The day has finally come! Tonight is the big night in my German-dominated household *hehe*. We had a big Irish breakfast with the fam which was meant to tide us over until the afternoon when we will shortly have a little tea time with the last remaining Christmas biscuits. After than we will have dinner at 6pm – in my house traditionally fried sausage with sauerkraut and potatoes. But wait – we have a sauerkraut crisis!!! Instead of the Polish sauerkraut I usually buy (because it is more or less identical with the Silesian sauerkraut my family used to make themselves), we only have a tin of Bavarian wine sauerkraut left. No, that will not do 😂. The prodigal son, freshly returned from Berlin, just about hauled his ass out of bed (having been on a “12 pubs of Christmas” tour last night *tuttuttut*) and made a trip to the nearest Polish shop… I’ve been at everybody for the last couple of days that they should organise the sauerkraut, but as per usual, it has been left to the last minute *exasperated mother sigh*.
On the plus side, the Christmas tree is up. My mum and I decorated it last night – a nice little project to keep maman busy 😉. Traditionally, in Germany people used to put up the tree on the morning of Christmas Eve. That’s how I remember it from my childhood. After breakfast my mother and father would vanish and the sitting room would be off-limits for me until it was time for what we call “Bescherung” – the distribution of presents. Yes, there is a specific German word for it 😁. I’d be sitting outside the sitting room in the stairwell of our house, and through the opaque glass door of the sitting room I could already see the vague, dark green shape of a Christmas tree and the yellow highlights of the candles. And then a little bell would ring, the sign for me to enter and for the festivities to begin. The mystery and suspense of it made Christmas Eve a truly magical experience. And it never disappointed…
The secrecy is not necessary anymore, now that the children are grown up. But the magic and the general sequence of events remain to this day. We’ll have our dinner first, and then we’ll withdraw to the sitting room with a glass of bubbly. Like every year, I’ll put the Christmas Oratorio by Bach on the stereo. That’s when Christmas has begun 😉
And so I now wish you all a happy Christmas – or a peaceful time, hopefully together with friends and family, basking in the warmth from a cheerful fire and enjoying some festive treats. I am thinking of all who are not blessed with family and shelter this season, and I hope that my and everyone else’s contribution via Richard’s JustGiving fundraiser will provide some of the warmth and necessities to those in need. – Here in our little corner of the internet and the fandom, we have had another year of fun and cheer. You all have been so generous this year, supporting not only the regular two fundraisers, but also a third one in aid of Ukraine. Thank you so much for that. Whatever the respective amounts are which we raise for charity, what matters to me most is to know that there are so many kind people out there who are willing to share with those who are less fortunate than us. Whether it’s money, items or time and support – it all goes into the big pot of kindness and gets redistributed into the world as positive energy. In a time of darkness – literally and figuratively – that is a light.
❤️ MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU ❤️
Guylty Pleasure 
Such wonderful childhood memories, Sonja! Thank you for sharing ❤️
Thank you for all you have done (again!) this year for our small but amazing community 🙏🏻 Merry Christmas and happy holidays for you and your family! Much love ❤️🫂
LikeLike
Thank you Olga, and lots of love to you, especially.
LikeLike
It is lovely reading about your German Christmas traditions ( and I too am experiencing frustration at non-forthcoming family promises!) Thank you Guylty for all you have dobe this year in making our RA fandom a fundom. Merry Christmas to you and your family and all here. X
LikeLike
Hehe, the prodigal son actually delivered in the end – three jars of sauerkraut obtained. Phew. Happy Christmas to you, J!
LikeLiked by 1 person
A “fundom.” I love that, thank you, Armidreamer! Happy Christmas to you and yours, G.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Happy Christmas G!
LikeLike
It’s lovely to hear of different Christmas traditions . I wish you all a lovely Christmas, with your mum and son home home it will be extra special. Thank you for all your work with the auctions so Nollaig Shona .🥂
LikeLike
It’s so nice to have my mum here again – the last two Christmases she was in Germany. Have a wonderful Christmas, Deirdre, and nollaig shona duit!
LikeLike
Merry Christmas to you and yours!
LikeLike
Thank you, quiall, and happy Christmas to you and yours.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Happy Christmas, Sonja! I hope that you and your family have a lovely holiday. Thank you for sharing your memories and traditions with us. I don’t have the best memories of holidays so very much appreciate when others share theirs. Your tree is so beautiful!
My wonderful neighbor made a super yummy dinner for us last night, so that was a real treat (Cornish game hen and all the American fixings). This weekend will be divided between working and napping, with a fair amount of time spent enjoying those tasty leftovers.
Happy holidays, everyone! 💜💜💜
LikeLike
I had the advantage of being an only child – so Christmas was (naturally) very much centered around me… Probably the reason why I love this time of year so much.
Your pre-Christmas dinner with the neighbour sounds great – what a nice thing to do! I hope the next few days won’t be all work for you, but also some down-time with opportunity to relax and rest. Much love to you!
LikeLike
Merry Christmas, Sonja and all with you 😊 I loved reading your Christmas traditions. I am now at my brother’s house listening to King’s college Carol service – that’s the beginning of Christmas for us. 😘😘😘
LikeLike
Wishing you a lovely Christmas with your brother and family, Helen. Lots of love to you ❤️
LikeLike
Frohe Weihnachten, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you and your family and all readers of your blog!!
Thank you for sharing your memories and for allowing all of us to create new fandom memories with you throughout this year.
LikeLike
Frohe Weihnachten, Kate. Hope you had a nice Christmas Eve. On to the next festivities with nieces and nephews now 😉
And I loved how you put that “creating new fandom memories”.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I hope Christmas is going well at Casa Guylty. So far a successful run here. Way too warm and incessant rain, but the kids were happy with their presents, the trees are lovely and I precooked some stuff for less stress. Today is the big one: I’m making the traditional American Christmas ham for my German family, so I’d better get stuck in. Everyone is coming over for lunch.
LikeLike
Merry Christmas, Sonja, family & RA family! 🙏🤲❤️ Am enjoying a family visit, but this is my most unorganised Christmas ever! 🥴😪😅
LikeLike
Happy Christmas, Zed! Unorganised or not, I am sure it’s nice to have family around and to celebrate together 😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
Merry Christmas!
LikeLike
Thank you and happy hanukkah to you.
LikeLike
Dear Sonja, Merry Christmas. I love your Christmas tree and the candle decoration (Guy of Gisborne is always the gest of honor, I presume). I wish you and your family all the best in the world. I am extremely happy being a member of the Guylty company. Have fun tonight with your beloved ones!!!
LikeLike
Thank you, Poppy – we had a lovely evening. Happy Christmas to you. Hope you have some lovely family time and some resting and relaxing from school!!
LikeLike
Happy Christmas to you & your family & here’s to a wonderful new year x
LikeLike
Holiday traditions are wonderful. May you all enjoy the warmth of hearth and home this Christmas … and throughout the new year. 🤗
LikeLike
Bonnes fêtes de Noël !
LikeLike
Frohe Weihnachten für Dich und Deine Family!!!
LikeLike
Happy Christmas to you and yours and the lovely traditions you all share. All the best Christmas wishes to the RA fandom too!
🎄❤️
LikeLike
Merry Christmas 🎄
LikeLike
Merry Christmas a bit late. Being part Polish and German the sauerkraut is very important at any time. We didn’t have sauerkraut for Christmas this year but cabbage on both Christmas Eve (creamed) and Christmas (braised red). I have a plan to make some sauerkraut this year, we have a couple big heads, we tried many years ago but something when wrong. I have a good Polish recipe that I want to try.
LikeLike
Your Christmas traditions sound lovely (except for the Sauerkraut! I could never do that although Mr E would love it. 🙂 ) Anyway, hope your Christmas was nice!
LikeLike
A belated Merry Christmas! Sounds like you would have had a lovely time with your family enjoying your traditional festivities. Mine was hectic but enjoyable (and hot!), last of my family headed back home this morning. This is the first chance I have had to catch up, the notification for this post must have gotten caught up in the masses of Boxing Day sales emails which I hurriedly deleted before being tempted!
LikeLike
Thanks for generating this positive energy.
A sauerkraut crisis😂 Even here, in the country of origin, we have trouble getting really good sauerkraut. Maybe in spring you will get asparagus in this Polish store, because we took over this German tradition, just like the Christmas tree 🙂
LikeLike
Nice
LikeLike