I'm from Germany and after a quick peek at your journal I suspect you might be familiar with German holiday traditions in general but just in case, here's a quick summary of the more common German Christmas traditions.
In Germany Christmas is traditionally very much a family affair. The main celebration is on Christmas Eve but we get two public holidays on the 25th and 26th as well that are often used to visit extended family.
The celebration starts around nightfall on the 24th, often with the ringing of a little bell. Before the actual gift giving, the family often sings traditional Christmas carols beneath the tree before the gifts are handed out. Traditional Christmas dinner is potato salad, more fancy dishes will be served on the 25th and 26th and are likely to include some kind of roast. I think roast goose is somewhat popular but it's not set like the potato salad on Christmas Eve. Families who like to go to church service will do so either in the afternoon, especially when there are kids involved, or late in the evening but this is a rather secular society, so many people don't attend church at all.
That being said, my own Christmas deviates quite a bit from that. I live on my own and I like it best when I don't have any family obligations on Christmas but can spend the time alone.
The morning of the 24th usually means last minute grocery shopping for the fresh food, especially since shops close around noon, 2pm at the latest, on the 24th and won't reopen before the 27th (or even 28th if 27th is a Sunday). You might be familiar with that as well.
In the years that I bother with a tree, I will decorate it after the grocery shopping sometime between noon and early afternoon. After that I like to take a long soak in the bathtub.
If I have bothered with a tree, I will light it up around nightfall and I might listen to some Christmas music for a while. There will be some phone calls to my siblings eventually and I keep up with a family tradition for dinner that is somewhat atypical.
In my family growing up we had the typical potato salad while I was a young kid but eventually switched to gravlax, creamed horseradish, lingonberry sauce, toast and sparkling wine for Christmas dinner. I think this tradition formed because a friend of my father always giving him a family serving of either gravlax or smoked salmon as a gift and another friend opting for sparkling wine as a gift. This was hugely popular in our family and so it stuck. The friends were probably happy not to wrack their brains for gift ideas, thus a family tradition was born. It's very tasty, a bit fancy and doesn't require much work, so it's an ideal meal for the occasion. My siblings have formed their own food traditions later in life, none of them going with the typical potato salad, but I have stuck with the gravlax for Christmas dinner.
After dinner, it's movie time. My favorite Christmas movie is Die Hard. Sometimes I will watch Die Harder as well on Christmas Eve, or I will continue with the series the following days. After that, it's internet time, mostly spent in fandom places. I might have gotten some Christmas e-Mails from friends that I will answer, though those are usually on the 25th. In the time leading up to Christmas, I also like to write Christmas cards to send out to family and friends, some fandom friends included. I write them by hand and they are often small letters, about ten of them each year.
The 25th is my lazy day. I like to sleep in, watch some movies, read Yuletide fics, possibly go for a walk if the weather is nice, and eat lots of Christmas cookies plus some 'real' food.
There are many years when I'm doing on-call duty for my job on the holidays and in these years my Christmas time might be interrupted by work. My work also often involves travel which means I might already spend a couple of hours on a train on the 26th, otherwise that is another lazy day for me. Usually, despite making sure I have my own definition of a good time, I'm just glad once the holidays are over.
As for recs, what stood out for me the most this year was some really old stuff. I dug out some old DVDs.
Season 1 of the X-Files was even shippier than I remembered and Scully was so sweet. I always liked her but I think I appreciated her more this time than I did back in the day.
If you are familiar with Germany, you might have heard of the TV series Die Cleveren. I always thought it was a rip-off from Criminal Minds but apparently the series is about ten years older than that. It was never released in English and I'm not sure if it's available online. I have all 6 seasons on DVD and have rewatched the first three of them so far. The series holds up really well and I enjoy it a lot despite not usually being a big fan of German TV. If you should ever come across it, I can definitely recommend giving it a try.
I also watched the Batman movie series from the 90s in a collection box set that I acquired only this summer. I don't think I saw all 4 movies back then and I'm not really into all the superhero stuff but I felt nicely entertained. Funnily enough, I liked Batman & Robin best, which was the movie that tanked and everybody found awful but I think it's hilarious – the time that's passed between the movie release and today probably helps. If you can catch a rerun somewhere, definitely give it a try, you might have a fun time.
In the category of 'hilarious old stuff' I also read one of the books by Erich von Däniken written in the 70s or 80s that I had inherited from a deceased relative a couple of years ago among other books. I actually don't remember the title and I couldn't take any of it seriously but it was really entertaining.
I don't think I have recs for any newer stuff, though, sorry.
Two gorgeous medieval documents that are not directly related to your 2nd request but that you might enjoy nevertheless are the Codex Aureus Spirensis and the Gutenberg Bible.
The Codex has many amazing pictures. I could only find a preview online that might give you an idea here but the gallery has about 20 pics or so in color:
There's also a rather large document of more than 500 pages that seems to have black-and-white versions of some of the pics from the Codex and a lot of text in German. I found it a bit disappointing but if you're interested in having a look, here's the link:
While looking for an online version of the Codex Aureus Spirensis I also found this link that has a fully digitized version of a book called Codex Aureus Epternacensis. I had not heard about it before but clicking through only some of the almost 300 pages it seems amazing:
If you check it out, please also take a look at the pretty model book under the same link.
Last not least I apologize for posting anon but I ditched all my accounts several years ago and I don't want to sign up anywhere yet again for various reasons. I hope I could brighten up your holiday experience with my pear for your tree nevertheless.
Have a happy holiday season and Frohe Weihnachten!
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carisma_sensei
Frohe Weihnachten!
Date: 2019-12-24 10:23 pm (UTC)I'm from Germany and after a quick peek at your journal I suspect you might be familiar with German holiday traditions in general but just in case, here's a quick summary of the more common German Christmas traditions.
In Germany Christmas is traditionally very much a family affair. The main celebration is on Christmas Eve but we get two public holidays on the 25th and 26th as well that are often used to visit extended family.
The celebration starts around nightfall on the 24th, often with the ringing of a little bell. Before the actual gift giving, the family often sings traditional Christmas carols beneath the tree before the gifts are handed out. Traditional Christmas dinner is potato salad, more fancy dishes will be served on the 25th and 26th and are likely to include some kind of roast. I think roast goose is somewhat popular but it's not set like the potato salad on Christmas Eve. Families who like to go to church service will do so either in the afternoon, especially when there are kids involved, or late in the evening but this is a rather secular society, so many people don't attend church at all.
That being said, my own Christmas deviates quite a bit from that. I live on my own and I like it best when I don't have any family obligations on Christmas but can spend the time alone.
The morning of the 24th usually means last minute grocery shopping for the fresh food, especially since shops close around noon, 2pm at the latest, on the 24th and won't reopen before the 27th (or even 28th if 27th is a Sunday). You might be familiar with that as well.
In the years that I bother with a tree, I will decorate it after the grocery shopping sometime between noon and early afternoon. After that I like to take a long soak in the bathtub.
If I have bothered with a tree, I will light it up around nightfall and I might listen to some Christmas music for a while. There will be some phone calls to my siblings eventually and I keep up with a family tradition for dinner that is somewhat atypical.
In my family growing up we had the typical potato salad while I was a young kid but eventually switched to gravlax, creamed horseradish, lingonberry sauce, toast and sparkling wine for Christmas dinner. I think this tradition formed because a friend of my father always giving him a family serving of either gravlax or smoked salmon as a gift and another friend opting for sparkling wine as a gift. This was hugely popular in our family and so it stuck. The friends were probably happy not to wrack their brains for gift ideas, thus a family tradition was born. It's very tasty, a bit fancy and doesn't require much work, so it's an ideal meal for the occasion. My siblings have formed their own food traditions later in life, none of them going with the typical potato salad, but I have stuck with the gravlax for Christmas dinner.
After dinner, it's movie time. My favorite Christmas movie is Die Hard. Sometimes I will watch Die Harder as well on Christmas Eve, or I will continue with the series the following days. After that, it's internet time, mostly spent in fandom places. I might have gotten some Christmas e-Mails from friends that I will answer, though those are usually on the 25th. In the time leading up to Christmas, I also like to write Christmas cards to send out to family and friends, some fandom friends included. I write them by hand and they are often small letters, about ten of them each year.
The 25th is my lazy day. I like to sleep in, watch some movies, read Yuletide fics, possibly go for a walk if the weather is nice, and eat lots of Christmas cookies plus some 'real' food.
There are many years when I'm doing on-call duty for my job on the holidays and in these years my Christmas time might be interrupted by work. My work also often involves travel which means I might already spend a couple of hours on a train on the 26th, otherwise that is another lazy day for me. Usually, despite making sure I have my own definition of a good time, I'm just glad once the holidays are over.
As for recs, what stood out for me the most this year was some really old stuff. I dug out some old DVDs.
Season 1 of the X-Files was even shippier than I remembered and Scully was so sweet. I always liked her but I think I appreciated her more this time than I did back in the day.
If you are familiar with Germany, you might have heard of the TV series Die Cleveren. I always thought it was a rip-off from Criminal Minds but apparently the series is about ten years older than that. It was never released in English and I'm not sure if it's available online. I have all 6 seasons on DVD and have rewatched the first three of them so far. The series holds up really well and I enjoy it a lot despite not usually being a big fan of German TV. If you should ever come across it, I can definitely recommend giving it a try.
I also watched the Batman movie series from the 90s in a collection box set that I acquired only this summer. I don't think I saw all 4 movies back then and I'm not really into all the superhero stuff but I felt nicely entertained. Funnily enough, I liked Batman & Robin best, which was the movie that tanked and everybody found awful but I think it's hilarious – the time that's passed between the movie release and today probably helps. If you can catch a rerun somewhere, definitely give it a try, you might have a fun time.
In the category of 'hilarious old stuff' I also read one of the books by Erich von Däniken written in the 70s or 80s that I had inherited from a deceased relative a couple of years ago among other books. I actually don't remember the title and I couldn't take any of it seriously but it was really entertaining.
I don't think I have recs for any newer stuff, though, sorry.
Two gorgeous medieval documents that are not directly related to your 2nd request but that you might enjoy nevertheless are the Codex Aureus Spirensis and the Gutenberg Bible.
The Codex has many amazing pictures. I could only find a preview online that might give you an idea here but the gallery has about 20 pics or so in color:
https://www.ziereisfacsimiles.com/codex-aureus-escurialensis
There's also a rather large document of more than 500 pages that seems to have black-and-white versions of some of the pics from the Codex and a lot of text in German. I found it a bit disappointing but if you're interested in having a look, here's the link:
http://www.mgh-bibliothek.de/dokumente/a/a138202+0001+0001.pdf
While looking for an online version of the Codex Aureus Spirensis I also found this link that has a fully digitized version of a book called Codex Aureus Epternacensis. I had not heard about it before but clicking through only some of the almost 300 pages it seems amazing:
https://www.gnm.de/fileadmin/redakteure/Sammlungen/swf/codex/
The fully digitized version of the Gutenberg Bible can be found here:
http://www.gutenbergdigital.de/gudi/eframes/index.htm
If you check it out, please also take a look at the pretty model book under the same link.
Last not least I apologize for posting anon but I ditched all my accounts several years ago and I don't want to sign up anywhere yet again for various reasons. I hope I could brighten up your holiday experience with my pear for your tree nevertheless.
Have a happy holiday season and Frohe Weihnachten!