December 6 is St. Nikolaus Day. In the evening, St. Nikolaus, a tall grey-haired figure with flowing beard, bishop's garments, mitre and pastoral staff, would knock on doors and ask about the behavior of the children. His companion was Knecht Ruprecht ("Knecht" meaning servant). Ruprecht was a dark and scary figure clad in a tattered robe with a big sack on his back. We had been told that if we were bad, Ruprecht would put us in that sack and throw us into the river. Ruprecht also carried a switch made from twigs so he could spank the children that were not bad enough to be carried off. Thankfully- St. Nikolaus and Knecht Ruprecht never knocked on our door! Instead, We always cleaned a pair of our shoes, polished them to a shine and left them outside our bedroom door. Since I NEVER misbehaved St. Nikolaus always stuffed the shoes with sweets overnight.

December was always the time to bake for Christmas. My favorites were Lebkuchen, Pfeffernuesse and Zimtsterne. I always baked them when my children were small.

On December 24th, the doors to the Living Room were locked early in the afternoon. Only Grown- ups were allowed in the room after that. The children would sit in the kitchen or the hallway and listen for the sounds that told us that the Christkind was visiting our house. The Christkind would fly in through the window with our presents. She would also bring chocolates to hang on the tree. The Christkind was a dressed in white with long veils. We knew that she had arrived and oor tree was being decorated when we heard the sound of small bells. Every so often the door to the Parlor would open just enough for someone to hand out a small Chocolate Tree Ornament that had broken. When it started to get dark outside, we would hear the Christkind leaving with the tinkling of bells. The door to the Parlor would open and there would be the Christmas Tree. It was decorated with tinsel, beautiful shiny christmas balls and ornaments and of course all those Chocolates! Reflected in the ornaments were real candles burning brightly.

Dinner was served after the presents had been unwrapped. The evening was conclude by attending a midnight Christmas Mass. The two days after the "Heilige Abend" (Holy Evening) are holidays in Germany. They were spent visiting family and friends and playing with our new toys.

I have written a new tutorial for all of you that read all the way to the end. You will be able to create a 3-D Santa Boot from it.
It makes a cute Table Decoration and you can stuff it with candy,
just like Santa does!

This is what it looks like-

You can find it here.

Happy Holidays!