitement of a German Christmas originates from the hundreds of Christmas markets leading up to the actual holiday - another tradition we loved exploring this year!
• Thanks to all of our German family for making us feel so welcome! And thanks to Nadine and Denis for being such great hosts!
• If you want to read more about German holidays and traditions, you can read this blog post that I wrote for DFSR.