The fourth Sunday before Christmas marks the beginning of the German Christmas time: on that day, the first of four candles are lit on the advent wreath, followed by another one on each of the Sundays right up until Christmas Eve.
We do like our advent period: long gone are the days of fasting – in medieval times, butter was banned from St Martin’s until Christmas Eve, and up into the 20th Century, dancing and partying was forbidden, too, in the four weeks leading up to Christmas. But traditions change, thankfully, and we are left with an abundance of breads, biscuits and cookies to be made and eaten during the Advent period.
Photograph: Helwyn Jones
Most German families will have an advent wreath of some sort: traditionally it is made of fir, and the most common colours are red and gold. In many houses the wreath is suspended from the ceiling, making for an impressive and incredible beautiful decoration. Unfortunately, our tiny English cottage does not have enough space for that, which means our wreath gets moved around a lot between the dining table, the piano and the space in front of the fire place.
I used Christmas decorations for ours, some of them we have had since I was a child myself, such as this little baby in t crib:
I still remember touching the soft pillows when I was little – have you noticed how many of your earliest memories are to do with touch and smell? The smell of fresh fir is definitely part of my Christmas memories!
In Germany, you can find firs and cut off branches in most forests – simply tie them around a round straw ring using wire and you have a basic wreath.
When I moved to the UK, wreaths were still quite a novelty, and there’s not a lot of fir growing around Belfast. With a few empty bottles, red candles and some moss (or Mind-Your-Own-Business, a rather pretty weed that is bent on covering our front garden) you can quickly create a more modern take on the classic wreath:
I filled the glass bottles with some holly, ivy, hazelnuts and baubles, sticking to the traditional red and green.
Well-organised Germans will have their traditional Christmas breads and biscuits already baked, in time for the countless advent coffee and tea parties. Recipes are handed down from generation to generation; sometimes a new one is added, an old one discarded. Most people I know have at least 6 different biscuits on the go: butter biscuits, which are perfect for the little metal cutters, are definitely one of them:
Others include gingerbread, in all its variations, perhaps a Stollen (typical for the North-East of Germany) and little Baumkuchen squares, and definitely Marillenringe, the Austrian version of Jammy Dodgers.
Over the next couple of weeks I’ll be sharing some of our family recipes with you – but I’ll be busily reading up on your Christmas bakery, too, to see if I can find something new to add to my ever-expanding repertoire!
Ginger&Bread 
Beautiful, Ginger 🙂
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Thank you – it’s been a busy time …
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Your Adventskranz is lovely! We were just talking about how we should have one… whoops. And I was going to surprise my husband with some Plätzchen… should probably get onto that!!
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I’m usually late, but this year I had to speed up a bit! My cousins have all baked their biscuits for the 1st of Advent, which is when I tend to start …
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Reading your post made me have a realization. My Nan was from Germany, and she would have a little wreath like this on the table in the family room every year for december. I just thought it was a christmas decoration from K-Mart she liked. It had little plastic holly, and fuzzy velveteen presents on it and 4 red candles. I had no idea that was a German tradition. Now I’m a bit sad she never said anything about it, it would have been a tradition we carried on, because its lovely. Maybe this year I will bring back the advent wreath! Thank you for this post, it was very nice and christmassy!
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Thank you, Kara! It’s quite interesting how traditions live on when you move abroad, and I am quite excited to see how my own children will deal with it, which bits they’ll remember and which ones they’ll forget 😉 In Northern Europe December days are so dark and cold that these traditions are vital to keep us entertained – I am sure I’d have instantly forgotten all about a wreath if I had moved to the Caribbean …
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I love German Christmas markets! They are so crazy big and filled with anything and everything! Your “wreath” looks lovely! We have the same four candles in Sweden but in a row and one is lit each advent 🙂
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And you have Lucia – I remember reading about it in the Astrid Lindgren books I grew up with 🙂
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Oh 🙂 ha ha yes that is true! I still miss that living in the UK I have to admit!
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Your beautiful pictures are startig to get in in a festive spirit Ginger! Last year I was in Edinburgh for the German Markets and it was a lot of fun. Someday I’d like to be in Germany!!!
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Me too 😉 We are planning to go to Birmingham to the German market instead!
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Awww, Weihnachtsplaetzchen 🙂 Happy baking xxx
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Danke!
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Love all these traditions we have 🙂
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I love reading about your advent traditions. The advent period is so special. I’ve always loved the countdown — anticipation is delightful. 🙂
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