SayWhatClub Online Voices December 2009
A Christmas Story from Alsace-Lorraine
Marie Deluca
Copyright 2009
One must remember that these days most European countries are part of the EU, the European Union, so Christmas customs might have changed and might still be changing. Due to my severe ear problems, and my fear of flying now, I have not been to Europe for the last 5 or 6 years.
The following story therefore goes back to the years after the Second World War, when I was a small child growing up in Alsace-Lorraine, the part of Lorraine where people (at that time) spoke Plat Deutsch which is a German Dialect.
The Christmas season in our house started with an advent wreath in real pine leaves with four red candles and some nice ribbon holding the wreath on a special holder to be set up in the middle of the table. The first Sunday in Advent, the first candle was lit during an afternoon coffee and cake session and where our grandparents and maybe an uncle and aunty and some cousins were invited.
Then in the evening of December the 5th Saint Nicholas would come to every house and leave some sweets on plates for every child in the household. We usually did not see Saint Nicholas, as we were in the kitchen and at some point in time after supper was over, Papa or Mama would say, "I think I heard a noise in the dining room, let's go and see." And sure enough we all trotted after Papa or Mama into the dining room and there on the table were all these plates (we were four small children) with all these sweets: candies and chocolate and cookies, as well as nuts and oranges. There might also have been a coloring book and color pencils or another small toy for each one of us.
Also, some churches or schools would have a visit from Saint Nicholas dressed in bishop robes at some point during the previous or next weekend. Each child would have the occasion to shake hands with Saint Nicholas and get a small toy and some chocolate or some other sweet item.
Then came the task to write a letter to Christkindchen or Kristkindel (literal translation is Christ child) to tell her that we were good during the year and deserved to get Christmas presents. In our minds, that Christkindchen was a female dressed like an angel and it was Christkindchen and the helpers who were angels which came to visit all the good children on Christmas Eve. This tradition in Alsace-Lorraine was far removed from the "Pere Noel" Father Christmas who came to see the children in other parts of France, or for that matter the "Weinachtsman" Christmas Man who came to see good children in some parts of Germany. But in those days, the Christkindchen or Kristkindel tradition was observed in most of Germany.
The Christmas season started to get into swing with French and German Christmas carols records which my parents loved to play on the record player set up in the living room. Many evenings when we were in bed Papa and Mama would be baking Christmas cookies. If the skies were reddish due to winds or some storm, we were told, "Look at the sky, WOW, Christkindchen and her angels are really busy baking cookies." We never saw a Christmas tree before Christmas Eve as it was Christkindchen which distributed all the Christmas trees to all the good children. I really wish our parents were still alive and I could ask them how they managed to, first get a tree and secondly to decorate it without any of us noticing any of that.
Finally the big day was here. Mama would be busy cleaning the house and for that reason, she told us that she would lock up the living room as well as the dining room so it would stay very nice and clean for when Christkindchen would come with the Christmas tree, the goodies and the gifts. These days with the very open floor plans, one could of course not hide a tree, goodies and gifts in the living room or the dining room. But with the old floor plans it was very easy in those days to lock up a room for a day or two. We had no TV but a very nice radio in the living room as well as a nice records player and so many wonderful French and German Christmas carols. But we had also a nice radio in the kitchen and dining nook, so not being able to use the living room was no problem for us small ones and certainly also not for our parents. Most radio stations played Christmas carols all day.
If we were real lucky we would have snow outside, but most of the time it was simply gray and raining around Christmas. Our parents told us that it was so much easier for Christkindchen and her entourage to come down from heaven if there was not too much snow outside or no snow at all. But nevertheless Saint Nicholas as well as Kristkindchen and entourage did come via sled from heaven. They were both of course also accompanied by "Pere fouetar" (French) and Roupels (German) on a second sled and that person would visit the bad children and leave nothing but a piece of black coal.
Our parents were very religious Christians and therefore on the day before Christmas there was no meat on the menu as that was a meatless day. We usually had fish for an early supper. Of course we kids would hardly eat as the anticipation was simply too great to see what Christkindchen had left for us? When Mama and Papa were done with the dishes (Papa always helped Mama with the dishes), the great time was almost here.
Somehow Papa always said, "Let me go outside and see if Christkindchen is already in our street." A few seconds later, we would hear bells ringing. That was of course Papa ringing a bell in the courtyard. Several minutes later, he would come in and would say, "Well I just saw Christkindchen and her entourage of angels leave our house through the living room window." So now it was time to go into the living room. Papa, Mama and us kids would then walk through the hallway into the living room where we would find the Christmas tree all lit up with white little candles and underneath there was the beautiful creche and all the plates of goodies and the many wrapped gifts.
We then sat at the table of our dining room with our plates of goodies and with our gifts to unwrap. Mama would make some "vin chaud" hot wine for her and Papa and the celebration would start.
This celebration was like that for many years except that as we got older, we all went to Midnight Mass. And that of course was always very nice. In those days children sat in the first 7 or 8 pews in the church on both sides of the isle. Needless to say that we kids did not do much praying, as we were chatting with the kids around us and we told each other what we had received from Christkindchen.
The next day, we always went to my Godmother -- Mama's sister and husband and two children. There we would get more gifts and have a nice dinner where our Oma and Opa (Mama's parents -- our grandparents) were also present for the dinner. Papa's parents sadly had died when our Papa was still young, so we only had one set of grandparents. They of course always had a present for each one of us children.