[Transparency: post with affiliate links ]

Maybe you came across this German tradition yourself because your neighbors brought over bread and salt when you moved into your first apartment in Germany. And maybe you wondered why they bring over something to eat 🙂

Gifting new neighbors or friends who move into a new home with bread and salt dates back a long time. Bread is a staple food, when we don’t have bread anymore we’re in trouble. We even find this simple fact in the Bible: “Then Jesus declared, ‘I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty” (John 6:35). And salt has always been very precious. Let’s check the Bible for that again: “Jesus is saying to his disciples and followers, you are the salt. I see you and God sees you as precious.” (Matthew, 5:13). 

In the old days bread and salt where seen and valued as a gift from heaven. No matter how poor a family was, these two items needed to be present. Nowadays bread and salt can be seen as a metaphor: bread is vital for our survival and salt adds flavor to life. And that is what we wish for the person who has moved into his or her new home: always enough bread on the table to survive and enough salt so that life will be fun 🙂

It is actually not considered rude or anything when you ring the doorbell of new neighbors, bring over bread and salt and introduce yourself at the same time. Maybe this is the start of a life long friendship.

By the way: You can be a bit creative here: When you know the person you will give the bread and salt to has a bath tub how about substituting the salt to bathing salt? Or when he or she is a beer lover you could also hand over a bottle of beer as it is called “flüssiges Brot” (liquid bread) in German 🙂

Ready-to-buy gift sets

On amazon you find a number of bread and salt themed gift sets [affiliate links]

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Easter in Stuttgart – The religious background

On Easter, Christians all over the world celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ and so do we in Germany. According to the Christian Bible, Jesus has been crucified on Good Friday and revived on Easter Sunday. So Easter Sunday (Ostersonntag) is the day when the main celebrations are going on. Religious people attend a special service at church, but even nonreligious families gather, have brunch or lunch together and organize games and presents for the kids.

Easter in Stuttgart – Fun traditions

We have many fun Easter traditions here in Germany:

Painted Easter eggs

The Easter eggs are probably THE symbol of Easter. There are two ways how you can prepare your own, pretty Easter eggs: You can boil eggs until they are hard and color them. Or you take raw eggs, blow out the egg yolk and white, color the shell as well and put a thread through it so that you can put it in a tree or branches of trees you have brought home with you on your last stroll. And of course there are the countless chocolate eggs you can find in every store. They are the most popular Easter eggs amongst kids 🙂

Fun fact: In Sonnenbühl, a small town close to Stuttgart, you can visit a special museum dedicated to Easter eggs!

Easter rabbit

The Easter bunny or rabbit is most beloved by the kids as it brings chocolate Easter eggs and presents! 🙂 But the Easter rabbit is not as nice as Santa Clause who places his presents always at the same spot. No, no, no. You have to find the eggs and the Easter nest first and believe me, the Easter rabbit is VERY good in hiding his presents. When you have a garden, look behind every branch! Sometimes the nest is even hidden in a tree. But nests can also be found inside houses and apartments. The Easter bunny really goes everywhere 🙂 Tipp for the helpers of the Easter bunny (aka parents): write down where the bunny has hidden the nests! It has happened to more than one family that they found nests months later! 😀 So what is in the nest you might ask now. Usually sweets like chocolate eggs, chocolate rabbits and sometimes even little toys.

Historical fun fact: Easter eggs and bunnies date back to pagan worshipping.  They used to be symbols of fertility and were used for celebrating spring.

Baked Easter lamb

The tradition of the baked Easter lamb goes back generations and before chocolate eggs became popular, it was the main treat after the long time of lent. The traditional baked Easter lamb is made with yeast dough (Hefeteig). You can either buy an Easter lamb in every bakery or create one yourself (there are many recipes on the internet).

The symbol behind the lamb: The lamb refers to Jesus Christ who took his crucification like a sacrificial lamb.

Colorful Easter trees

When you walk through your neighborhood or visit German friends you will see colorful decorated trees or branches. Decoration trees with painted eggs definitely looks gorgeous and adds some more color to the awakening nature.

After I did some research I found out that this tradition can be traced back to one family from Thuringia. More than fifty years ago the Kraft family started to decorate an apple tree in their garden with colorful eggs.

Easter markets

Easter markets are the little sisters and brothers of our famous Christmas markets. Here you will find beautiful artwork as well as sweet treats. They are definitely worth a visit, not only if you’re still in need of the one or other Easter decoration object. However, this year, in times of the Corona crisis, the markets won’t take place unfortunately.

Easter fountains

When you see a nicely decorated fountain these days you have found an Ester fountain! They are especially famous here in the southern part of Germany. The most famous fountain can be found in Bieberach by the way.

Fun Easter games

Many games exist that will keep your little ones busy on Easter.

Egg tapping used to be my favorite game. You need two players and two hard boiled eggs. The players tap the eggs against each other. Whose egg breaks loses this round.

Another fun game is the egg run. You can play this with a larger group of children. Everybody gets a spoon and a hard boiled egg. You define a parcours the kids have to run. Then the eggs get placed on the spoon and the game starts. The first player to finish the parcours with an unbroken egg wins the game.

And then there is egg roll. You need a hill for this game. The players place their hard boiled eggs at the top of the hill and let them roll down. Whose egg crosses the finish line first wins this game.

Easter in Stuttgart – The dates in 2021

April 2, 2021: Good Friday/Karfreitag (public holiday)

Good Friday is the day where Jesus was killed according to the Christian Bible. So this day is usually a quiet public holiday. Religious families will serve fish on this day and avoid meat.

Culinary fun fact: When you’re living in Stuttgart for a while already you might have come across one of our Swabian specialities: Maultaschen. Did you know that there is a fun, historical legend behind these local “raviolies”?! This is how the saying goes: Smart Cistercian monks of Maulbronn Abbey didn’t want to resign from eating meat on Good Friday so they came up with the idea of hiding it inside the pasta-like dish, assuming god wouldn’t notice. That’s why Maultaschen have a very special nickname: Herrgottsbscheisserle – what could be translated to god-cheaters. 🙂

April 3, 2021: (Easter) Saturday

The Saturday after Good Friday isn’t a public holiday. Shops will be open. But if possible, do your shopping for the long weekend before Easter Saturday as the stores will be crowded and it will be hard to maintain the 1.5 meter distance between customers.

April 4, 2021: Easter Sunday/Ostersonntag (public holiday)

Easter Sunday is the most important day of the Easter celebrations. Religious families will attend the service at church. Many people, friends and/or families, gather for brunch or lunch. The kids will start searching for the Easter nests. Taking an Easter stroll is also a tradition in many families however this year, it is recommended not to travel too far for your Easter stroll – or even better: stay at home.

April 5, 2021: Easter Monday/Ostermontag (public holiday)

This is usually another quiet day. In normal years many people like to go for walks and hikes, others drive back home from their visit of friends or family. However this year, how about spending a lazy Easter Monday at home 🙂

Please note that Easter in times of Corona will have to be celebrated a bit different. If you can, stay at home and don’t invite friends of family over. I know, this is hard. But it is the only way how we can prevent the virus from spreading any further.

How is Easter celebrated in your culture? Is it celebrated at all? Please share your story with us in the comments 🙂

Happy Easter everybody! Frohe Ostern!

Picture credit: canva.com

Transparency: This post is based on my own opinion and contains personal recommendations as well as affiliate links.

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German Christmas traditions: Advent calendar

We count down the days up to December 24 (the day we celebrate Christmas) with the help of an Advent calendar. The original version was made out of paper with flaps that cover 24 pictures. Nowadays, a great variety of Advent calendars exist: you can buy chocolate filled calendars in the supermarket or create an individual one for your loved ones with 24 little presents. Obviously, Advent calendars are intended for children but very often, couples or good friends create them for each other, too.

German Christmas traditions: Adventskranz/Advent wreath)

The story of the Advent wreath goes back to the 16th century and is actually an old German Lutheran tradition. Nowadays, nearly every family has one on their dinner table. Traditional Advent wreaths are circular in shape and made out of evergreens. Four candles are placed on the wreath and one after the other is lit on every Advent Sunday.

German Christmas traditions: Nikolaustag/Saint Nicholas Day

On December 6 we celebrate Saint Nicholas Day. Saint Nicholas is the patron saint of sailors, merchants, archers, repentant thieves, children, brewers, pawnbrokers and students and according to the legend he loved to give gifts to people.

Nowadays, Children put out one boot on the evening of December 5. When the check the boot the next morning, it is filled with nuts, oranges and chocolates – maybe even small toys. This was the secret gift of Saint Nicholas. Some kids might find a switch in their boot, too, telling them that they have behaved badly from time to time in the passing year and should be better next year (for the record: there was a switch in my boot EVERY SINGLE YEAR by the way! :-D)

German Christmas traditions: Christmas cookies and more

Advent is all about sweets. Not only on the Christmas markets you will find all sorts of candy, also the regular supermarkets are filled with chocolate Weihnachtsmänner. Moreover, it is a German Christmas tradition to bake your own Christmas cookies (called Plätzchen). There are many different types of Plätzchen, my favorite ones are Vanillekipferl /vanilla crescents (click here for recipe on bbcgoodfood.com) are Zimtsterne/cinnamon stars (click here for recipe on bbcgodfood.com). Pssssst: If you don’t want to bake them by yourself, check out the shelfs in the supermarket 😉

German Christmas traditions: Christmas Eve

In Germany, we celebrate Christmas on the eve of December 24. Families gather and have dinner together. Then everybody sits around the Christmas tree (that might be presented to the family for the first time that day). The tree is decorated with (false or real) candles, Christmas ornaments and glass baubles.  Presents are exchanged and opened and in some families songs are sung. It depends on the family tradition if Santa Claus (Weihnachtsmann) or the angel-like Christkind is the bringer of the gifts. In the end, both will work 😉 Religious families go to church – when they have small children they might choose the mass in the afternoon, families without small children usually prefer the Christmette at midnight.

German Christmas traditions: Christmas dinner

Don’t laugh but the traditional German dinner on Christmas Eve is sausages with potato salad! 😀 And it makes sense: December 24 has not been a public holiday for a long time – even today many employees have to work in the morning. So the afternoon was filled with wrapping the gifts and decorating the Christmas tree. There was no time to prepare a big dinner. Plus – obviously – we Germans love our sausages 😀 Even today many families keep the tradition alive and serve this simple meal on Christmas Eve. However, there are other meals that are served all over Germany as well, roast meat for example.

German Christmas traditions: The thing with the Christmas pickle…

You might have heard of a “German tradition” where Germans put up a pickle in the Christmas tree. I wrote about this before. If you want to find out, if this is a real German Christmas tradition, check out my former post – but be prepared for the truth… 😉

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Fasching in Stuttgart – the history behind it

The history of Fasching dates back many centuries. Wikipedia told me that even people in Mesopotamia celebrated a pre-version of it 5000 years ago… Impressive, I didn’t know that. In medieval times the celebrations became close to what we know nowadays. Fasching in Stuttgart follows the tradition of the Swabian-Alemannic Fasnet. While the celebrations in the Rhine area developed into a more modern way to the Rhine Carnival that is celebrated for example in Cologne nowadays, the Swabian-Alemannic Fasching – after following this development for a while, too – remembered its medieval roots. This is why Karneval in Cologne is much more jolly than the sometimes rather dark Fasching celebrations in Stuttgart – just look at the masks of the participants.

Fasching in Stuttgart – wild masks and characters

The traditional Swabian-Alemannic masks are called Häs. Most of them look quite scary, not jolly like the clowns or princesses most people would think of when they picture a Carnival celebration. These Häs have a long tradition and some of them are handed down from generation to generation.

You can find a number of characters amongst the Häs: jesters, witches, daemons, animals and legendary characters. As soon as someone puts on his or her Häs, they change their character and begin to act wild and sometimes even nasty, especially at Fasching parades. If you visit a parade with kids, have a close eye on them as they might get scared by the wild figures and performances. And it happens very often that children or teenagers get kidnapped by a group of witches or jesters who carry their victim with them for a while (that actually happened to my mum when she was a child – you might guess she never became a big fan of Fasching afterwards…)

But of course you don’t need a traditional Häs to join a Fasching party! You will notice that most people will dress up in “normal” costumes, too.

Fasching in Stuttgart – when is it celebrated?

The version of Fasching that was celebrated in pre-Christian times originated in the wish of the people to drive away winter – and with it its dark spirits. That’s why the masks, the Häs, look so scary in the end.

For Christians, Fasnet was the time before Lenten season begun – the last chance to act wild and free and to eat (and drink!) whatever one wants.

All this cumulates into nowadays Fasching season: The official start into what we also call the “fifth season” is on November 11 at 11:11 am. But the main celebrations happen in the week before Ash Wednesday so their dates depend on Eastern and vary from year to year.

Here is an overview over the most important Fasching dates in 2020:

• Weiberfasching (the day when women take over, storm the city hall and cut men’s ties): February 20
• Rosenmontag (the day of the big Fasching parade): February 24
• Faschingdienstag (last chance to go wild): February 25
• Aschenmittwoch (start of Lent, time to go to church): February 26

Fasching in Stuttgart: dates, parties, parades

There is a lot going on during Fasching season in Stuttgart. I will now point what I think are the main events:

• February 8: Husarenball at Bürgerforum in
• February 13: Faschingsparty at Classic Rock Café
• February 20: Küblesrennen in Bad Cannstatt
• February 22: Karnevalsshow at SSB Veranstaltungszentrum Waldau
• February 24: Faschingsumzug through downtown Stuttgart
• February 25: Faschingsrave at ToY Club
• February 29: Expat Fasching Party

For an overview over the most events that are going on during Fasching in Stuttgart visit this website.

Parties for kids

February 9: Kinderfasching at Österfeldhalle in Stuttgart-Vaihingen
February 16: Kinderfasching at Kursaal Bad-Cannstatt
February 16: Kinderfasching at Hohensteinschule Zuffenhausen
February 24: Kinderfasching at Stuttgarter Rathaus

Fasching in Stuttgart: Do’s and Don’ts

In order to have a great time celebrating Fasching in Stuttgart, there are some do’s and don’ts you should know about:

Do’s

• Dress up, dance, laugh and have fun!
• As the weather can be quite cold make sure you’re wearing something warm when you’re watching the parade.
• Bring cash, epay and even credit cards are not accepted everywhere.

Don’ts

• Flirting is fine, touching others without their permission not so much.
• Don’t pee in public, you’ll get fined.
• Don’t leave your waste on the streets. Put it in the bins provided.
• Drink responsibly.
• Don’t drive when you’ve had a few.

Fasching in Stuttgart: In need of a costume?

You want to visit a Fasching party but have nothing to wear? There is a fun shop for costumes in downtown Stuttgart called Deiters.

If you’re in a hurry, you’ll definitely find something on amazon.com. These are my favorite costumes this year [affiliate links]:

Transparecy: This article contains unpaid advertisements. In this post I point out events and locations that I can recommend personally. I did not get paid by the organizators to do so. Paid contend is always highlighted as such on Living in Stuttgart.

Picture credits: canva.com

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First of all – and to avoid mails from my German readers 😉 – of course not EVERY German loves the Eurovision Song Contest. But a lot of us do, me included 🙂 So let me explain what the contest is about :

Eurovision Song Contest in Germany – Waht is all the fuss about?

The Eurovision Song Contest is in fact the longest-running annual international TV song competition. It started back in 1956, can you belive this?! So forget about trends American Idol and such! 😉 Singers from counties that are part of the European Broadcasting Union can participate – so don’t be confused to see countries that are not part of the European Union in the competition, those are two different things!! Since 2015 even Australia is taking part, simply because the contest is such a big thing over there, too. 😀

After preselections of the songs – in the member countries themselves and by a jury afterwards – every participating country submits a song. On ESC-night, those songs will be performed live on tv. This is obviously the best part of the show :-).

Afterwards the voting part begins. The people of all the member countries can vote for the song they have liked the most – just not for song from their own country. There is also a professional jury in every country that casts their own votes. Each country has one or more representative(s) who announce the points live on television. This part always takes veeeery long. Finally, the country with the most points wins the contest. The winning country will also be the host of the contest in the coming year.

Eurovision Song Contest in Germany- Why is it such a big thing?

Well, this question is tricky. In my opinion, the Eurovision Song Contest is loved in Germany mainly because it is such a fun event! When do you get the chance to listen to songs from so many different countries? And a lot of artists put on a show which makes watching their performances even more entertaining. For me, the Eurovision Song Contest manifests what Europe really is about: being different and celebrating this difference! Plus, it’s all about music and who doesn’t like a good song, right?! 🙂

Eurovision Song Contest in Germany- How to make it an even greater event!

Moritz and I have come up with a very fun tradition: Each year we try to put together a buffet that consists of food and drinks from as many participating countries (or countries that could participate – in case I didn’t want to wait till the results of the semi-finals to find out which products I should buy :-)) as possible. Thanks to this tradition we have tried things we would have probably never considered taking from the shelf in the supermarket if not for this event. Believe me, it is a lot of fun trying all the different food and drinks from this All-European-And-Beyond buffet!

So here’s what I found in the supermarket for the Eurovision Song Contest in 2017:

Eurovision Drinks

• representing Switzerland: rivella Lemonade
• representing Australia: Bundaberg Ginger Beer
• representing Hungary: Balaton Red Wine
• representing Portugal: Antonio Lopes White Wine
• representing Denmark: Carlsberg Beer

Eurovision Buffet

• representing Germany: Swabian noodles (Spätzle) with lentils
• representing The Netherlands: Old Amsterdam Cheese
• representing Greece: Dolmadakia Stuffed Wine Leaves
• representing Spain: Spanish Olives
• representing Poland: Cwikla Beet Root relish
• representing France: French Onion Soup
• representing Austria: Vienna Sausage with mashed potatoes
• representing Bulgaria: Djuwetsch Mixed Vegetables
• representing Italy: Bruschetta

Eurovision Dessert

• representing Belgium: Waffles
• representing Bosnia and Herzegovina: Eurocrem Chocolate Dessert
• representing Iceland: Skyr Yogurt

Eurovision Snacks

• representing Serbia: Munchmallows
• representing the Czech Republic: Karlsbader wafers
• representing the UK: Salt and Vinegar Crisps
• representing Croatia: Domacica cookies

21 items representing 21 counties! Not too bad! I 2016 I only had 13 different products.

Real pros don’t buy stuff from the convenient food section in the supermarket of course but prepare everything themselves. ;-P Due to a lack of cooking skills and time I became a huge fan of the international food shelf in our local EDEKA supermarket :-)!

Next to the buffet, we always have a list of all the participating countries and play jury ourselves. The artists get points for their songs, their performances and their dresses. Usually, we come up with a very different result, compared to the one from the voting procedure. 🙂

I hope you have as much fun watching the ESC as we do! If you organize an Eurovision Buffet, too, please sent me a picture! 🙂

The post A guide to celebrating the Eurovision Song Contest in Germany appeared first on Living in Stuttgart.

New Year’s Eve in Germany requires Raclette

Whenever you invite guests for dinner, the big question is what you should cook for them. Not on New Year’s Eve in Germany 🙂 OF COURSE there will be raclette, a semi-hard cow’s milk cheese that is prepared directly on the table in an electric table-top grill with small pans. Next to the cheese, you put all sorts of ingredients in the pans, like corn, pearl onion, pineapple and potatoes for example. Then you put the pan into the electric grill and wait till the cheese starts to bubble. Enjoy!

No New Year’s Eve in Germany is complete without watching “Dinner for one”

This tradition has been around for decades. Every NYE many German friends and families gather around the tv or computer after dinner to watch THE Silvester highlight: “Dinner for one” is an old single-take black-and-white comedy sketch from 1963. Don’t worry if you don’t speak German as you can definitely enjoy it anyway because it is in English! 🙂 I honestly don’t know why it is so big here on Silvester as it doesn’t even have to do with NYE!

It is about the 9oth birthday of Miss Sophie, a rich English lady. She is hosting a birthday party but unfortunately all of her old friends have passed away. But Miss Sophie is a lucky girl because there is her butler, James. He helps her make the dinner as lively and happy as it has been when her friends were still alive. James plays the roles of all the guests, mimics their ways of talking and he toasts to the birthday girl many times. Obviously the alcohol makes his head dizzy and it becomes more and more difficult for him to get through the dinner. And then there is this annoying head of a tiger skin lying on the floor… But see for yourselves 🙂

Link to youtube (terms and conditions of youtube apply when you follow this link)

Find out what the new year holds in stock for you and wish for good luck

Another tradition for New Year’s Eve in Germany is Bleigießen (Molybdomancy or lead pouring) – which is done with wax instead of lead nowadays. You can buy small packages that contain the wax and a spoon in supermarkets. On New Years Eve you fill a small bucket with water and light a candle. Then Bleigießen can start: Put one of the wax pieces (they come in different shapes, like a pig, a horseshoe, a heart…) in the spoon and hold it over the candle until it starts to melt. Then you have to be quick! Bring the spoon above the bucket and pour the wax into the water. It will cool down immediately and freeze in a certain shape. Now you have to be creative. What does the wax look like? And what could this mean for you in the coming year? Insider tip from an experienced fortune-teller ;-): If you have no clue what the metal looks like, hold it in front of the candle and look at its shadow on the wall. That might help.

Obviousely everybody hopes for good luck on New Year’s Eve. In Germany pigs, four-leaved cloverleaves, mushrooms with red hats and chimney sweepers are said to bring good fortune. We like to present our friends (or ourselves) with sweets that symolize these lucky charms.

Start into the new year with sparkling wine and fireworks

At midnight, you cling glasses of sparkling wine, wish everybody around a Frohes Neues (short for Frohes neues Jahr/Happy New Year) and watch the firework. You are allowed to start your own firework in most cities but I have never done it myself. I prefer watching from a save distance with something bubbly in my hand :-). If you want to watch the firework in Stuttgart there are several good spots you can go to do so. If you want to see the firework from above, you can go to Monte Scherbelino/Birkenkopf, Karlshöhe, Santiago-de-Chile-Platz, Eugensplatz, Teehaus at Weißenburgpark, Höhenpark Killesberg, and Bismarckturm. But be prepared for these places to be REALLY crowded. And I personally wouldn’t go there with children. A much more relaxed way to celebrate in the new year 2020 will be the new public Silvester party at Schlossplatz. Fireworks are banned, a fun program with live music and shows will entertain you before midnight and then a laser- and light show will blow your mind. Definitely more child-friendly than all the other places and a very relaxed way to celebrate in to the new year.

No Silvester without New Year’s resolutions

A fresh start into a new year makes most of us want to improve ourselves a little bit. That’s when Neujahrsvorsätze (New Year’s resolutions) come into play. They can be about anything really. Give up smoking, drink less alcohol and eat healthier are very popular resolutions for example. My New Year’s resolution is to get back into sports after I gave birth this summer. Fun fact: Most of the resolutions are forgotten again on January 1. And I doubt that this is only because of the amount of alcohol consumed on NYE. ;-P

Where to go on New Year’s Eve in Stuttgart?

If you’re still wondering where you want to go to celebrate 2018 and start into 2019, check out my post about  fun events and parties that will be going on there in Stuttgart.

The post Celebrating New Year’s Eve in Germany appeared first on Living in Stuttgart.

5. Because of the music

You will hear song’s from 26 different performers. But don’t even think you will have to listen to granny-style folk music the whole night. The styles of music performed in Stockholm include singer-songwriter songs, pop and rock music and (pop-)chansons. And believe me, the performances will be as different and unique as the countries, the singers stem from.

4. Because of the dresses

Next to the music, the dresses of the artists are a good reason to watch the Eurovision Song Contest. Take the German singer Jamie-Lee for example, with her love of colorful dresses in Japanese Decora Kei style. Moreover, the stage-wear of the Australian singer is supposed to be very special, too (before you ask: Yes! Australia will participate in the contest for the second time this year. Dear Aussis: Welcome to the European Union – ups – Eurovision Song Contest!). Some dresses will be beautiful, some really weird – but it will definitely be fun seeing them on stage!

3. Because of the fun

Moritz and I have created a tradition: Each time we watch the European Song Contest we have an All-European-Buffet. We try to get food from as many of the participating countries as possible. This year we managed to get the following (in the order of appearance tonight):

• representing Belgium: Waffles
• representing the Netherlands: Heineken Beer
• representing Italy: Pizza
• representing Israel: Falafel
• representing Germany: Candy “Kracher” in the colours of our national flag

• representing France: Macarons

• representing Poland: Apple juice (I found this brand in the international section of our supermarket. Not sure if it’s famous in Poland but it’s produced there… 🙂

• representing Australia: Wine from Down Under

• representing Serbia: Munchmallows (I found those in the international section of our supermarket, too! I hope they are good.)

• representing Croatia: Ki-Ki Candy (this new section in the supermarket is just awesome!)

• representing Russia: Pickled Cherry Tomatos

• representing Spain: Sangria
• representing the UK: Tea and Whisky

13 different items. Not too bad! 🙂

Next to the All-European-Buffet, we always have a list of all the participating countries and play jury ourselves. The artists get points for their song, their performance and their dresses. Usually, we come up with a very different result, compared to the one from the voting procedure. 🙂

2. Because of the European spirit

We Europeans tend to forget that we are part of a continent with many different cultures. On the one hand, due to the European Union, we feel we are connected closely with our neighbour countries: we pay with the same money (well, at least most of us), we consume the same goods, we can travel to and live where ever we want…. On the other hand, we are different and unique, due to our cultural backgrounds. And it is on this night once a year, that we get reminded on how colourful good old Europe is. It’s the European spirit, sitting next to us on the couch in front of the tv, clapping hands and singing along. I love it! 🙂

1. Because it’s awesome

What can I say, the European Song Contest is just awesome! So make sure you won’t miss it tonight!! Enjoy and have lots of fun!

Do you like the European Song Contest, too, or do you think it’s a very strange event? And if you like it, do you have a special tradition, too? Let me know in the comments!! 🙂

More information about:

Eurovision Song Contest 2016

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We made our way over to Schillerplatz and strolled through the stands of Christmas market 2014.

Check out the decoration on top of the stalls! This sort of decoration on a Christmas market is actually special to Stuttgart. And each year, the stall with the most beautiful decoration wins a price.

Then we headed over to Marktplatz and the city hall.

Fun fact: Can you spot the numbers in the windows? Each December, the city hall (Rathaus) turns into a huge Adventskalender. From the 1st of December until the 23th one number will convert into the coat of arms of one of the quarters of Stuttgart. A choir from this quarter will perform for free on the stairs in front of the Rathaus. These mini concerts always start at 6 pm. Well worth visiting!

Now it was time for mulled wine. If you haven’t already, try white “Glühwein” ! It’s delicious! Hot chocolate with rum is nice, too by the way 😉

When you visit Stuttgart’s beautiful Christmas market 2014, you shouldn’t miss:

-having a Glühwein

–eating Magenbrot (which translates literary into stomach bread…. but is in fact very yummy biscuit, like gingerbread)

-buying at least one very cute but also very unnecessary piece of Christmas decoration

-visiting the Finnish Christmas Village at Karlsplatz

–having your picture taken of you next to the big nutcracker at Marktplatz

The Christmas Market 2014 will be on until the 23rd of December from 10 am till 9 am (on Sundays from 11 am until 9 am).  So you have 28 days, make the most of it!

More information about:

Stuttgart Christmas Market 2014 (only in German)

Stuttgarter Weihnachtsmarkt in general

Advent concerts in front of the town hall (only in German)

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So here’s what we found this year:

• Glenfiddich Whisky and Toffee, representing the UK
• Sangria, representing Spain
• Macedonian wine, representing Macedonia
• Macarons, representing France
• Paracini and Pizza, representing Italy
• Marillenknödel, representing Austria
• Falafel and dates, representing Israel
• Hungarian Pepper, representing Hungary
• Olives and stuffed wine leaves, representing Greece
• Mediterranean Baguettes, representing all Mediterranean countries
• Stuffed pepper, representing Turkey
• Swiss cheese, representing Switzerland

Hmmmmm, can’t wait to start (and I know who’s stomachs will we acing by tomorrow!)

Anyone else watching the Song Contest tonight? I’d love to hear your ideas about how to celebrate it !

More information about:

Eurovision Song Contest

The post Preparing for the Eurovision Song Contest 2014 appeared first on Living in Stuttgart.

I was talking about Christmas decorations with a colleague last week and he told me about the American exchange student who stayed with his family last Christmas. When they decorated the Christmas tree together, he asked where the Christmas pickle is. My colleague was confused and thought he might have misunderstood the question. Then the exchange student told him that it is commonly believed in the US that it’s a German Christmas tradition to hide Christmas pickles in the tree.

I didn’t believe him and thought we has making fun of me. So the next day, he brought me the pickle the exchange student gave him and his family as a present when he left.

Well, I have to admit, I actually like this pickle-tradition-thing. When I googled it, I found out that the idea of hiding it in the tree is that whoever finds it first, receives a special present. Maybe we’ll adopt this (American!) tradition next year 🙂

But for this Christmas, we are quite happy with our picklefree tree. Merry Christmas, today especially to all Americans! Be good to your pickles 😉

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