It’s December and you know what that means, it’s Christmas! ! Since it is the festive month it is the festive month, it is now acceptable to be playing Christmas songs. I don’t know about you, but I have always gotten quite irritated going to shopping malls at the beginning of NOVEMBER and hearing Mariah Carey’s banging tune “All I want for Christmas” I mean I understand the idea of marketing Christmas but it gets too repetitive! Sometimes when it’s getting close to Christmas I don’t want to hear another Christmas song. Although luckily this year I avoided all shops so that I can enjoy all the Christmas joy in this festive month. Okay rant over haha
This year I’m not having a white Christmas where I’m wrapped up warm sitting by the heaters and enjoying the copious amounts of some nice mulled wine. Instead I am outside, tanning myself (well trying to) in 25ºC weather and drinking red wine. For the longest time I can remember the majority of my Christmas’s have been spent at home (Nairobi) where it’s been warm or relatively hot. Although the atmosphere is not necessarily that chrismassy, for me it still feels like Christmas. There is no place like home for Christmas, I mean even though I have been home for a while still, there is something special about it. Finding presents at the Xmas fairs, lighting the advent calendar (Adventskranz), which is a German tradition, and putting up the tree. However, since I can remember one tradition which I always cherish and get very excited for is making the Christmas cookies.
When I was younger it was always very difficult to try and not finish the cookies before Christmas but they were all sooo good! I wasn’t particularly too interested when I was young on understanding why Germans serve cookies during the festive season, but now as I am getting older I’m curious, what started this tradition? I tried to find the answer on Google but couldn’t find much except recipes but according to a site Germany Insider Facts, the tradition of giving out cookies started way back in the Middle Ages where Monks in medieval monasteries baked some goods to celebrate the birth of Jesus.
The majority of German cookies revolve around spices such as cinnamon, anise, ginger and nutmeg. Now there are lots of traditional German cookie recipes however the cookies that my mother and now myself normally make are 5 different batches of cookies: Spitzbuben, Butterplätzen, Lebuken, Kokomakronen, and Wiener Vanillekipferl. I love all these cookies! Each has a different subtle taste to them and it is relatively easy to over indulge on all of them, that is if you have them all baked at once.
My favourite cookies are the Spitzbuben and Butterplätzen. Both the Spitzbuben and Butterplätzen are butter cookies however the spitbuben has jam and the butterplätzen can be plain and what my mother does to jazz it up is she puts lemon icing on top. The simplicity of the dough makes the taste of these cookies richer in my opinion. Also besides making the German Christmas cookies there is no Christmas without having a mince pie. When I was in uni I loved going to the supermarket and getting the special of 6 mince pies in November. Now that type of Christmas marketing I don’t mind.
During this festive season its only right to play Christmas songs. I’m a big fan of Michael Buble’s Xmas album or some good old Frank Sinatra. I made a playlist of the two and included other bangers from Mariah Carey and more. Click HERE to Listen.
As there are quite a number of recipes that I am sharing, I have put the recipes on this CHRISTMAS PDF file. Hope you enjoy them!
Are there any Christmas traditions that you do? Do you have any Christmas cookies which are your favourite? Let me know in the comment box below!
Thanks for reading and HAPPY HOLIDAYS.