Adventzeit

It's Advent time in Hannover. In case you don't hang on my every word (I hope you don't), I'll remind you that Advent is a thing in Germany. As in, you buy something at the bakery and the cashier wishes you a happy 2nd Advent Sunday. There are Advent calendars and Advent wreaths everywhere. As a Catholic and an American, Advent to me means solemn songs and purple candles before the crazy happy relief of Christmas. And it's something you don't discuss outside of church.

When I covered a 3rd grade class last week, part of my job was to open another day in the Advent calendar with the kids every morning. All sorts of alarm bells were going off in my secular, politically-correct mindset. But little Abtin from Iran went ahead and opened the next day of the calendar for me, and no one seemed to mind.

So while my compatriots are putting up giant light-up inflatable reindeer and Happy Holidays signs in their American yards, Hannoverians have a tasteful set of four candles in the window and Advent wreaths full of chocolate. The German Christmas tree (Weihnachtsbaum) comes later. So much later, in fact, that it's weird to put one up more than a week or two before Christmas. It's also common in Germany to use real candles to light up your tree. Hopefully you don't light it up so much that it burns down your house. To Americans, using real candles on a Christmas tree seems crazy and dangerous. Of course, we can have handguns in the house and that doesn't seem weird.

So if you live on the fourth floor with no elevator, and you don't own a car, how do you get a tree?
It's almost like the Griswold family tromping through the snow and finding a giant tree to embody the spirit of Christmas ("Dad, did you bring a saw?"). But really it's more like riding your bikes down to the lake, picking out a little tree from the lot, loading it on your bike and then walking it home. I did wear my Santa hat, though.

Brian is less excited about this photo opportunity than I am.

The tree is up, and looking lovely, in our living room. It has only electric lights. We've got stockings hanging from the window handles and lights on the hallway ceiling. Maybe we should also put some inflatable reindeer out on the balcony...