Advent Celebration German Style

Yippee! I made it this year. I actually managed to pull out the Advent's wreath from it's box on time for the First Advent.

This year we are using homemade candles that the children made from our own beeswax collected over the last few years. We didn't harvest any honey this year for fear the bees might starve again. Two years in a row we have lost all of our bees.

Hand dipped beeswax candles

I have used the beeswax for sealing the wooden buttons for my doll clothes. This is the first time we made hand dipped candles. Hand dipping candles takes a lot of wax, patience, and time. We learned that we will have to save up a lot more wax to make taller candles. This year's are pretty short. But still pretty.

What no Christstollen? Just plain old toast? The children were very disappointed. Better start making some German Baked goodies soon here...

The house is wonderfully decorated. We pulled out all our German decorations brought back from various trips to the Vaterland. Maybe you have heard the motto of the German Kaethe Wohlfahrt stores? Kaethe Wohlfahrt is a company that sells mostly handmade wooden crafts from the German Erzgebirge region.  That is where many beautiful German Christmas decorations come from. Don't fall for the fakes made in China. When you see the real thing you'll know it. The craftsmanship is incredible. It doesn't matter what time of year you go to Germany at Kaethe Wohlfahrt - "Where it's Christmas all year around".

I feel so blessed that we were able to visit the big Christmas store on the Ku'damm in Berlin this summer. I'll share some images of the new ornaments we brought back to the States. They are so simple and beautiful. That's German style Christmas for you.