Springerle, Angel Hair, and Christmas Memories of Germany

Many Christmas traditions get their start by accident. One year, maybe it was my brother who remembered something I did the last Christmas that he thought was so funny. Or touching. This year he wants to do again. One memory can spark another and soon the red and white polka dotted toadstools that clip onto the Christmas tree became a new tradition for my family. Christmas memories can bring loved ones together in a way that nothing else can.

My family lived in Germany in the early 1960s when my dad was in the Army. When we lived across the Atlantic for those years, my family took traditions and Christmas memories that we had grown up with in the States, but we also loved learning about the culture of our new home. Saint Nicholas, or Kris Kringle to some, was a little nervous-making to my sister and me, but we knew he was probably related to our Santa Claus.

Christmas in the snow for the first time was enchanting. We didn't have a chimney but we hadn't ever had one and we knew Santa found us before, so we didn't worry. By our first Christmastime in Deutchland, we had moved from the German neighborhood to apartments on the post. We heard stories that German kids put their boots and shoes outside the door and Kris Kringle would fill them full of goodies for when they woke up on Christmas morning. My sister and I had the luxury of waking up to presents under our tree and snow boots full of chocolates and francs.

Angel hair was a tradition that my mom carried with us across the ocean. Some of my fondest Christmas memories are of our entryway in Germany with a bed of angel hair under the Nativity scene. How many kids have played with Baby Jesus and his entourage on a bed of angel hair, only to have mom pick out the sharp pieces of flaxen glass?

Springle, a bas relief frosted cookie, is another of my treasured Christmas memories of Germany. This one has followed us back to the States and has been passed down to my daughter. Making these pressed cookies has made special Christmas memories of Germany for three generations of women in my family, even though one of the generations wasn't even there!

One look at the Springerle roller in my cupboard in the heat of summer brings my Christmas memories of Germany flooding back. The creased, yellowed recipe from Hans Hartman Haus und Küchengeräte in Garmisch, the wooded rolling pin with shapes cut out to make pictures on the dough, and the cookie press that looks like a miniature butter churn takes me back to a time of innocence. I want to take them down from my cupboard and feel the shaped dough as I paint the little people in the designs.

I want to put my shoes outside my door as I wait for snow this year. I want to clip red and white polka dotted toadstool decorations to the branches of my Christmas tree. I want sit on my dad's lap and tearfully confess that I accidentally told my sister I was giving her an umbrella for Christmas. I want my mom to pick angel hair out of my tiny fingers. Christmas memories can make a lifetime ago seem like only yesterday.