As may or may not know, I lived in Germany for two years as a child, which means I experienced two very German, very wonderful Christmasses. They were idyllic, partly as a result of childhood nostalgia but also because Germans just know how to celebrate Christmas. There is the promise of snow, and AUTHENTIC Christmas markets and Lebekuchen and Kinderpunch and huge Christmas trees and gorgeous toy shops and tasteful decorations and beautiful nativity scenes and proper wooden nutcracker soldiers chocolate covered fruit etc etc. As a family it's hard to celebrate Christmas without evoking elements of our time spent in Deutschland, whether it's looking at our German Christmas decorations or making Gingerbread houses or still celebrating St. Nikolas on the 6th of December, we can't help but be reminded of those two very blessed years.
So, when I heard about the German market in Bristol town centre and that REAL Germans were operating the stalls, I felt a huge compulsion to go and indulge in some German festive cheer. On my last night of the term, we wondered down to Broadmead and I ordered us a Bratwurst with extra Sauerkraut IN GERMAN - it was SO SO yummmy. The market stalls themselves still felt a little bit tacky, but if Christmas markets outside of Germany were all really authentic and beautiful then there would be no reason for people to visit the originals, so I wasn't too fussed. It was just a lovely way to get into the Christmas spirit - we even walked passed Christmas Steps, I have ALWAYS wanted to be near Christmas Steps at Christmas time, not for any particular reason other than to say I was there...hahaha.
It was so nice to wrap up all snug in our winter woollens - but what has happened to the weather since!? This Christmas is so mild!
Germans do Christmas best! My Nanna lived in Germany when I was a kid, so we used to go over every Christmas and it was wonderful. Craving lebkuchen now!
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