'The truth about living in Germany' American Reaction

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[HalfEye]

We in Germany don't open the presents early, you open them late.

[ConnieIsMijnNaam]

On “celebrating the day before”: a lot of feasts and traditional holidays used to be celebrated at night. So Christmas eve was the highlight of the Christmas celebration. From that perspective, christmas day feels more like “the day after”. Visiting friends and family and having a good time. But Christmas eve (especially at night!) was the main event.

[markwaypoint]

On washing machines in the kitchen: Most apartments don‘t have a laundry room because of restricted space. Thus your washing machine goes where the utilities are. Kitchens an bathrooms have water and drainage, so that’s where the appliances go.

[gregclark]

I have been in Germany since 1983 and love the way they celebrate Christmas they open gifts on Christmas eve and then have Christmas day one and Christmas day two so you have more time to celebrate with family and friends .

[alinadornieden]

we dont celebrate christmas "the day before". if you ask any german (and tons of other countries) when Christmas is, they say the 24th. and the 25th and 26th is just extra free days to celebrate and visit family and eat even more.

[Attirbful]

Ryan, with a little one now, I strongly recommend for you to pick up the tradition of giving Christmas gifts on Christmas Eve, as it ensures that the kids will play with the new toys on the morning of the 25th and leave you parents to sleep in for another hour or two and actually enjoy the quiet holiday…

[flauschiger_keks]

Some of the traditions before christmas include:
- 1., 2., 3., 4. Advent (the four Sundays before christmas)
- Adventskranz (a wreath with four candles and each sunday you light up one more candle until all candles are burning on the fourth sunday)
- Weihnachtsmarkt (a christmas market you can visit with your friends or family to have a nice time there drinking Glühwein or hot chocolate)
- Adventskalender (A calendar with 24 pieces of chocolate in it. Every day you get one of those until you reach christmas.)
- And the time before christmas (the „Weihnachtszeit“) is the cookie season in Germany. Everyone is baking and a lot of sweets are only eaten in that christmas time, like Lebkuchen, Baumkuchen, Spekulatius or Zimtsterne.

[ingevonschneider]

In Germany we hardly any more use the phrases "communist" or "socialist" when adressing a living person. We just call them "links" (left) or they vote for "Die Linke" (the leftist party). And it is most of the time not labelled as something negative.

[jessicajonkman]

About christmas: Christmas eve is called the Holy Evening in Germany, this is the actual day in their view as being the day Christ was born. So on that evening, after church, to celebrate the birth of Christ, Germans open up their presents. Now, this next bit is a bit different in each family, so I can only speak about mine, but: Christmas eve is for your own household, so mom, dad + kids, then first christmas day is with one set of grandparents and the second christmas day is for the other set of grandparents. (We usually swap who goes first every year).
I hope this is a bit more clarifying for you, if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask.

[frisco-.]

Ryan, the american concept is not the traditional one.
The original christmas tradition is based on the "Jul Fest", when people celebrate rebirth of light. This on 21st of december (Wintersonnenwende), when the longest night occurs.
This was a typical germanic tradition.
In times when political and religious usage changed the catholic church mixed germanic traditions with christian tradition.
Jesus was born in june but to make the new religion attractive to the people they put the birth of Jesus and the Jul Fest together in winter. So ist ended up that Christmas gets celebrated on 24th of december and we do celebrate Jesus' birth. Gifts are delivered by Jesus child or Christ child in Christmas Eve.
The modern tradition of Santa Claus is a mixup of St. Nikolaus (celebrated on 6th of december) and Christmas....and got also manifested through Coca-Cola as a advertisement for their brand.
So Santa Claus is an artificial impersonation of Christmas.

[Nikuthebigboss]

I'm German, and a child once asked me how Santa was able to bring all the presents in one night and I went into a whole explanation to how that might be possible (Yes, I explained that the sun goes around the earth which makes one night into 24 hours and he has his sleigh so...) and he fully understood and even asked: That's why we open them at Christmas eve, because we get them first? And I just said yes 🤣

[hikariyumi]

the most shocking thing for me was to realise that adventskalener arent really a thing in many countries? theyre one of my favourite things in december.. and for impatient children its so nice to have a countdown to christmas.
i was brought up to never wish someone a merry christmas before christmas mass was over, but thats not really widespread anymore i think, since everyone always wishes me merry christmas while im still at mass, haha. oh and some people i know keep holding on to the superstition that youre not supposed to do laundry between christmas and new year cause itll bring death or something? (honestly its a great excuse to chill during the days after christmas), but im not sure where that tradition comes from
its so interesting to watch this videos and realise that some things you took for granted aren't a thing elsewhere

[Englandfan]

Rouladen is thin rolled up meat filled with bacon, gherkins and mustard. It comes with gravy. We've got square and rectangle pillows, depending on your preference. I've got both.
Washing machines in the kitchen or bathroom are common in an apartment. In a house you would have a laundry room on the ground floor or in the basement. In a big apartment block you might have washing and drying facilities in the basement.

[dorisschneider-coutandin]

We have a so called "Bescherung" on Christmas Eve. That basically means gift giving and receiving. But that is after nightfall, not during the day. You light up your Christmas tree, maybe your fireplace, and some more candles in your house, then you might ring a little bell (specifically when there are children in the house) and then they can come, see the tree in all its glory, and have their gifts (which come from the Christkind or the Weihnachtsmann, depending on the region where you live). After that families often sit down for the first Christmas dinner. What is served also depends on region, and/or family traditions. On Christmas Day often families gather (perhaps you get to visit relatives living further away, or get visited by them), some more presents are exchanged and more traditional food like roasted turkey, roasted duck or roasted goose is served. Same goes on on Second Christmas Day (Boxing Day, which happens to be a public holiday still). In the end, you have gained a lot of weight and you might feel a little sick as well. Too much greasy food, too much drink (alcohol).

[CoL_Drake]

its not opening the presents the "day before" on christmas day it would be considered "strange" or "Late" its always opened at christmas eve most often at like 8pm

[learun]

About that birthday thing (that I hear sooo often about Germany): The reason why we dont congratulate the day before is usually not because of bad luck, but because it just makes no sense to congratulate on something, that hasnt happend yet 😄 You also wouldnt congratulate before a baby ist born, before an exam is passed etc.. You do it, after it happend.

The reason why you say "Happy Birthday" on the birthday is usually because you like that person and want to let him/her know that you think about him/her on that special day. If a person did it one day or some days before, it would seem like that person would think: If I do it now, its done and than on the day itself I dont have to think about it anymore.
Like it would be an annoying thing to do.

If you congratulate after the Birthday, then its usually because you forgot the birthday and want to say you're sorry. Or you're not that close with a person and you know, its ok to do it, when you see the person the next time, e.g. a colleague.

"Happy Christmas" we usually say only on Christmas (and Christmas Eve, because thats the actual christmas for us, thats just our tradition). "Happy new year" you also say only AFTER the new year has startet. But there is always that debate on how long after January 1 you can say "Happy new year". There is actually no rule for that ;)
If you want to say something before January 1, you say "Guten Rutsch", which means something Like "Have a nice slide into the new year".

You can also say "Have a nice Christmas" or "Have a nice birthday" in advance, you can simply not say "Happy" something 😂

[dieteroffermann]

Sozialist and Kommunist are not bad words in Germany! It´s only a political direction.

[kuldan]

Others have said it as well how we do it with presents on the 24th, but "Christmas" really is a three day event - it's Christmas Eve ("Heiliger Abend" / Holy Evening) (24th), which is considered a half working day and everything usually closes at the latest at 2pm, and then there's the 1st and 2nd "day of christmas" (1. und 2. Weihnachtstag) on the 25th and 26th, both are public holidays.

[AndreaFettweis]

Cushions for the bed were 80 x 80 cm in former times, but nowadays, we have all sorts of cushions. There are a lot of rectangular ones, for example, 40 x 80 cm or 60 x80 cm.
Washing machines are only in the kitchen when the flat is too small to put them elsewhere. Usually, they are in the bathroom or in a separate household room or in the cellar.
When it comes to Advent, we don't celebrate Christmas, we celebrate the waiting time. Advent comes from the Latin word "advenire" which means "coming". It's supposed to be a special time to calm down and think of the most important things in life, particularly love and care. So you meet your family and/or friends and colleagues for all sorts of little Advent parties. 🤗❤️

[Llortnerof]

German light switches work pretty much the same, they're just bigger. Makes them easy to hit in the dark or when you're not looking, when you've got your hands full etc..

If there's a lot of seperate circuits in a room, you may also encounter ones split in the middle that control two circuits. Typically, the main light has a single switch if one is present.

The size is likely due to the SchuKo plug (the entire plug is inserted, not just the contacts, requiring the socket to be larger and deeper, but also preventing accidental dislodging... and occassionally intentional dislodging). This size allows for both switches and sockets to be fitted into the same frame.