Amanda Arrives

On Sunday, December 19, Amanda arrived to visit. When she got off the plane, she was as tired as any college kid who had just finished finals week and got on a plane and sat next to people who wouldn't let her sleep because they kept talking loudly in Hindi while the kids behind her kicked the seat. She was pretty tired. Sick too. We went out briefly to get something to eat and picked up a small Christmas tree on the way home. When we got back to the apartment she was up all night with what sounded like the mother of all head colds.

So, today we all slept in. Lazy days in Strasbourg. The only real item on the agenda today was to decorate the tree. So, at about 4:00 in the afternoon we finally motivated to take the tram into town and brave the Christmas Markets.

Monday seems to be a good day to hit the markets. The crowds seemed to be considerably smaller than the week-end and you could actually walk without feeling like you were surfing on the waves of humanity. Here is the entrace to the marketplace at Place Broglie. Theresa is the tiny head in the lower left.

The ChristKindelMarik is a traditional name from a traditional story that best as I can tell goes something like this. Way back when, if you were a child in the Teutonic regions of Europe then you had two good reasons to look forward to December. The first was St. Nicholas. The second was the ChristKindel.

St. Nicholas is the one that especially warms my heart. On the eve of December 6, St. Nicholas would come and leave gifts and candy in the shoes overnight. This brings a tear to my eye because, growing up, I could never really figure out why St. Nicholas came to visit my family and not my friends from school. My momma explained it as having something to do with the fact that we came from a Germanic background. Now, in my old age in a city far from home, I feel this heritage more strongly than ever before. St. Nicholas is celebrated on December 6 in all the Teutonic regions of Germany, Czech Republic, Austria, Switzerland, and..of course...in Alsace. You pick St. Nicholas out in the crowd of decorations because he is the guy that looks like Santa but with a bishop's miter instead of a floppy hat. Also, all of the boulangeries (bread stores) prominently feature a special brioche for St. Nicholas day....an 8 inch tall man-shaped sweet bread.

Ok...enough of St. Nick. This is the story of the ChristKindelMarik.

The ChristKindel is the Christ Child. If you were a good kid, on Christmas Eve the ChristKindel would come and leave you presents. If you were a bad kid, well then you had better beware of Hans Trapp. (Note...when you see something in a different color, that usually suggests that you can click on the text to link to something else. Give it a try. Click on it.) Long before there was a Santa or a Pêre Noël there was the ChristKindel. I suppose that the Anglicized story of "Chris Kringle" derrives from this as well.

Anyway, the ChristKindelMarïk has been in Strasbourg's Place Broglie since 1570 they say. It is literally, the Christ Child Market - the place where one goes to get the gifts for Christmas eve. The name, then, is quite authentic. The lights, I believe, are a more recent addition.

When this story started, it was all about a simple trip to get decorations for the Christmas tree. Here is your typical booth in the KristKindelMarïk. As you can see, there is no worry of going home empty-handed.

Here are the ladies in the act of shopping.

Needless to say, we now have a tree with a base, lights, and ornaments. It is very pretty. And that is what is important. I've come to understand that one should not ask what things cost. One should definitely never ask what things cost. One should just treasure the joy of family and the beauty of the decorations and the warmth of tradition.