Mother of Invention, the Christmas Episode

The other day Vivienne and I happened to catch an episode of Mike Rowe's Dirty Jobs. For some reason his task that day was to bake a pie. (I think it is safe to say they are running out of ideas for truly dirty jobs on that show...) Regardless of how dirty that task may have been for him, Vivienne has since been asking me "Mommy, when are you going to make a pie for me?" What better occasion than Christmas Eve dessert?

I pulled out my 1951 edition of Margaret Mitchell's Mealtime Magic Desserts and got to work. Having never before made pie crust from scratch I was a little nervous, but it turned out alright. I mixed it, I chilled it, I rolled it out only to discover that I no longer have a pie pan. Oy! Now what? Time to get my Martha Stewart on. I may not have a pie plate but I have a Christmas Tree pan!

I need to work on the oven temp next time but I think I may have started a new tradition! The kids aren't big fans of apple pie it turns out, but it's small enough that Heinz and I can share it over a few days without being complete gluttons! And yes, I think Santa is bringing hair cuts to all the children at our house this year...

From our house to yours, 

Merry Christmas 

and a very 

Happy New Year 

to you all!

A Christmas Tradition for Each Culture

Growing up with the last name Tortorelli from my full-blooded, second-generation Italian father, everyone immediately recognized my Italian heritage. Yet my mother, also second generation, is of full-blooded German ancestry. Since Heinz grew up in and is a citizen of Switzerland, everyone immediately recognizes his Swiss side. However, the reality is that his father, born and raised in Germany, moved to Switzerland in his early 20's. In those days, ancestry was still only traced through the father, so the boys were automatically German citizens, even though they were born in Switzerland. Heinz remembers when he, his Dad and his brother all petitioned for and received their Swiss citizenship. Also in those days dual citizenship was not recognized so they all had to forfeit their German citizenship. 

To recap, I am half Italian, half German. Heinz is half Swiss, half German. Doing the math (come on, fractions aren't that hard!) that makes our children more German than anything else, and German on both sides of their lineage. Personally, I am really enjoying the opportunity to get more in touch with our shared German ancestry through the kids' German education. Learning about the holiday traditions is my favorite part and my favorite holiday of all is Christmas! This year we can celebrate so many aspects of the holiday as we explore the layers of our family's heritage. With Christmas of course comes Santa Claus, and all his cultural and religious variations, based on which history you choose to adopt.

An over-simplification taken from Google:

Saint Nicholas, also called Nikolaos of Myra, was a historic 4th-century saint and Greek Bishop of Myra (Demre, part of modern-day Turkey) in Lycia. Because of the many miracles attributed to his intercession, he is also known as Nikolaos the Wonderworker. He had a reputation for secret gift-giving, such as putting coins in the shoes of those who left them out for him, and thus became the model for Santa Claus, whose modern name comes from the Dutch Sinterklaas, itself from a series of elisions and corruptions of the transliteration of "Saint Nikolaos".

Saint Nicholas day in the German Speaking countries:

In Northern Germany, Sankt Nikolaus is usually celebrated on a small scale. Many children put a boot called Nikolaus-Stiefel (Nikolaus boot) outside the front door on the night of 5 December. St. Nicholas fills the boot with gifts and sweets overnight, and at the same time checks up on the children to see if they were good, polite and helpful the last year. If they were not, they will have a tree branch (Rute) in their boots instead. {This branch was meant as a switch, to beat you with if you have been bad. My friend Miia, who grew up in Germany says she remembers this happening to her sister (the branch but not the beating). She says she is still disturbed by her parents decision to do that!} Sometimes a Nikolaus impersonator also visits the children at school or in their homes and asks them if they have been good (sometimes ostensibly checking his golden book for their record), handing out presents on the basis of their behavior. This has become more lenient in recent decades, and this task is often taken over by the Weihnachtsmann (Father Christmas). In more catholic regions, Nikolaus is dressed very much like a bishop and rides on a horse, welcomed at public places by a large crowd. Typical in Germany for Saint Nicholas Day is the Stutenkerl, a pastry made of sweet leavened dough.

In Swiss folklore, the Christmas gift-bringer is known as Samichlaus (like Dutch Sinterklaas a corruption of the name of St. Nicholas). The Swiss version of the scary companion of St. Nicholas corresponding to the Austrian Krampus and the German Knecht Ruprecht is known as Schmutzli. 

The companions of Saint Nicholas are a group of closely related figures who accompany St. Nicholas in German-speaking Europe and more widely throughout the territories formerly in the Holy Roman Empire. These characters act as a foil to the benevolent Christmas gift-bringer, threatening to thrash or abduct disobedient children. Jacob Grimm (Deutsche Mythologie) associated this character with the pre-Christian house spirit (kobold, elf) which could be benevolent or malicious, but whose mischiveous side was emphasized after Christianization. The association of the Christmas gift-bringer with elves has parallels in English and Scandinavian folklore, and is ultimately and remotely connected to the modern Christmas elf in American folklore.

Heinz remembers remembers being told as a child that the Schmutzli would shove those who did not behave into their brown burlap sack. According to his Mom, when she was young one particularly badly behaved neighbor boy was actually stuffed into a sack in an effort to scare him into behaving! No word on whether it worked! (or whether it simply scarred him for life...)

The Swiss Club of Shanghai has a lovely Christmas party every year. We attended last year and were really looking forward to going again this year, the weekend before St. Nicholas Day. Samichlaus and his Schmutzli arrived on time and all the children were invited to gather round while he checked their names in his book. 

 As we walked with Conrad and Vivi into the adjacent room set up for the kids to meet with him, Conrad saw the ominously dressed Schmutzli in his hooded brown tunic and tugged on my sleeve. He whispered in my ear “Mom! I don’t want to get shoved in the sack!!”

Samichlaus opened his book and had two comments to make to each of the children: admonishing them for one weakness and then congratulating them on one thing they are doing well. Amazingly the Samichlaus who visits the Swiss Club of Shanghai every year speaks German and Swiss German, French, English and Chinese, seamlessly! This year he spoke to Conrad and Vivienne in German. Then they were brave enough to take their gifts from the Schmutzli.

 “Daddy, we didn’t get shoved in the sack!”

This year, Saint Nicholas Day is on a Thursday. Wednesday we attended our regular weekly German playgroup and reviewed what typically happens and how most Germans celebrate. We were well prepared to participate in our own home. The kids each put a boot out before going to bed Wednesday evening, their own Nikolaus-Stiefel for St. Nick to fill. What fun to check them the next morning and see what he brought!

It was quite cold but they got some neat things! We spoke to Grammy later that day and she told the kids that she always got an orange in her shoe for St. Nicholas' Day, too! I expect she told my sisters and I that at some point but I had forgotten it. Fun to relearn so much about my Mom's childhood as well.  

So far the kids have not asked me why they get to see Santa Claus so often. I'm not quite sure how I'll respond if they do! We've tossed around the idea that he visits Germany on the 6th and America on the 25th because the world really is just too big for him to get to everyone in one night. But apparently he has enough time on his hands to visit China on both nights! Not sure yet how to explain that one away. Fingers crossed that they don't notice that detail!

I'm really not sure who is having more fun this year, me or the kids! Did you celebrate St. Nikolaus Day this year?
Did he bring you an orange or a root?

Hope you are all enjoying what the season has to offer~

'Tis the Season...

Usually I wait until pretty close to Christmas to decorate the tree, as that was the tradition in our house when I was growing up. (When we were really little my parents would put the tree in the stand on Christmas Eve and decorate it after we had gone to bed so when we got up on Christmas morning it was as if Santa had decorated it for us!) But this year we will actually be away for much of December, returning right before Christmas so we decided to decorate early so that we can enjoy the tree some before we go away. 

The kids had a lot of fun putting the ornaments on and did such a nice job. Conrad felt like a really big boy this year as he was allowed to climb the ladder and put ornaments on the upper part of the tree!

My OCD tendencies aside, I barely had to move any of the ornaments around to balance it all out. Truly, they did a nice job of evenly covering the branches. (Maybe they've inherited Mommy's eye for spatial relationships!)

Boys and trains...a quintessential Christmas combination! When Conrad was little a friend of mine recommended to put a train around the tree as the kids, especially boys, tend to play with the train and leave the tree alone. He still loves the train! (Now we just need to keep the dog away from the tree!)

Conrad was upset that we only had white lights on the tree. It's all I've ever had, either American or Chinese lights because that's my preference and, well, I'm the Mommy. Today  I bought him a set of colored lights and we strung them on the "other" tree in the room. He is happy now!

We're ready for Christmas. What color lights will you use?

We wish you all a joyous start to the Season. Happy Decorating!

All our love~