Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s Eve…we celebrated all these holidays in the past months. For me, an exchange student from Germany, it was an amazing experience to be able to get an American view on theses holidays. First of all: Thanksgiving is not celebrated in Germany. “That is insane,” says Reese Ferstler when I told her that we don’t celebrate it where I come from. Especially for that reason it was so interesting to learn about Thanksgiving. I got the chance to visit my host family’s family on that day and see a bit of Boston. Alejandro Ramos, the exchange student from Spain still talks about the Thanksgiving dinner and how much he loves it.
Time ran by fast and soon it was Christmas. I loved seeing all the decorated houses. In Germany, we decorate of course, but it’s not as big as here. It was so fun driving through all the houses and seeing the beautiful Christmas lighting. Although being away from home is a strange feeling, and I definitely started missing my family. In Germany most of the families open the presents Christmas Eve, so it was the first time in my life to wake up in the morning to open presents. First it felt strange, but I quickly started loving it. It was great sitting with the whole family in the living room and spending time together, and after having breakfast. My parents from Germany even sent some presents. A huge part of American Christmas that is also missing in Germany are stockings. I love how here you hang a stocking above the fireplace and it gets filled with sweet treats or other stuff. I definitely will bring this tradition back to Germany. On the other side I definitely missed German Christmas cookies, the German Christmas songs that my family often plays and St Nicklaus, which is a day celebrated on December 6 where we put our shoe in front of the front porch and it gets filled with presents, nuts, fruits and sweet treats.
Due to the time differences, my hometown celebrated New Year’s Eve earlier than America. Between the US and Germany there is around a 6 hour time difference, so I had to wish them Happy New Year a bit earlier this year. Many German families have something called raclette for New Year’s Eve. Everybody gets little pans, and you put cheese into it and mix it with bacon, potatoes and vegetables. It’s really good, you should try it if you haven’t! Then at midnight we normally go outside and watch the fireworks and after play games together. In Spain many families meet at around 8 o’clock, and then they prepare the food: shrimps, cochinillo, croquettes, Jamón ibérico, manchego cheese and other Spanish foods. Later they eat together, prepare the 12 grapes and start watching TV. At 12 o’clock they all eat the grapes together while there is a bell ringing on the TV according to Alejandro, the Spanish exchange student at Chittenango.
