Christmas is in my opinion the best season of the year because of the snow, decorating the big Christmas tree and the general atmosphere of Christmas with my family. One of my favorite things about Christmas is the build up to Christmas Eve. Every Morning of December until the 24th. You get to open one door in your advent calendar. You can get several types of calendars like Lego calendars, Playmobile calendars but the most iconic are the chocolate calendars. The best thing about Christmas are the Christmas presents. It is always a fun experience sitting around the Christmas tree waiting until it is your turn to open your present.
One particular tradition is Saint Nicholas, which is celebrated on the 6th of December. In the night from the 5. to the 6. children will put their shoes outside their front door. In the morning they hope to find chocolate nuts and sweets in their shoes. This is the case if they have been good children throughout the year e.g if they always did their homework on time or if they were kind to their neighbor. If they have not been good throughout the year, they will not find any sweets and Saint Nicholas won't give them any presents. Another tradition I really like is baking Christmas biscuits with my family. Throughout December every weekend we make several types of biscuits. My favorite is called Vanille Kipferl, which is a traditional german biscuit. Vanille Kipferl is made of butter, sugar, flour, and vanilla. They are shaped like a half-moon and are covered in powdered sugar after they are baked. They taste delicious and smell even better. Just before the 1. of December I go to the park with my mother and collect twigs off green needle trees, so we can form a circle with them. This circle of twigs forms the basis of something we call Advents Kranz. We then choose four red candles and put them on top of the circle of twigs. Finally we put that Advents Kranz In the middle of our table and on the first Sunday of December we light the first candle and on the second Sunday we light the second and so on until Christmas. This way waiting for Christmas gets more enjoyable. Once all four candles are lit it's Christmas. A few days before Christmas I go into the forest with my grandfather and we cut a suitable Christmas tree. My mother decorates it in secret before Christmas Eve. On Christmas Eve at around 5 o’clock, when it is dark outside, my mother rings a bell. Once we hear the bell, we are allowed to enter the room with the Christmas tree. That is how I spend my Christmas.