Christmas Can't Be Very Far Away

Ever have one of those hectic years where Christmas comes and goes, and between the work and rush and lack of snow, it just doesn’t feel like a proper Christmas even happened once December 26 rolls around? 

This could never happen in Germany. 

There is just too much Christmas spirit all around!  It starts well before Advent, at least in Detmold. The town teases you by stringing up lights all throughout the city center and refusing to turn them on.  Then, a little fair comes to town, taking over the entire pedestrian zone and making you miss the bus one day because the bus stop has moved from the main street to a little side street.  The next morning, you have to leave extra-early to make the new bus stop and are forced to take a shortcut through the castle-grounds.  The feeling of annoyance is simply amusing – it’s a difficult life, traipsing through the castle-grounds!

Then, finally, the Wednesday before Advent starts, the fair opens! Detmold comes strangely alive, people fill the streets as soon as it’s dark, eating and drinking and chatting, the lights that have been strung up for weeks finally come on, and you walk around drinking Glühwein, freezing but happy.  This is the essence of the German Christmas season: freezing but happy.

And, while it just keeps getting colder, if you’re like me and the other assistants in the area, you just keep going out into the cold and the crowds, eating and drinking your way through Advent.  One day it’s the market in Bielefeld, the next your at an upscale Christmas market in a castle – literally, in a castle – and the next weekend it’s ice skating on a little rink sandwiched between old half-timber houses and travelling to Münster to steal Glühwein mugs shaped like hearts.  At each market, you try a different type of Glühwein or a tasty winter shot – plum liquor with whipped cream is the winner so far.

Somewhere in between is Nikolaustag and the staff room exploding in a sea of chocolate and treats, a Christmas tree in the school foyer, a delicious Christmas-beer at the local brewery, the fun of opening a new door on the chocolate Advents calendar every day, the appearance of Christmas trees by every lamppost in the city, mince pies from the British and Advent wreaths that have red candles instead of purple and pink.

And while I’m more than excited to come home for Christmas, I wouldn’t have missed this for the world!