Yuletide Treats and Traditions

One afternoon, when we were in Copenhagen, we went to the store to pick up some groceries and drinks for an evening meal at our host's house. We walked the isles, as usual, trying to determine what everything was and find the things we needed (or appropriate substitues for them). Once we'd found all of our dinner ingredients, we wandered over to the beer isle. In Denmark in general things are quite expensive, so as usual, we were hunting for the best deal. We agreed on a 6 pack of what looked to us like a seasonal holiday beer--perhaps it was a porter or a stout but we couldn't tell for sure as neither of us reads Danish. Its appearance reminded us of something that might come out of a microbrewery back home around this time of year. In any case, it cost about half as much as anything else on the shelf- a great bargain!

When we returned to the apartment, we began making dinner. As we often do while cooking, we each cracked open a bottle. It was like sipping on a soda, mixed with several tablespoons of honey and artificial "Christmas flavor." If you could manage to discern even the slightest taste of beer, you'd be lucky. What was this awful stuff?! 

When we examined the bottles closer (something that, in retrospect, we probably should have done before we bought them) we realized that this "beer" contained almost no alcohol- a mere 1.7%. Okay, so we'd accidentally bought the Danish equivalent of "O'Doul's", but why on earth was it so sweet and syrupy?? Who could possibly want to drink this stuff?

When our host, Lars, returned home from work, he noticed our open beers, chuckled a bit, and asked what we thought of them. When we told him how terrible they were, and that we'd only gotten them because they were cheap, he offered an explanation. "These beers are for Santa", he said. You see, Danish parents tell their children that this particular beer is the one that Santa likes, and so children all over Denmark leave it out for him on Christmas Eve, along with a bowl of risengrød (rice pudding). Of course, kids want to taste the special Santa beer, which is why it's sweet and non-alcoholic. 

Hanging at the Christmas market in Dreieich

We got a pretty big kick out of this. It had never crossed our minds that Santa might prefer something other than our traditional milk and cookies. This prompted me to do a little research and find out what people in other places around the world tell their children that Santa likes. As it turns out, Santa only prefers milk and cookies when he's visiting the U.S. and Canada.

I learned that in Germany, children leave letters, not cookies, for Santa (or rather the German equivilent, "Christkind"-- a white-robed, present-bearing figure). In France, instead of leaving cookies for Père Noël, children fill their shoes with carrots for his donkey, Gui. Dutch children, too, leave out carrots, hay and a bowl of water for Sinterklaas' horse. 

Sean helping to set up the nativity scene.

The Australians and Brits figure Santa needs something a bit hardier than milk and cookies to sustain him through his long night, so the children there leave out sherry and mince pies. Also, British children, instead of mailing their Christmas lists, throw them in the fire and "Father Christmas" reads the smoke to learn what they are wishing for. In Ireland, Santa can expect more mince pies, but there he'll get to wash them down with (but of course!) a nice tall glass of Guinness. In Sweden, Santa can look forward to a hot cup of coffee. 

In Chile, Viejo Pascuero (Old Man Christmas) is greeted with a traditional Chilean "pan de pascua", a sponge cake flavored with ginger and honey and full of candied fruit. In Kenya, a child might save Santa a bit of roasted goat, which is the traditional Kenyan Christmas dinner. If you live in Argentina, Santa might stop for a break in your kitchen and have some "sidra"-- an alcoholic apple cider which is used for toasting on Christmas Eve. 

The Biens have their own traditions, too. Like many Germans, throughout the month of December, they progressively light 4 advent candles, adding a new one on each Sunday leading up to Christmas. Once the 4th candle is lit, that's when they can put up their tree--rather late in the month by our US standards. On Saturday (okay, one day early wont hurt anybody) we helped to trim the tree and set out the manger. 

Every Christmas for many years, Inge has made these special little angels. Each is a one-of-a-kind, hand-sewn labor of love, taking someone with practice around 3 hours to make! They use them to decorate their tree, and very rarely as gifts (because, well, after 3 hours of cutting, sewing, and shaping you've become quite attached to the little things). My family was lucky enough to receive one of these special decorations in the mail the year that Claudia lived with us, and it has hung on our tree every year since. This Christmas, I was lucky enough to get a lesson on how they're made.

Claudia, Inge and I working on our angels (Sean decided to pass- crafts aren't really his thing)

Three or so long hours later, my finished angel :) 

I find it fascinating that traditions surrounding Christmas are so varied in different places... that people who believe essentially the same thing, and celebrate the same holiday, have invented so many different stories about it, have so many different ways of celebrating it. 

Although it's difficult to be away from our families during the holidays, and we can't help but miss our own traditions a little bit, it's wonderful to get to experience what Christmas is like in another country (a first for us both) and learn a little bit about how people celebrate around the world. 

Merry Christmas, Joyeux Noël, Feliz Navidad, Fröhliche Weihnachten, God Jul, Buone Feste Natalizie, and Zalig Kerstfeast, Everyone!

Jenna and Sean