That is how our Christmas was when I was a little girl in Germany, my mother is from Laboe and we had the adventkranz, in the month leading up to Christmas, St Nikolas on the 6th Dec, we put our shoes on the windowsill, and in the morning they were filled with fruit, nuts and lollies. Christmas Eve was always potato salad and we had our presents on Christmas Eve, they were never wrapped, just under the candle lit tree. Heidi Richardson Sydney, Australia -----Original Message----- From: schleswig-holstein-roots-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:schleswig-holstein-roots-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of Klaus Dieter Cook Sent: Sunday, 25 December 2011 10:24 AM To: schleswig-holstein-roots@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [SCHLESWIG-HOLSTEIN-ROOTS] How was Christmas celebrated? Not quite a "Schleswig" Christmas, but this is how we did it in Hessen. One of the things no one has mentioned is the "Adventskranz" or advent's wreath. We always had a plain wreath with red ribbon and 4 candles, one for each Sunday of Advent. Each Sunday a candle was lit. Another tradition was the visit of St. Nikolaus and Knecht Rupprecht on the 6th of December. St. Nik would give fruit, nuts and candy to the kids that have been good, while Knecht Rupprecht would pass out switches to the kids that were bad. These visits were always arranged by mom or dad and were announced by heavy knocking and rattling of chains at the door. The man of the house would decorate the christmas tree on the afternoon of the 24th. I can still remember the very delicate glass ornaments that were passed down for generations. Luckily I still have several of them including the one for the top of the tree. The "lights" were always real candles, and the icicles were strips of very thin aluminum i think (it was called Lametta). The presents were opened on the evening of the 24th after supper and when it was dark outside. The meal on the 24th was usually sausages and Kartoffelsalat (potato salad), nothing very special. Christmas Day was the big meal. In our family it consisted of roast goose stuffed with apples and prunes, potato dumplings (Kartoffelkloesse) and red cabbage. Klaus Dieter Cook Houston, Texas On Sat, 24 Dec 2011 14:05:45 -0600, John Rasch <jlrasch@yahoo.com> 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 -- Klaus Dieter Cook Cook-Garza Genealogy Pages (www.cook.sunbeltprinters.com) Houston, Texas USA ==== 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