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And then, eleven days before Christmas Eve, the Christmas tree fell over.
The Berlin gallery owner André Schlechtriem, who, as a Rhenish Catholic cosmopolitan citizen, also takes the cheery holidays seriously, had decorated it this year particularly lavishly, with nostalgic, cute glass figures from the former Soviet Union, including a soldier and a five to twelve (via internationalwardrobe.com), as well as Lauscha glass bird figures with real tail feathers (via manufactum.de).
But the Christmas tree stand could not withstand the shear forces caused by the rich decorations and the tree tipped over with a groan on the night of the third Advent.
What would have been an amusing mishap in other years felt like a derisive conclusion in 2020.
The Corona year
in a nutshell
, with broken pieces, tears and the feeling of futility.
"Why are we falling, Bruce?" Asks the extremely rich head doctor Thomas Wayne his son when he fell while playing in a bat cave that will shape his later life as a superhero: "So that we can get up again." Perhaps that is the right one Attitude to master the Christmas holidays.
Because this year everything will be different.
And not necessarily better.
What is clear: The sympathetic - and incidentally Christian - tradition of simply inviting single friends, recently widowed and attractive expatriates (like the stable owners back then, the young family) is inappropriate this year.
It will be a festival of love, where ventilation is more appropriate than warm hugs.
But precisely because it was such a demanding, confusing and for many simply terrible year - and because Christmas is the Germans' absolute favorite festival -, to put it simply, you shouldn't let the mood spoil you.
Instead, make the best of it with ingenuity and warmth.
Here are a few tips for the most complicated Christmas in decades.
Quickly make another photo album
Author Adriano Sack in the home office
Source: private
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Selfies in the home office, the pleasantly lush garden or balcony, pictures from the sparse trips: We have never been as strange and far away from our families and friends as this year.
A visual diary, be it projected on the wall in the form of a slide show, printed out and sent at the last second or an emailed PDF, reminds of moments that could not be shared - and maybe helps to digest this strange year.
Photos of a rainy day on the Baltic Sea beach also bring back boisterous memories.
Change internal clock
The light-poor winter presses even harder on the soul this year.
As it gets dark around 4 p.m. and Amazon Prime ages the skin after midnight, it is advisable to get up as early as possible.
The sight of the dawn carries you through the day.
Scent therapy
Beetroot scented candle from Loewe
Source: Loewe
What you would otherwise spend in restaurants can be invested in flowers and scented candles.
The latter in particular are so radically overpriced that they are probably the luxury product category with the highest profit margin.
When it comes to flowers, you can sometimes take an anti-cyclical approach.
In addition to fir trees, mistletoe and winter berries (So-yeon Schröder-Kim appreciates the rose hip), a bouquet of long-stemmed poppies looks amazingly harmonious.
And the new scented candles in clay grooved cups from Loewe with vegetable garden aromas such as beetroot, juniper berries or marijuana are particularly beautiful.
Run warmer
Fur slippers from Ugg
Source: UGG
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No metal-coated, breathable sensible soles, but nice fluffy lambskin in the shoes.
The walks where you try to smile at neighbors through the mask should at least be comfortable.
This also applies to the home.
The comeback of the UGGs, the unspeakable snuggly shoes from Australia, has already been hailed in the "New York Times".
Thick socks and slippers or Birkenstocks do the same.
Ideally the new, meditative model "Kyoto" *, which is irritatingly only available up to size 43.
Speaking of running
No matter how busy you think you have to do on Christmas Eve: You should have your partner, children or staff serve you a black coffee in bed.
Then smile at the Instagram account of Sam Asghari, friend of Britney Spears, a fitness freak with cheering calendar sayings like "Thank you for this opportunity that is called life".
And then go running for at least 35 minutes.
Listen to your own favorite hits, the annual review of the ICONIST podcast “The Real World” or the best songs of 2020, such as “After Hours” by The Weeknd.
You run up the front stairs sweating and with the feeling that you have life under control.
And later on, more Christmas goose will fit in the stomach.
Freshen up musicality
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Common choir singing in the family circle is forbidden this year.
But everyone should be able to create a string quartet or a piano concerto.
You can download sheet music and practice at oktav.com, musicnotes.com or flowkey.com.
Start today.
Comeback in a roundabout way
Homemade egg liqueur for the festival
Source: Getty Images / 500px Plus / Ekaterina Markelova / 500px
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Like many Anglo-Saxon traditions, the Eggnog invaded Germany at Christmas.
One can also think about the closely related, long frowned upon eggnog.
Best made by yourself, of course.
Like in this old family recipe of 6 egg yolks, 80 g powdered sugar, 350 ml cream, 1 vanilla pod and 250 ml white rum: whisk together vanilla pulp, egg yolks and powdered sugar.
Stir in the cream and rum.
Whip everything over a hot water bath for six to eight minutes, until the mixture is hot and thick, it must not boil.
Fill the finished egg liqueur into bottles.
Holiday wines?
What!
Nowadays it can also be a beer.
Belgian Trappist beers are sometimes expensive and refined like champagne, the young brewery Brewdog promises an atmospheric Schwips with the Christmas beer "Hoppy Xmas".
The alcohol-free alternative (why actually?): Roy’s Christmas combucha with notes of cinnamon, cloves and liquorice (via roykombucha.com).
Sorry, "Love Actually"
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The best Christmas entertainment comes from Norway, the series “Hem till Jul” (Christmas at home): romantic, but not overly sweet.
On Netflix.
Worship for the home
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In Lübeck, the city-wide bells should ring at 2:55 p.m. and the citizens read the Christmas story at home, churches all over Germany are giving out instructions on how to experience the spiritual center of the festival without a mass event.
The Berlin Paul Gerhardt Congregation, for example, recommends that you begin by reading the Christmas story from Luke Chapter 2, verses 1-20 and lighting a candle.
Curious detail from the pastoral letter: “Go to an inappropriate, messy place in your apartment: a cluttered cupboard, a stuffed drawer, the storage area behind the sofa ... don't open up.
Don't clean.
But put some of your Christmas decorations there: a star, a twig, some glitter, whatever you have. ”The conclusion is perhaps the second most beautiful of all Christmas carols,“ Oh, you Merry ”.
The most beautiful?
"Silent Night" depending on your mood.
Or "Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer", sung by the immortal Dean Martin.
Here are the instructions (pages 12-14) for an evangelical DIY church service.
More important than ever: dress code
Please just throw away your worn out sweatpants.
Or at least banish them to the furthest corner of the closet over the holidays.
After a year without a reason, Christmas should just look great.
It can be unchristian fun like a Christmas sweater from the metal band Slayer (via store.slayer.net), an ironed shirt (if you haven't forgotten this cultural technique this year) or a pious hair bow from the English-Turkish fashion designer Erdem (via matchesfashion.com *).
Texmex Christmas
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Playing as a connoisseur at Christmas is a little superfluous.
But if you've already done Bach's Christmas Oratorio and Frank Sinatra's songs a couple of times, the album “Seasonal Shift” by Calexiko (casadecalexico.com) is recommended as a musical in between.
And then of course Mariah Carey again, ideally during her performance with Jimmy Fallon and his companion band The Roots.
If this children's choir does not make you laugh, you should go into hibernation until the vaccination.
Something edifying at the end
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Favorite drink in your favorite armchair, light as warm as possible, two hours to spare.
Call a few friends (one after the other), pour out your heart, but above all: listen very carefully!
And be grateful "for this opportunity that is called life".
Merry Christmas.
This text is from WELT AM SONNTAG. We are happy to deliver them to your home on a regular basis.
Source: Welt am Sonntag
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