Celebrate Your German Heritage This Christmas

If you are like millions of Americans who have Germanic heritage you might want to help your family understand some of their Germanic heritage by introducing some old German traditions into your family Christmas celebration.

One very old German tradition comes from pre Christian Germany. The Norse Goddess Hertha or Bertha was the goddess of hearth and home. At the time of the winter solstice homes were decorated with evergreens and Fir trees to celebrate her coming to a family feast. The family placed large flat stones to serve as an alter and a fire of "fir boughs" was built upon the stones. Hertha appeared in the smoke and told the fortunes of the family members gathered at the dinner. Later flat stones that served as the fire place hearth stones were used as Hertha's alter. This is why Santa Claus enters modern homes through the fire place instead of the front door or window.

In old German Christian culture Christmas cakes were baked in the form of slippers and were called the slippers of Hertha. Small gifts were placed in the slipper cakes and given to single girls and children of the family who had been well behaved during the previous year.

Those of Pennsylvania German heritage may want to have the oldest male in the household put together a scene under the Christmas tree known as Putz . This is a scene of objects that show a manger setting complete with Shepard in the snow. Finding or making the various figures for the scene could be a fun family project. Don't try to achieve complicated perfection in constructing the scene as I believe the phase of an older man "putzing about" must be connected with this tradition.

Another fun German Christmas tradition is to wrap the Christmas presents in several layers of differing Christmas wrap each with a false name on the package until you get to the last layer when the person who is really meant to receive the gift name is attached. You could have the children of the house take turns taking off layers until they come to the last layer then hand of the gift to the rightful recipient. This is called Julkulp wrap. A variation of this is to have several gift cards inside one another directing various people in the family to different places to find the gift. When the gift is found the gift card on the package is one who the present is for. It is also within German tradition to tie some gifts to the tree hiding amongst the ornaments.

Instead of having St. Nicholas arrive to bring gifts , one could have St. Nicholas arrive with the Christkind a heavenly messenger who comes to earth at Christmas time. The Christkind is an angelic child who wears a gold crown and forgives children their minor misdeeds so they can receive their Christmas gifts. Lighted candles in the windows ( or electric equivalents) show the way for the Christkind to find the home. Sometimes St, Nicholas who is the one bearing the gifts, is known as Pelznickle which means Nicholas dressed in fur. The story of the "little stranger" goes with the tradition of the Christkind. In this story a woodcutter's family is blessed when they share a meager meal and warm bed with a poor wandering orphan child. The child is really the Christkind who in turn gives the family a blessing of, "silver nuts, lights, apples, and golden thread for their fir tree."

A small Christmas tree can be decorated by the children of the house and decorated with nuts wrapped in aluminum foil, a single strand of Christmas lights, and construction paper apples , and gold wrapping ribbon. This could be a Christkind tree where your children place envelopes with money or gifts to be given to a local charity.