You know you live in Germany when Christmas doesn’t wait for Thanksgiving.
Christmas comes early here, but then again, why shouldn’t it? There is no Thanksgiving to hold it back.
Yesterday, this is what went up:
Christmas decorations on Hauptstrasse (Main Street)
There have been Christmas items in the grocery store for a few weeks now, too – that’s how I got Gustav’s glitzy getup.
There is another reason why Christmas comes early here: It actually does! In addition to Christmas Day on the 25th, there is a Saint Nicholas Day on December 10th. This is the “Santa Clause” side of Christmas. He gets his own day in Germany, so Jesus can have Christmas day all to Himself (or at least, that’s what I’m hoping!). On Nikolastag, kids put their shoes outside the doors and hope that “Saint Nicholas” will come fill them with oranges, chocolate, and good things like that. When St. Nick comes to town on the train, all the kids follow him around to different shops and get candy from the shop owners (like trick-or-treating). It’s like Christmas and Halloween all rolled into one day for the kids.
