This holiday season was very special as well as interesting for me. It is the first Christmas that I have spent away from my family and closest friends. But, I cannot completely complain, it has been great. Something very different. From the Gluhwein and Weihnachtsmarkt to putting candles on the Christmas tree and new traditions.

The holiday season was very special to my heart. For starters, as it is for many around the world I’m sure, Christmas is my favorite holiday. There is something about that warm feeling of family and friends coming together. Sometimes I want to shoot myself in the foot for saying that, but all in all family is family. And of course the presents, lets definitely not forget those 🙂

This year, as I said was my first Christmas season here in Germany. It started in the best of ways. First day the Christmas markets opened, I was there. Stuffing my face with spekulatius cookies, roasted almonds, and of course Gluhwein.

The first hand full of evenings I stopped at a Weihnachtsmarkt for a nightcap of Gluhwein, I thought it was delicious. It was different than anything I have ever had. And living in a warm place, I am not used to having something anywhere close to it. I have to say it was probably amazing for the main reason of it being cold outside, It definitely warms you up. But, as the season was coming to a close, I definitely got sick of it. In Germany they call Gluhwein, “Headache in a cup”, for what it could do to you the next morning…thankfully I never had enough for it to happen.

Additionally, the Christmas Markets are a great place to meet with friends and enjoy an evening out, instead of cuddling up inside a Cafe or Bar. The Weihnachtsmarkte are definitely a place to go to get into the Christmas Spirit. It is really hard to explain them to someone who has never been there, but for all practicalities it is a Christmas Farmers Market which offers food and drinks as well. A few of them, especially the one downtown has a carousel for kids. From my understanding it is over 60 or 70 years old. Additionally, downtown by the Rathaus, the Christmas Market looks more like a little city within the courtyard.

Also something that I really enjoyed were all the Christmas decorations downtown on the buildings or between them. There was an actual Christmas feeling. In Los Angeles, I used to only get into the Christmas spirit because of the holiday music that would start playing right after Thanksgiving, or the Christmas tree that we would get a week later. Walking into the house all through December is amazing, with the smell of a fresh Christmas Tree. Here, though its cold, no matter where you go there are some sort of decorations put up. It was very nice. Although, in Los Angeles the coolest thing that we have, which is just a five minute drive from where I used to live is Candy Cane Lane. It is a few square miles of residential houses, in which the owners put up an obscene amount of Christmas Lights on their houses. For more, pictures just Google Candy Cane Lane. Granted some of them are not from the one in Los Angeles. But, you’ll at least get an idea of what I am talking about. It was one of my traditions back home, to drive through with my brother and mother on Christmas Eve to look at the lights.

And on Christmas this year, we invited my GF’s parents over for dinner. They have their own traditions, which were interesting to me. Their first dish is Caviar with some sort of sour cream on little Blini’s (tiny pancakes) with a glass of Champagne. Then, they have potato salad with wurst. From my understanding this is a traditional German Christmas Eve dinner dish. And lastly, we had carrot cake that my Gf made with a bottle of wine after.

This though different, is kind of similar how I spend my Christmas back in LA. Well, since I am originally from Lithuania, we follow a Lithuanian tradition of having 12 different dishes on Christmas eve for the 12 apostles. Then, we usually watch the super old Christmas Classic, White Christmas, with Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye. Which is kind of cheesy, but still my all time favorite Christmas movie. After which, as I already stated we go to Candy Cane Lane. And on Christmas Day, which we don’t really celebrate, I go to my aunts house in Malibu for a lunch and then after to my friends house for Christmas Dinner and drinks.

How do you celebrate Christmas? What are some traditions you have? Does anyone wait to dress up the tree til Christmas Eve?