How Christmas is like in Germany

Hello and merry christmas!

A lot of people all over the world celebrate christmas, but every country, region, family, has their own traditions. I wanted to share with you how my family does it for over 20 years now. Most of it is very typical for Germany.

The real christmas for me starts on 23rd in the evening. At that time my family and I put the tree up and my mom puts the lights on it. We always go for a real one, just because the fake ones are so... fake ;), and no, we don't have it up all through december like the americans do. We also do not decorate it. That does the Christkind. The Christkind (word to word translation: christ child) is something in between a child and an angel, and is the one that brings the presents. But that is everything we know. We don't have a story about northpoles and reindeers and stuff like that, we just "know" it exists. So when the kinds are in bed it comes to the house, decorates the tree and puts the presents under the it.
During the whole day of the 24th, the living room, so the room where the christmas tree is, is locked. That is so the Christkind has time enough to prepare everything for the evening, and to make the kids more excited about it.
In the evening we always go to church. I would not consider myself as being a very religious person, but I do love the festivness of it on that evening. Afterwards, when we come home, me and my sister go upstairs in our rooms and wait for the bell. The parents open the living room and see, if the Christkind was there, and talk with it about... well, I don't know, I never took part in it ;) . Then, they also light all the candles and things like that, and during all of that the ring with a little bell two times. Once they are finished they ring one final time, and that is the sign for us kids that the Christkind is gone, and we can now finally go downstairs and see the tree.
Now comes the fun part. We get to open our presents. Yes, on christmas eve. In most countrys you wait till the 25th, christmas morning, but in Germany the actual celebration day is 24th in the evening. So we get to open our presents, children first, then the parents, afterwards we have a lovely dinner and then we hang around, read manuals of presents or have a first look into our new books, we eat a lot of chocolate and then go to bed.
25th and 26th are public holidays as well, and are still christmas celebration days. Normally on one of the days we go and visit my grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins, but the rest of the time we just spend together, eating a lot of good food, and having a good time.

I hope you all had a wonderful, festive christmas with all the ones you love, just as I had. I probably will be back with a post about what I got for christmas in a few days. See you then!