We had the German congregation Christmas party on Saturday. There are some different traditions (which I will mention later in the post) that I am still trying to reconcile. Just before the party I took Jenna out to do some shopping (Günter had Niki) when we arrived at the program she was pretty sick--had a fever (later I discovered it was 102) and just sat on my lap all night (which was much easier for me to manage her.
Here is the program where they were tossing candy for the kids to gather.
Then the children all come up to the front and sing some song that bring the Weihnachtmann in. He actually was our good friend, and he assured us that the kids would not be able to tell it is him--and they didn't. He had a golden book and told the kids some good things they did and some bad (he gathered info from the parents). Then he gives them a sack of goodies. It was a late night for the kids and between Jenna being sick and Niki losing it with all the sugar/chocolate, I was ready for it to be over!
Now that the kids are older we are trying to figure out what traditions to have or to combine. In my family we got to pick one gift to open on Christmas eve and the rest were opened with the entire family on the 25th (sometimes one person opening all then the next or each taking a turn--either way it was a long morning because we had 8 kids!) There was one unwrapped gift with each child's name from Santa that we could play with until our parents came and we could open all the gifts. Günter's family (an dmost Germans) open their gifts on Christmas eve. They have St. Nicholas Tag on 6 December where they get their shoes (or sock/stocking) filled but we did it so the children had their stocking full when they came down in the morning of the 25th.
I really don't want to have the kids get too much--either sweets or gifts so that they don't appreciate them, so I am not sure what to do. Should I just abondon the stockings now that we had them on the 6th? We have agreed that we will open one gift on Christmas eve and leave the rest for Christmas day. But they always have the gifts from the Weihnachtmann rather than from specific people and I like that except the kids can't give thanks properly to people. So we have a mixture of that too. Lastly, the Germans have the big dinner/program on the 24th and we will probably stick to that rather than a big Christmas dinner on 25th. On the 26 we will drive to his parents and have the big cake party (Kaffee--even though we drive tea and Küchen) with the extended family--Aunts/Uncles and cousins. After they leave Günter's siblings will have a dinner and we will exchange the gift from the names we drew.
But it is not over since there are a few more parties on the weekend then New Years!
Merry Christmas or Happy Hanukkah!
The party looks like fun. Is Jenna feeling better? I hope that you were all healthy and well for Christmas.
Posted by: Anna at December 26, 2007 08:01 PM