Top
10 Ways to Celebrate
the Holidays German-Style
10. Shop online and early: For a wide selection of German
foods and beverages to eat and give throughout the season, visit
a German online retailer as early as October or November.
Some favorite
examples include beautiful, German-imported Advent calendars with
chocolates inside; German-imported digestives and high-quality
schnapps, and stocking-stuffer chocolates and other candy shaped
as German good-luck symbols such as ladybugs, pigs, four-leaf
clovers and horseshoes.
9. Kicking it off
with coffee and cake: Begin the holiday celebration four weeks
prior to Christmas, the first Sunday of Advent, by celebrating
Advents Kaffee with German-imported cookies, cakes
and coffee. This is a holiday spin on the everyday Kaffeeklatsch,
or coffee and dessert get-together that Germans often have. Especially
popular German cookies include:
Katzenzungen, which are long and thin, literally translated as cat's tongues
Dominosteine, which have tiny layer cakes of gingerbread, jam and marzipan, all covered with chocolate
Zimtsterne, or little cinnamon star cookies with white icing
Spekulatius, or almond-gingerbread cookies
Pfeffernüsse, or spicy gingerbread
Printen, or soft and chewy gingerbread
cookies with tiny sugar crystals for a little crunch coated with chocolate
8. Taking a daily
dose of chocolate: Purchase a charming German-imported Advent
calendar to count down the days of December until Christmas. Some
Advent
calendars are plain cards with 24 perforated windows, each
day revealing a new symbol or scene. Others have 24 covered windows,
each with a square of chocolate, a brandy-filled chocolate, or
a chocolate truffle behind it.
7. Hanging stockings
for St. Nikolaus: Germans really do Christmas right; in fact,
they sort of do it twice! Try this fun way to spread out the holiday
cheer with a variety of unique, German-imported candy: German
children hang their stockings from the fireplace on the evening
of Dec. 5, and if they've been good, they'll find the
next morning that St. Nikolaus has filled them with candy. This
is called St. Nikolaus Day. Other presents are opened on Christmas
Eve, the evening of Dec. 24.
6. Finding handcrafted
gifts at a Weihnachtsmarkt:
Visit a German-style outdoor Christmas market, known as a Weihnachtsmarkt
or Christkindlmarkt, for some old-fashioned holiday spirit. Germany
is famous for its Christmas markets, and many American cities
have similarly styled markets, with German-imported foods, decorations
and toys.
5. Sipping warm and
spicy wine: Instead of a cup of hot cocoa on a cold winter's
day, try Gluehwein, a spiced wine served hot during the holidays
in Germany. To make it, combine an inexpensive bottle of red wine
in a pot with a cinnamon stick, six cloves, some lemon slices,
and 2 to 4 tablespoons sugar. Add some German schnapps to taste
try cherry-flavored Kirschwasser or plum-flavored Zwetschgenwasser.
German schnapps is typically much less sweet than most American
types, and always colorless. In addition to servings as an enhancement
to gluehwein, it can be served very cold in a shot glass as a
crisp, pleasant finale to a heavy holiday meal.
4. Tasting fruitcake
wait, this is fruitcake? Change your mind about fruitcake
by tasting a famous German
stollen a light, not-too-sweet yeast bread with a firm
crust that is filled with delicious nuts and fruits, and usually
topped with a sprinkling of powdered sugar. The most famous German-imported
stollen is from Dresden, and this can be found in many supermarkets
and specialty stores at Christmastime.
3. Feasting on a
gemutlich (that's cozy) dinner: Try roasted duck,
goose or rabbit on Christmas Eve., following German Christmas
tradition. Serve it with potato dumplings, either made from scratch
or from a German-imported mix. Or, try spaetzle on the side, a
German version of pasta. Top it off with some tangy pickled red
cabbage, either made from scratch or from a jar.
2. Laying out an
easy Christmas breakfast: Christmas is a busy morning but
with extended family often around, a company-suitable breakfast
is necessary. What to do? Try the Germans' take on breakfast
by laying out an assortment of German deli meats, cheeses, hard-boiled
eggs, fruit, muesli, yogurt and pastries. This can all be prepared
on platters in advance, wrapped and refrigerated until needed
so all you need to do on Christmas morning is make coffee
and tea.
1. And finally, remedying
a hangover On New Year's Day or any other time, many
Germans swear by smoked or pickled herring as a hangover cure.
They usually eat it cold, perhaps on some dark bread with some
good German mustard, or marinated in a salad with steamed potatoes
and green beans. Several varieties and flavors of preserved herring
are available in American supermarkets and specialty stores
look for them in mustard sauce, horseradish sauce, spicy tomato
sauce, dill cream sauce and more.
Source...
Don't know where to find German foods in your area? Visit the
retailer database on www.germanfoods.org
for a wide selection of local and online retailers.