Winter has finally arrived! After a week of quite cold temperatures (not far from 0°C), it’s finally snowing:
Here’s a song I grew up with, by Rolf Zuckowski, and that conveys quite well that snow is great. :)
I’m hoping for a white Christmas, but don’t think that’ll happen. Though given that we’ll be in the south during the holidays, there may be an honest chance. It’s generally colder and a lot less rainy there than here. So I’m crossing my fingers. :)
Here’s a picture from the Dortmunder Weihnachtsmarkt (Christmas market for you non-German speakers) we went to a few days ago. There wasn’t any snow there yet though it was nicely cold. You just can’t enjoy mulled wine when it’s not around the freezing point and you have to cradle the (generally sticky) cup to keep your fingers warm, sipping the hot beverage before it gets cold. The Dortmunder Weihnachtsmarkt is also an exception here in that it actually has more than just food stands. For me, a Weihnachtsmarkt needs to have stands to sell just about anything Christmas-related. Candles, decoration, nativity scenes, ideas for presents of all kinds etc. Of course, it wouldn’t be perfect without mulled wine stands and food stands (you just have to get sugar coated almonds and eat grilled sausage there), but if there’s only food… well, I’m sorry, but that’s just a Christmas market. Yes, I’m looking at you, Bielefeld. You just don’t get it. There’s hardly anything not-food on that Weihnachtsmarkt. Of course, that doesn’t keep people from going there and it’s actually always crowded, but I think these poor people just don’t know better. ;) Anyway, now for the picture:
This is the Christmas tree, the biggest in Europe they say. Of course it’s not one single tree but it’s built using normal sized trees stacked upon each other, but it’s still pretty impressive as well as nicely decorated.
In any case, if you haven’t done so already, you definitely should go to a Weihnachtsmarkt near you – if you happen to live in a country where they do this. It’s definitely a great tradition and institution and for me, it’s very much part of Christmas.
