Hi John, My dad's family settled in Grundy Co., Iowa. Dad's family opened their presents on Christmas Eve. He said that Santa made an appearance early in the evening and passed out their gifts. The lighting of the real candles sounds very Scandinavian. I have no idea what my dad's family did in regards to the tree. He never mentioned it. I know that my husband's Swedish and Norwegian families lit candles on the tree on Christmas Eve and danced around the tree. My dad's family had a traditional item for Christmas Eve supper called "futjen." We later called them fritters. They are deep fat fried or fried in a fritter pan. They have raisins and cardamom in them. Yum. My mother is not of German background so our family combined our Christmas Eve meal with the fritters and oyster stew. I always liked the fritters. The oyster stew not so much. I continue the tradition of the fritters but now have them for Christmas morning. My adult children look forward to that tradition every year and also to the lefse from my husband's side of the family. (As I'm writing this, Tom's e-mail came through and I see that his wife's family also has the fritters. I know that some friends in SW Iowa also continue that tradition.) Merry Christmas! Maggie Nelson On Dec 24, 2011, at 2:05 PM, John Rasch wrote: > Christmas Greetings, Can anyone direct me to a website or other > documentation of how the people of Schleswig celebrated Christmas? > Did they have predominately German cultural practices or Danish? > My family, who were Lutheran, settled initially in Western Iowa. > My Great Aunts and Uncles told of how they were not allowed to see > the Christmas tree or the gifts below it until Christmas morning. > In fact I do not believe that the tree was even put up until > Christmas eve. They had real candles that they lit on the branches > too. I assume they went to mass that morning but am not sure as > religion and faith were not talked of any more than politics. My > Grandpa was a baker and so I assume there were lots of baked > goodies to be enjoyed. > My Dad was rather particular as to how the whole tree decorating > happened too. I am wondering if this was a result of the depression > era or if it has roots in his heritage. > (Rasch, Pieper, Thomsen, Thomssen, Lorensen, Evers, Trede, > Thiedemann, Hitscher) > > John Rasch(Rootsweb Family Trees: Bartley2007 // Schleswig towns: > Kiesbyfeld, Lindaukamp, Kius, Boren / USA: Davenport, IA; - Scott > Co. IA; - Minden, IA; Denver, Co; - Herrick, SD; - Greeley, NE; - > Milwaukee, WI > Merry ChristmasJohn > "...which He prepared..." Ephesians 2 > ==== SCHLESWIG-HOLSTEIN-ROOTS Mailing List ==== > Technical Terms and Rules of the S-H-ROOTS: > http://www.genealogy-sh.com/faq-sh-roots/index.htm > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to SCHLESWIG- > HOLSTEIN-ROOTS-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' > without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message

Maggie, More on fudgen.  Gay makes extra batter and forms the leftover dough  into cinamon or pecan sticky rolls and bakes them on Christmas morning serving them with the left over hams, fried.  Gay says she thinks the breakfast roll tradition in her family originated with her mother.  Also on our research of the name fudgen (feuden, futjen) there are many variations.  Her guess is that the actual name is Low German and spelled differently by various families over time. Blessing and Merry Christmas, Tom >________________________________ > From: Maggie Nelson <maggiebly@gmail.com> >To: schleswig-holstein-roots@rootsweb.com >Sent: Saturday, December 24, 2011 3:06 PM >Subject: Re: [SCHLESWIG-HOLSTEIN-ROOTS] How was Christmas celebrated? > >Hi John, >My dad's family settled in Grundy Co., Iowa. Dad's family opened  >their presents on Christmas Eve. He said that Santa made an  >appearance early in the evening and passed out their gifts. The  >lighting of the real candles sounds very Scandinavian. I have no idea  >what my dad's family did in regards to the tree. He never mentioned  >it. I know that my husband's Swedish and Norwegian families lit  >candles on the tree on Christmas Eve and danced around the tree. > >My dad's family had a traditional item for Christmas Eve supper  >called "futjen." We later called them fritters. They are deep fat  >fried or fried in a fritter pan. They have raisins and cardamom in  >them. Yum. My mother is not of German background so our family  >combined our Christmas Eve meal with the fritters and oyster stew. I  >always liked the fritters. The oyster stew not so much. >I continue the tradition of the fritters but now have them for  >Christmas morning. My adult children look forward to that tradition  >every year and also to the lefse from my husband's side of the family. >(As I'm writing this, Tom's e-mail came through and I see that his  >wife's family also has the fritters. I know that some friends in SW  >Iowa also continue that tradition.) >Merry Christmas! >Maggie Nelson > > >On Dec 24, 2011, at 2:05 PM, John Rasch wrote: > >> Christmas Greetings, Can anyone direct me to a website or other  >> documentation of how the people of Schleswig celebrated Christmas?  >> Did they have predominately German cultural practices or Danish? >> My family, who were Lutheran, settled initially in Western Iowa.  >> My Great Aunts and Uncles told of how they were not allowed to see  >> the Christmas tree or the gifts below it until Christmas morning.  >> In fact I do not believe that the tree was even put up until  >> Christmas eve. They had real candles that they lit on the branches  >> too. I assume they went to mass that morning but am not sure as  >> religion and faith were not talked of any more than politics. My  >> Grandpa was a baker and so I assume there were lots of baked  >> goodies to be enjoyed. >> My Dad was rather particular as to how the whole tree decorating  >> happened too. I am wondering if this was a result of the depression  >> era or if it has roots in his heritage. >> (Rasch, Pieper, Thomsen, Thomssen, Lorensen, Evers, Trede,  >> Thiedemann, Hitscher) >> >> John Rasch(Rootsweb Family Trees: Bartley2007 // Schleswig towns:  >> Kiesbyfeld, Lindaukamp, Kius, Boren / USA: Davenport, IA; - Scott  >> Co. IA; - Minden, IA; Denver, Co; - Herrick, SD; - Greeley, NE; -  >> Milwaukee, WI >> Merry ChristmasJohn >> "...which He prepared..." Ephesians 2 >>  ==== SCHLESWIG-HOLSTEIN-ROOTS Mailing List ==== >> Technical Terms and Rules of the S-H-ROOTS: >> http://www.genealogy-sh.com/faq-sh-roots/index.htm >> >> ------------------------------- >> To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to SCHLESWIG- >> HOLSTEIN-ROOTS-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe'  >> without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message > >==== SCHLESWIG-HOLSTEIN-ROOTS Mailing List ==== >Technical Terms and Rules of the S-H-ROOTS: >http://www.genealogy-sh.com/faq-sh-roots/index.htm > >------------------------------- >To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to SCHLESWIG-HOLSTEIN-ROOTS-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message > > >