Tag: Germany

New Styles from Soffieria De Carlini

The Krampus Tradition …

St Nicholas and Krampus

If you are a child in southern Germany or Austria, when St.

Nicholas rides through your village on the evening of December 5, he does not arrive alone. Krampus is his scary companion.

St. Nicholas Ornament
Vintage Krampus postcard

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Krampus, a terrifying horned figure wearing chains and carrying switches, runs behind him. It’s his job to scare children into being “good.”

Krampus ornament

 

 

The Soffieria De Carlini Krampus ornament depicts a classic German orAustrian Krampus clad in black with a scary red face, horns and elongated tongue. And, don’t miss that tail. He is truly a frightening character … as bad as St. Nicholas is saintly!

Soffieria De Carlini has been a family-operated glass blowning working shop since 1947.  Located near Milan, the De Carlinis are the last workshop in Italy still producing these whimsical free blown holiday ornaments.

Krampus vintage postcard

Read more about the tradition:

 

 

Greetings from Annaburg Germany

castle-lunchHaving a wonderful but tiring experience here on day 4. I have had difficulty connecting with the hotel WiFi here so I thought I would make a quick reminder to take a look at the Celebrate365.com De Carlini “Pre-Order” area. The final day that I can increase quantity numbers is Sept 30. Free shipping on pre-orders will end that day as well. So, if you usually buy Italian ornaments for gifts, you might want to take a look.

http://www.celebrate365.com/category/B-0-DeC-00.html

mossman

santa-hunchback

We are in the wood carving area of Germany and I am certainly seeing some wonderfully focused museums. I am gaining quite an education about “Miner and Angel” figures along with the parade uniform figures … well just about anything from this region. It has been wonderful! We will be checking out of this hotel tomorrow and moving onward to the glass blowing / ornament area. Of course, that is what I am most looking forward to. And Glass Links member Jane Feuer who is here in Germany for 6 months will be joining the groups soon. We will be going to Inge-glas on Friday … along with lots of little glass workshops. You know that I will have lots of photos to share!

I will be back on Sept 30 / Oct 1.

Connie

From Germany – Day 3

Sunday, Dec 6

After breakfast from the buffet at our cozy castle, we boarded the motor coach for Ulm’s extensive Christmas Market. Each city or town’s market seems to have a character of its very own. I think that’s what makes visiting Germany at this time of year so very special. We are seeing a variety of Christmas goodies — everything from mass produced items from China and India to the truly handcrafted. The local Christmas markets are also fund raising opportunities for local organizations. So, think church bazaars! Ladies (& even some gentlemen) from your local church labor for months making special Christmas-Time goodies and baking holiday treats. We saw lots of that here, too. Very endearing! And, it’s such a positive to be spending one’s tourist Euros to help local organizations. Think county and state fairs, too! There are LOTS of food & beverage vendors. People seem to love to eat and drink regardless of their origin. I have not been successful in inducing Melvin to try the local Gutwein (mulled hot wine) but I do love the ceramic mugs that it comes in! Now, that’s something to collect! Each city and village seems to have its own signature mug, sold to support the local Christkindlemarkt. I’ll bet if you search eBay, you can find some!

Tonight, we are staying in Rothenburg, aka shopper’s paradise! It’s the home of Kathe Wolfhart. You might know her ornaments from the internet. Before arriving at this rebuilt city (it looks just like a fairy tale!), we traveled north with stops at he exquisite Käthe Kruse Doll Museum, as well as the famous Steiff Museum (teddy bears and other stuffed toys). I promise images later. These stops might not have featured ornaments, but they were absolutely incredible!

Where we are staying (outside of the city’s walls):

December 6 – 9, 2009
Villa Mittermeier
Vorm Würzburger Tor 7+9
91541 Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Germany
Tel: +49 (0) 98 61 / 94 54 – 0
Fax: +49 (0) 98 61 / 94 54 – 94
www.villamittermeier.de
info@villamittermeier.de

From Germany – Day 2

Saturday, Dec 5

Today we spent an entire day exploring Stuttgart’s Christmas Market. What more could I want! I must confess that I forgot the card reader to connect my camera to the laptop. Drats! I have a new phone with internet capabilities. As soon as I figure it out, I’ll send some email photos for posting! Remember that many of our holiday traditions had their base in Germany. As we encounter them, I’ll talk about some of them. And, of course, I’ll talk about the kinds of purchases one can make at the Christmas Markets. While I don’t think that I’ll be purchasing many holiday items, I know that I’ll be buying candy and other sweet treats as gifts for those who take such good care of me throughout the year. One of those special people is our neighbor Roger. He’s the one who will be mailing out the Christmas Celebrate365 issues while I am researching holiday traditions here in Germany. That’s one very special neighbor, if you ask me!

For those who wished, there was an excursion to the car-lovers’ paradise at the entertaining and informative Mercedes Benz Museum in Stuttgart. I guess that there are things besides glitter!

Stuttgart Market

And remember, No orders shipped between December 3 – December 13.