Learning about German Christmas in Small Town Wisconsin with Juilliard Graduate Florence Paget with Savvy Mom Ruth Paget
Once I took my daughter to our town’s local history society in Wisconsin. The history society was holding a German Christmas party, since many of our town’s settlers were German. The only thing I knew about German culture in our town despite my attempts to find out about it was that the local supermarket had a German name.
This market had a large selection of marinated hareng, brats (sausage), and locally brewed beers. We did not have a bakery in our town, but several towns over they had German bakeries with rye bread and pumpernickel bread. I found those flavors to be too strong, but thought they would be good with Wisconsin cheese selections.
This resulted in a mini quest by me to find what was German about German culture. When I begin an anthropological search mission, I go to cookbooks. I read The Cooking of Germany by Nika Standen Hazelton (Time-Life Books, 1969), who led the life of a diplomat’s daughter.
She wrote about what women in 1969 and what women of today most probably sought to do for guests – make them feel like royalty with the quality of the food and service surrounding it. She wrote that German women all practice schően decken (to set a table beautifully). I could certainly see that at the German Christmas party.
Red, ironed tablecloths displayed glass dishes of Christmas cookies, Kaffe (coffee), and napkins with bells and holly on them. German coffee I discovered was strong yet smooth. My daughter was more interested in the cookies offered to her by ladies with newly coiffed hair and Christmas pins on their dresses with belts at the waist. Each cookie tasted of the Middle Ages with flavorings such as allspice, cloves, mace, black pepper, and anise in cookies such lebkuchen and pfeffernüsse.
There were many photos of the early German settlers, but there was no sheet describing German settlement in our town. German culture is somewhat hidden in the United States, but I am sure it is protected. The German grandparents in town could probably tell you who everyone was in the photographs on the walls and in some cases what was happening in the agricultural cycle depicted. As a city girl, I felt removed from “the land,” especially after reading books on organic gardening.
We left the photo exhibit to join the Christmas carol singers. We sang in English and in German – Silent Night (Stille Nacht) and O Christmas Tree (O Tannenbaum) to organ music.
By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France
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Click here for: Ruth Paget's Amazon Books
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