Last week was the first week of Advent; that means Christmas decorations, family gatherings, and cookie baking! My host mother loves Christmas. This fact became very apparent to me after she announced last week that she would be taking the whole week off work to “prepare” for the first of Advent. At first, I was taken by surprise. How hard could it be to “prepare” for Christmas? For my family in the US, this had always been a weekend activity. It does not take long to pull a few boxes out from storage, plug in the left over lights from last year, and hang stockings on the mantel. However, as I would soon learn, it takes a lot more time to prepare for Christmas in Germany than a few hours on a Saturday afternoon.
Mina and I on celebrating the first of Advent
On Monday, I returned home from school to find that our living room bookshelf had been transformed into a Christmas alter. All of the books had been removed, and on the shelves were small figures arranged in various Christmas scenes, accompanied by cotton stuffing snow and twinkling fairy lights. “Das ist wunderbar! (This is amazing!)” I exclaimed to host mother. She just shrugged. “The house is not nearly decorated; I still have more to do before it really starts feel festive around here.” Dumbfounded, I stared back. What could be more festive than an alter to the Spirit of Christmas displayed in your living room?!
The Christmas Alter:
She was right: the best had yet to come. Everyday a new decoration appeared: light displays in the windows, fir tree branches with small ornaments, and hand crafted, wooden figures. Coming home from school, I would search the rooms for a newly added element to the ever-growing winter wonderland that was once our house.
Opa made these "Strohsterne" (straw star ornaments.)
They are absolutely beautiful, and glow when in the proper light. She has been teaching me how to create these stars, and I have been spending rainy evenings trying to perfect the art.
Kneading the cookie dough
During the Christmas season in Germany, it is tradition to bake cookies. Not just one type, or a simple drop cookie, but a large variety of very difficult and time-consuming cookies. This week alone, my host mother and I baked eleven types of cookies: chocolate cookies with chocolate icing, vanilla cookies with powder sugar, sugar cookie sandwiches with jelly, sugar cookie sandwiches with marzipan and jelly, orange cookies with rum icing, sugar “Kinder” cookies, a cookie Christmas tree, pistachio cookies, black and white cookies, chocolate almond cookies, and chocolate covered almond clusters. In general, the dough for all of the treats is quite similar, it is the added flavor and presentation that distinguishes the different types of cookies. Just knead butter, eggs, flour, sugar and vanilla sugar together, cut into desired shapes, bake for ten minutes, and then spend another hour and a half laboriously spreading jelly, molding marzipan, coloring icing, melting chocolate, and hand-cracking nuts for these delicate treats.
Sterri cutting out the "Kinder" cookies
I know that I sound like a reluctant pastry chef, but honestly, I did have a great time baking with my host mother. Creating these cookie masterpieces was definitely a challenging, yet thrilling experience. If there is one thing that I have learned during this past week, it is that no one slaves away longer baking cookies, making decorations, and preparing gifts than a German woman during Advent.
Schokolade Kipferls: chocolate cookies with chocolate icing
Vanilla Kipferls: vanilla cookies with powder sugar
Sugar cookie sandwiches with a jelly filling and rum icing
Sugar cookie sandwiched with marzipan and jelly
Orange cookies with rum icing
Sugar "Kinderkekse" baked and decorated by Sterri, Antje and I
The cookie Christmas tree that Antje and I made for Opa as an Advent's Calender.
Pistachio cookies
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