30+ Holiday Items Suggested by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

30+ Holiday Items Suggested by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

I noticed when I lived in Stuttgart, Germany for 5 years that Christmas Markets (Christkindlmarkts) brought in a large amount of money to the cities around Germany that held them through sales tax on merchandise and food. 

Messiah Chorus Singings by the German composer Handel (who lived in London most of his life) might also make money by selling merchandise.  Messiah choruses have been filmed by PBS for information on what these are. 

Basically, Messiah participants sing one of the 4 main chorus sections they feel they are in with a little tuning up by a conductor with orchestra.  (The four chorus sections are soprano, alto, tenor, baritone.) 

There seem to be 4 things that you need to do to set up a month-long Christmas market like the Germans do in Bavaria (Municha and Nüremberg) and Baden-Wurtëmberg (Stuttgart).

1-Obtain a sales permit that allows you to collect sales tax and pay it to the city or county that issues it

2-Offer free to low-priced activities for children and teens to do while parents shop

3-Sell moderately priced merchandise for preschoolers up to adults

4-Sell limited yet nourishing, warm food selections at a low-price

You should try to set up a budget of all known expenses for your first Christmas fair to know your “break-even point” – where you pay expenses and begin to make profits.

Other expenses may crop up.  Keep track of the unexpected expenses and do simple knowledge management at the end of the Christmas Fair to organize a better budget the following year.

Do the steps below for a “basic knowledge management” assessment of the Christmas Fair.

-Look at the budget estimated for the current year’s fair

-Look at the money actually brought in for the current fair

-If the money brought in for the current fair is larger than the estimated budget, you have a profit. 

If you have less money brought in than the current year’s budget, you have a loss.

-Write up “Lessons Learned” from the current year’s Christmas Fair, so you can improve the next Christmas Fair

-Write up “Best Practices” to Implement for the next Christmas Fair that might make it easier to make sales, collect payments, park cars, get people on buses and transport them to a venue, and pay sales tax faster.

I have already posted a blog on typical winter food items for Germany.  Many communities in the US with German settlers sell bottled white asparagus, braised red cabbage, and sauerkraut in addition to importing these items from overseas.

I have also listed some activities for learning German that could be done at the Christmas Fair.  I have more holiday-themed activities coming, but I would like to deal with merchandise here.

I have 30+ items listed below that different communities might want to sell and that might be in stock in various warehouses around the US:

1-The Game of Life board game that teaches financial management to children 10 and up

2-Stöllen coffee cake made with golden raisins (Sultana) to go with strong German coffee and cream

3-Gingerbread from Nüremberg in decorative tins with scenes of medieval Germany on them – made from recycled aluminum?

4-Handcarved wooden toys (Möbil brand)

5-Handcarved wooden Christmas tree ornaments

6-Tin Christmas tree ornaments – Käthe Wolvert sells these and has a subsidiary in the US

7-Manger Scenes – Käthe Wolvert

8-German coffee

9-German stainless steel coffee pots

10-German herb teas

11-Calendars of German, Austrian, and Swiss sites

12-Bottled sauerkraut – red and white

13-Holiday tablecloths

14-Non-holiday tablecloths

15-Holiday placemats

16-Holiday napkins

17-Dried Fruit and Nut trays

18-Christmas books for children

19-Peter and the Wolf audios, DVDs, and child-sized instruments

20-Bingo game set with metal ball tumbler

21-German jams and jellies (you can use this in tea in place of sugar and put it in rice cooked with milk and vanilla)

22-Kiddy card games – Go Fish, Old Maid, Rummy, Hearts

23-Various ready-made quick breads from bakeries

Banana-walnut bread

Pumpkin bread

Zucchini bread

Carrot cake bread

Applesauce bread

24-Holiday Cookies

Hershey blossoms made with their kisses look like brown-eyed Susans

25-Reusable grocery bags from local merchants

26-Hard, plastic roller baskets to carry items from the supermarket to your car or home – you can wipe them down easily if going through slush

27-Poinsettia plants

28-Various kinds of woks – The Philippines is a Catholic country, too

29-Rice cookers

30-Chopsticks – Vietnam and Japan both have minority Christian populations

31-Fondue pots and set

32-Gently used November issues of family magazines with recipes for side dishes for Thanksgiving

33-German books available from Korn and Berg bookstore in Nüremberg, which has been in existence since the 1400s

These items are suggestions for merchandise at a Christmas Fair Market.

Happy Holidays!!!

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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German Meal Selections for Winter Suggested by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

German Meal Selections for Winter Suggested by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

When I lived in Stuttgart, Germany for fives years, I learned that from Oktoberfest through New Year’s was a time to do Kaffeklatsches (stöllen coffee cake and coffee get-togethers) and informal lunches and dinners, so you could shop, cook, buy gifts, and get ready for the holidays.

The following items could be mixed-and-matched to make up small sit-down dinners or buffets:

-Sweet white wines from the Moselle River region can serve as a cocktail in green-stemmed glasses

-White asparagus points on toast squares with mayonnaise as an appetizer

-Roast chicken – sliced and served on platters separated into dark and white meat

-Spätzle – Swabian (Baden-Wurtëmberg) egg and milk dumplings served wit grated cheese and butter

-Rotkohl – Braised red cabbage made with sour apples, red currant, jam, and butter.  This dish is slightly sweet with a tart edge.

-Sauerkraut – Sour white cabbage sauerkraut can become savory when roasted with goose and/or caraway seeds

-Apple Strudel with golden Sultana raisins

-Black Forest Chocolate Cake

-Pear Cider

-Apple Cider

-Stöllen coffee cake with strong German coffee and cream

To really appreciate German meals, you need about 3 feet of snow outside and an icy, Polar Vortex blowing on the windows.

Happy Holidays!!!

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France


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Advent - 2 Activities for December by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Advent 2018 Family Activities: Dec. 2 – 24 by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

The following activities are a continuation of the 7 that I listed in a prior blog on Advent:

8-Read Rumplestiltskin Picture Book for Story Time

This fairy tale was collected by the German linguist brothers Grimm in the 19^th century.

9-Read Rapunzel Picture Book for Story Time

This fairy tale was collected by the German linguist brothers Grimm in the 19^th centry.

10-Make Paper Bag Puppets to Teach Etiquette

Glue faces of famous German speakers on small paper lunch bags.

Give 5 biographical facts about each German figure.

Use puppets to:

11-Teach children how to do introductions in German for Austria, Germany, and German-speaking Switzerland (They are all a little different)

Show how to do the introduction first in English and then in German.

Practice the German introductions.

12-Teach Children How to Ask Questions based on the biographical data that matches the puppet faces:

Show how to do the questions and answers first in English and then in German.

Suggested questions from biographical data follow:

Where are you from?

What is your alma mater?

What subjects were your favorites in school?

What places have lived in?

What places did you like the best and why?

What foods do you like best?

13-Do a Chocolate Fondue Party

Dip tangerine sections, banana slices, strawberries, apple slices or marshmallows in fondue made with Hershey semisweet tablets and heavy cream.  Serve cider as a beverage.

14-Play Twister in German to learn colors and learn to move around in a limited space

15-Play Operation Game in German to learn the names of body parts well

16-Play Bingo game in German to learn numbers in a fun way

17-Play Euchre (Napoleon) card game in German.  The object is to avoid being Napoleon at Waterloo.

18-Play Old Maid card game in German

19-Play the Rummy card game in German

20-Play Calendar Game Showing different famous sites in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland

Famous buildings, famous natural sites, famous natural dishes to eat, and famous people are what you should show.

21- Listen to Mussorgsky’s Pictures at the Exhibition.

This symphony is a musical response to Mussorgsky’s walk to and through an art exhibit.

I am pretty sure Germans like this symphony, because their winters are similar – very schlecht – rotten. They do many of the same activities.  They go to art exhibits, the symphony, films, and clubs for dancing.  They also read and write a lot in winter.

The following art activities could be done to do something similar to Pictures at the Exhibition.

Write poems or music in response to a painting or photo that a child or teen selects.

22-Watch the Fantasia video.

This video is supposed to be an example of art, music, and informed dialog working together. 

I think it is great for children of all ages.

23-Read the Gingerbread Man Picture book to children and make gingerbread cookies from scratch

Happy Holidays!!!!

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Advent - 1 Activities for December -Suggested by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Suggested Activities for Austrian Advent (2018) by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

The following 23 activities for children, teens, and parents promote knowledge of the German – speaking world using the German and English languages to learn about Austria, Catholic Germany (Bavaria and Baden-Wurtëmberg), and German – speaking Switzerland. 

Advent 2018:  December 2 – December 24.

The activities below can be used one per day in addition to Advent Bible readings for adults and Christmas picture book readings for children and teens as fun activities after doing those two activites:

1-Watch the film The Wizard of Oz by Frank O. Baum

2-Sing Christmas carols in German and English

3-Learn to waltz to the music of Austrian composer Johann Strauss such as the Blue Danube

4-Do a “show-and-tell” map and globe activity with large photos showing geographic features and famous architecture of the German-speaking world such as:

-Countries

-mountains

-rivers

-lakes

-capitals and other famous cities

-agricultural areas

-famous festivals

-famous foods

5-Show tourism documentaries from the consulates of the German-speaking countries in English

6-Listen to a Peter and the Wolf audio

This Russian symphony for children was written in the 19^th century.  Young children listen to it to learn about different instruments.

German women were nannies employed by the Russian nobility while the French were tutors and cooks for the nobility.  Tolstoy’s novel War and Peace reflects part of this situation.  (War and Peace was also the first bilingual novel written in Russian and French.)

The above information can be given as an introduction to the activity that runs as follows:

A music teacher will say the name of an instrument, show how it is played, play the instrument, and say which animal in Peter and the Wolf is represented by the instrument as the teacher holds up a picture of a fox, for example, along with its spelling.  The teacher, then, plays the instrument.

As children and teens listen to the Peter and the Wolf audio, the music teacher holds up the instrument that each animal represents along with a picture of the animal and the spelling of the animal’s name.

I learned this Peter and the Wolf activity from my 4^th-grade music teacher in Royal Oak, Michigan.

7-Wilhelm Tell Picture Book Storytelling

Wilhelm Tell was a famous archer in the Swiss Middle Ages, who had to shoot an apple in half off the top of his son’s head to save his son.  Spoiler alert – Wilhelm Tell was a very good archer.

Read story and ask questions about favorite images and why children liked them afterwards.

Have children draw and color the scene they liked the most in the book.

Play darts with a target board

Show how to do archery and shoot arrows at a bullseye board

Write a small play based on the picture book

Perform the play written as a group for fun

Part 1 – To be continued up to Activity 23 on my next blog.

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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