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Happy First of December! Countdown to Christmas has officially started!

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The story of the Advent Calendar

Germans love Christmas. In fact, for Germans, it’s the most important holiday of the year!

Many traditions help us Germans prepare for and enjoy the Christmas season to the fullest, like Saint Nicholas Day on Dec 6th or the four Sundays of Advent, Christmas cookies and much more.

One tradition, however, stands out since it is equally loved by children and adults. The Advent Calendar!

Who doesn’t like a countdown to a highly anticipated event?

Apparently many don’t want to miss it. In places all around the world, one can now find these magic Advent Calendars that hide chocolates or little toys behind their secret doors. Even beer calendars are available or calendars filled with a variety of liquor filled chocolates. The possibilities seem endless…

In the old days, just a beautiful little picture behind a door would make kids happy. Today some Advent Calendars made it even online, published by companies that discovered it as another tool to engage customers.

The first Advent Calendar originated in Germany in 1904 when Gerhard Lang published a simple one as an insert in a newspaper in Stuttgart. It was a raving success! So Lang decided to print a new one every year. The designs became more and more elaborate from calendars that worked like a dial to calendar houses filled with chocolates to even a calendar in Braille for the blind.

But how did he get the idea to make a calendar that would count down the days to Christmas in the first place?

The idea of counting down to Christmas Eve already existed in different ways. Some families used to mark the days to Christmas with chalk on their doors, in other families children were putting one piece of hay every day into a manger in which Baby Jesus would be laid on Christmas Eve.

Gerhard Lange’s mother however handcrafted a calendar for his then little son that would be filled with a little meringue for every day in December leading up to Christmas Eve. That caused a lasting impression and, as an adult, inspired Gerhard Lange to expand on his mother’s idea of an Advent Calendar.

The ‘modern’ Advent Calendar was born and started out to conquer the world in all kinds of variations!

Wir wünschen eine schöne Vorweihnachtszeit!  

Happy Holiday Season!

Images: Pixabay.com

Der Winter ist Da !

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Winter road.
(Ein Winter-Gedicht von Dieter Kermas)
 
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Der Winter ist da,

es schneit, hurra!

Die Schule ist aus,

jetzt aber raus.

Es wird gerangelt und gelacht,

auf zur großen Schneeballschlacht.

Ein Schneeball trifft zuerst den Paul,

dieser wirft drauf gar nicht faul,

den nächsten Ball schon auf Hermine,

doch die verzieht nicht eine Miene

und Hermine ist nicht fein,

reibt den Paul mit Schnee nun ein.

Es geht laut zu, mit Geschrei,

jeder ist mit Spaß dabei.

Bald sind alle durchgefroren,

von den Füßen bis zu den Ohren.

Und die Mädchen und die Buben,

eilen heim in warmen Stuben.

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© Dieter Kermas
 
 
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Dieter KermasDieter  Kermas, CaliforniaGermans Guest Author and a true Berliner, turned to writing after he retired from his profession as an engineer. Family and friends urged him to document his many experiences during his childhood in wartime Germany. This made for a collection of various essays which have been published here at CaliforniaGermans. Apart form his childhood memories he is also sharing some of his short stories and poems on CaliforniaGermans.  Dieter Kermas, who loves to write, is currently working on his first novel. Some of his work has been included in anthologies.
 
To get in touch with Dieter Kermas, please send an email with subject line “Dieter Kermas”  to: californiagermans@gmail.com
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Happy First Advent !

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Adventskranz

This year First Advent falls on to the 1st of December .

So light the first candle on your Advent wreath tomorrow, and don’t forget to open also the first door on your Advent Calendar !

Frohe Adventszeit ! – Happy Advent Season !

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Gluehwein – Mulled Wine : A Christkindl Market Tradition

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gluehwein

Did our previous post showcasing German Christkindel Markets get you in the mood of some real traditional ‘Glühwein’ (mulled red wine)?

Then check out our new recipe for this Christkindel Market tradition, by our guest writer GabrieleUtz . Just imagine walking through the fresh snow with a nice hot cup of ‘Glühwein’  and a handful of warm chestnuts! Those are some delicious winter holiday memories…

Happy Third of Advent!

gluehwein-1

Authentic German ‘Gluehwein’ or Mulled Wine

Ingredients

2 liter red wine
3/4 l brown rum, 40% –  optional
sugar as needed
1-2 orange, organic, blood oranges are good too
1-2 lemons, organic
1 cinnamon stick
1 vanilla bean
5 cloves and 1 star anise

Cooking Instructions
– Heat the wine in a big pot but don’t bring it to a boil; heat it on low temperature.
– Remove seeds from lemons and oranges.
– Cut the orange and lemon with the peel in slices or quarters, add them to the wine with the cloves. Keep it on low temperature and let it simmer.
– Cut vanilla bean open and add the seeds to the wine.
– Add 2/3 of the rum – the rum adds a  nice taste to the wine but also makes it stronger, so you can add just a little bit or don’t add it at all.
– Let it simmer until the oranges and lemons are getting very soft- for about 1-1.5 hours; take out a piece of lemon and check if you can take it off the peel. The wine should color it red until to the peel.
– Stir frequently.
– Wash some bottles with hot water.
– Take out the fruit and cloves or pour it through a strainer.
– Press remaining juice out of the fruit and add it to the wine. If you like your can puree the fruit without the peel and add it to the wine aswell, that makes it thicker.
– Heat it again and add remaining rum and sugar – don’t bring it to a boil!
– Fill it hot in bottles and close it right away, or keep it warm for your guests.
The wine can be kept for several months in the bottles if well closed.

—————————————————————————————————————–        ABOUT

MyBestGermanRecipes.comMyBestGermanRecipes is the creation of Gabriele Utz. Interested in cooking and baking ever since she can think of she now has turned her passion into reality, and has started an online cookbook with authentic German recipes in 2010. The website offers more than 300 original German recipes.
website | Twitter | Facebook

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Christmas Bakery – Peffernüsse, a German Christmas Recipe

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English: Christmas cookies and decoration.
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The First Advent Sunday is today and Christmas season has officially started. Traditionally the four weeks of Advent are represented by four candles on an Advent wreath. The first one will get lit today and then it’s only four more weeks until Christmas eve is here!

Christmas cookies are a must for this festive holiday season. So we thought of starting you out with a scrumptious recipe for traditional “Peffernüsse” by our guest author Gabriele Utz of MyBestGermanRecipes. She  will share with us one of her favorite recipes on each of the four Advent Sundays plus a special one for New Year‘s Eve. Give it a try and fill your home with the sweet scents of gingerbread spices!

Happy First of Advent!

GERMAN PFEFFERNÜSSE 

(by Gabriele Utz, MyBestGermanRecipes.com)
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This is an authentic German Pfeffernusse recipe as you would find in Germany. German Pfeffernusse are traditional Christmas cookies and very popular. You can find them in any bakery or supermarket in Germany. Get some German tradition into your home with this recipe. The ingredient Hirschhornsalz, in English Hartshorn or Ammonium Carbonate, is a traditional Gingerbread (Lebkuchen) ingredient since hundreds of years and was originally taken from deer’s antlers. It makes the dough raise but not in height, it makes it wider. Happy Baking!

Pfeffernuesse

Ingredients (20 pieces) German Pfeffernusse
125 honey
50 g sugar
2 tbsp butter
250 g flour (whole grain if you like)
1/2 tsp Hirschhornsalz (Ammonium Carbonate) – Find here the German original or an American product:
Ammonium Carbonate (Baker’s Ammonia) 2.7 oz
1 egg
2 tsp ginger bread spice – Edora Lebkuchen Gewurz (Gingerbread Spices) 1 – .05oz Package
1/4 tsp white pepper
1 pinch salt
125 g powdered sugar
1 tbsp rum

Baking Instructions German Pfeffernusse 
– Heat butter, honey and sugar and melt it.
– Mix flour, egg, Hirschhornsalz and spices, add honey dough and knead it  thoroughly with knead hooks.
– Form balls out of the dough and bake them on 190 C or 375 F for 12 minutes; bake the next portion only for 10 minutes.
– Make the glaze out of powdered sugar and rum and a bit of water.
– Spread glaze over the cooled off cookies and let them dry.
– Keep them at least 2 days in a tin box with a piece of bread or a piece of apple, so they get soft.
If you like you can make  a dark chocolate glaze and spread it on half of the cookies, and have the other half white.

Recipe Article Source:
 
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ABOUT

MyBestGermanRecipes.comMyBestGermanRecipes is the creation of Gabriele Utz. Interested in cooking and baking ever since she can think of she now has turned her passion into reality, and has started an online cookbook with authentic German recipes in 2010. The website offers more than 300 original German recipes. 
website | Twitter | Facebook
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‘Adventzeit’ and Christmas Season

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die-schoensten-Christkindlm1Christmas Season officially starts on the First Advent in Germany. Since this year that day is actually on December 2nd,  children will also have already opened their second door on their Advent Calendars, a beloved holiday tradition that marks down the days to the highly anticipated Christmas Eve (Heiligabend).

The First Advent, when in November,  often marks also the first day of the Christmas Markets (Christkindlmarkt) which are then open until December 24, the ‘Heiligabend’. For the next few weeks visitors will enjoy hot and scented  Gluehwein, warm roasted chestnuts and all kinds of Lebkuchen (a variety of Gingerbreads ) while listening to festive Advent music and walking along little booths selling a great variety of Christmas decorations,  the real attraction for young and old.  Beautifully handcrafted wooden manger scenes (Holzkrippen) are usually also on display at bigger Christkindl Markets, and Saint Nikolaus is walking the streets to great little children.

Delicious Christmas Favorites for the Holidays

To ring in the holidays for everyone here in California, and fill your home with the delicious fragrance of freshly baked Christmas cookies, we have invited guest author Gabriele Utz, founder of MyBestGermanRecipe.com, to share some of her favorite German holiday recipes with us.

Gabriele, born and raised in Germany, lives with her family in Los Angeles and has always been interested in cooking and baking. After her move to L.A. she thoroughly missed German food, and thinking that other fellow ex-pats might feel the same, she founded MyBestGermanRecipes.com in 2010. The website has now more then 300 original recipes for German food lovers!

Look out for a new holiday recipe on each Advent Sunday. A special  “Silvester Rezept” will await you for New Year’s eve!

Christmas Markets and Events around California

Some German Christmas events around California are happening tomorrow (December 1st) to welcome the holiday season. Check out our Event Calendar for location and time.

christmas ornament on treeHave a wonderful Holiday Season !

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Additional Reading:

Happy First Advent – Einläuten der Weihnachtszeit

http://www.latimes.com/travel/deals/la-trb-cambria-christmas-mart-20121128,0,107035.photogallery

http://www.kqed.org/tv/programs/index.jsp?pgmid=19605

http://www.kcet.org/shows/european_christmas_markets/european-christmas-markets.html

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Holiday Season At The Beach – Adventszeit Am Strand

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Reconnect to the magic of Christmas a different way and find peace and tranquility despite the hectic that surrounds this busiest time of the year.

Winter time is a perfect time to spend at the beach. Especially if the weather is as beautiful as it was for the last few Advent weekends. One can spend hours walking on the sand without the summer crowds and just enjoy the waves crashing at the feet and watching the pelicans sail over the ocean. It’s perfect for reconnecting with your mind, soul and the elements.

Some beaches have special attractions for the holiday season like ice skating while watching the sunset over the ocean. Ice skating by the beach has become a tradition at the Del Coronado Hotel in San Diego, the hotel where “Some Like It Hot” was filmed starring Marilyn Monroe.

Del Coronado’s beloved holiday tradition starts every year right after Thanksgiving.  The hotel has an ice rink set up right in front of the hotel’s beach promenade, looking over the beautiful wide, white beaches – the sand here by the way seems much softer and whiter than anywhere else in SoCal, so I found.  After the ice skating sessions one can relax with hot cocoa and other goodies at the coffee bar or the restaurant right at the promenade. It’s a great and fun time well spent with family and friends!

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Happy First Advent – Einläuten der Weihnachtszeit

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With the First Advent today Christmastime has officially started.
Christmas markets in Germany traditionally open their doors on this weekend and it’s the cozy time of chestnuts and Glühwein.

Also here in California homes are being decorated with Christmas lighting and harbor cities are gearing up for the boat light parades. Christmas tree lighting events in malls have already taken place last week before Thanksgiving and winter festivals like the Sawdust Winter Fantasy Festival in Laguna Beach do their best to get you in the holiday spirit. Take a stroll with us through Sawdust Winter Fantasy Festival with our slideshow below.

Happy Holiday Season!

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Advent, Advent, ein Lichtlein brennt…

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Advent, Advent,
ein Lichtlein brennt!
Erst eins, dann zwei, dann drei, dann vier,
dann steht das Christkind vor der Tür!

Christmas – the favorite season of the year, is here! The first Advent happened already last week and children started opening their advent calendars on December 1st. As the little folk poem says “…First one (candle) then two, then three, then four – then Christmas is in front of your door” and with that the end of the year is very fast approaching.

Before I even want to go into New Year’s solutions , are you prepared for Christmas? Well, I certainly am not and it frankly scares me to hear if someone says they have already bought all their Christmas presents and are ready to go! But presents are just one part of the whole Christmas experience. What about Christmas cookies? Should you be a baking expert then I am sure you are right in the middle of it now. If you are not into baking or just bake a few traditional cookies, and still would like to enjoy a greater variety of German Christmas delicacies,  GermanDeli.com is a great way to start Christmas shopping for German Christmas cookies ,cakes and much more.

Every year when I put in my order online it always has been a great experience from the moment I send off the online order to receiving the package. It is a pleasure to see how this company knows what customer service means. From the time the online order is sent of, GermanDeli.com is in communication with you per email, letting you know the progress of your order. When the package arrives, one will find the order packed into a climate box that’s attractively covered by a black cardboard with a German flag ribbon. Upon opening the box one will find the products all separately wrapped or packed and kept at a certain temperature level with the help of cooling ice packs (which by arrival have become watery but did definitely do their job). Everything is perfectly kept and all cookies are still in one and not partly broken, which happened before when I used a different online store to get my German Christmas goodies.

The GermanDeli online store is a great alternative to having family and friends send  stuff over from Germany or even to finding a German store in your vicinity. They have a great Christmas selection, which unfortunately does sell out quickly the closer Christmas approaches. So get your order in quickly before it’s too late and remember to start your Christmas cookie shopping early next year. Otherwise there is no other way around baking them all yourself …

Schoene Vorweihnachtszeit!

 

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Christmas 2009 – A Compilation of Events

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Christmas is near. In fact next weekend will be the first Advent! An important date I remember from my childhood, as it meant the most wonderful season of the year was about to start. The dangerously delicious scent of freshly baked cookies filled my and all my friends’ homes. It was the season, where it seemed to be just natural to find some time in the day to sit together with a warm cup of tea or coffee in the hand, chatting and watching the flame of the first candle of the advent wreath magically illuminate the dark filled rooms.

Cookies, Snow and Sankt Nikolaus (Saint Nicolas), Christkindl markets and the cold but sweet smell in the air, ‘heisse Maroni’ (warm chestnuts), Gluehwein (hot spiced red wine), and more are just some of my cherished Christmas memories…

I am still on the search for a perfect advent wreath and have yet to find out more about Christkindl markets here in California. The Christmas Festivals, like the Winter Sawdust Festival in Laguna Beach, are probably a close bet. In the meantime get in the mood for Christmas by checking out the regularly updated list of Christmas events. It’s an extra page under ‘Resources’, dedicated to “Christmas 2009″.