Anyone from South Africa

[Angelbaby_01]

Haha. Good way to learn Deutsch!

 

[Angelbaby_01]

How does everyone spend Christmas and what are your family traditions? My family sort of got lazy, but I want to start again since we have a daughter now.

 

[morri]

Well we go the Traditional German route. I actually am not sure how my oh did it when he was younger ;haha: (Apart from mince pies, hmmmm mince pies from woolworths (even you can get them to any time of year really now).
The German customs are that that give presents on the christmas eve in the evening or afternoon, and also have the official christmas dinner on this day too. Christmas day in the morning theres is brunch and then maybe visiting other relatives on the remaining days.

So far we always handled it that way that I and my siblings and their spouses meet at out mother's on christmas eve, They visit the inlaws at christmas day for brunch or tea.
Since my Inlaws(oh's parents) are a bit far away (just the odd 10k kms ), we obviously don't do that .
My oh has by the way, if I am not mistaken ¼ German heritage and 3/4 british(English and scottish) heritage.
I also know my heritage coincidently and it is very boring, on the one side it can be traced back to 1650 ish All German (Berlin)(before possibly austrian)
and on the other side it is traced back to Hamburg, with possibly relation to french if you go back as far as the french revolution.

 

[Angelbaby_01]

This year would be a different for us as my husband will be away for on Christmas and will only be back on the 18th of January. He is coming home for two weeks end of November and then we will have our daughter's first birthday as well as an early Christmas. I want to do the whole Christmas dinner etc. again as my family stopped doing this for a few years. I actually am looking forward cooking for my family.

 

[BlueHadeda]

Morri, I see you've hit 36 weeks!!! So exciting!!

Angelbaby, what will you do on Christmas day itself when your hubby will be gone?

We usually have a weekend of camping with my family in early December, where we have the traditional cold meats and salads lunch, and exchanging early gifts. Because my mother is dead, my siblings usually spend Christmas itself with their respective in-laws.

Then on Christmas eve we exchange gifts with the in-laws and my dad, and let the children open any other gifts they received from friends and family. We usually make a special dinner like fondue or a chinese braai. On Christmas Day the children find that Father Christmas has arrived during the night and left them prezzies. These will be our gifts to them, of course. And then we have a very South African braai (barbeque) with family.

I love Christmas!!!

 

[morri]

Sounds good. A couple of years We were over in November and dec, and it was funny to see all the christmas lights being up on the streets but not lit because it wouldnt be dark soon enough