A more sinister character, Knecht Ruprecht, accompanies Nikolaus as he visits children. Ruprecht is often depicted with the same features as Nikolaus (though sometimes he is depicted as a truly frightening character) but with black clothes and a black beard. If children are found to have been naughty, Ruprecht will leave a rod or a tree branch for the parents so that they can beat the naughty children! In fact, many florists sell branches with candy tied to it as a nod to both Nikolaus and Ruprecht. In some versions, Ruprecht will stuff naughty children in a sack and take them to the Black Forest where he will then eat them or drown them by tossing the sack into a river. This tradition makes the Grimm Brothers seem Disney-like by comparison! Luckily, our children were found to have been good, and they found their boots stuffed with treats.
On our recent trip to the Netherlands, I learned of Zwarte Piet, Black Peter, who follows in the same vein as Ruprecht though quite comically. Black Peter is depicted in such a way that I'm sure Al Sharpton would give way to a dead faint at the sight of him. Google it, you'll see. While walking through Delft, I noticed many Black Peters on the street corners and several in a tent housed in the square. The Black Peters in the square sang Christmas tunes and danced. I was too taken aback to take any pictures of the festivities as these Black Peters were white men who appeared to have smeared their faces with black leather shoe polish. The ACLU would have had a field day.
The same day that Nikolaus came, we purchased our tree which is quite the upgrade from our pitiful representation we had last year. Before decorating the tree, we baked and decorated sugar cookies. J's cookies were the only ones that I trusted to be hygienic. We also made hot cocoa and used our Christmas marshmallows (Incidentally, I bought these marshmallows from the Gummi store and learned that marshmallows are called by the same name as bacon in German which caused me to shun them in my cocoa. Luckily, that same store offers versions of their candy made without gelatin, which means I can eat their goodies).
Littlest and Bop used so many sugar pearls for their cookie decorations that I'm surprised that no one cracked a tooth. I also discovered that Littlest doesn't accept that 'less is more' and bedazzled her cookies! Log opted to make elaborate patterns with the sprinkles, and Bop varied between the two with her styling.
The bottom two-thirds of our tree are full (and green, too) but the top third is a bit on the paltry side. At least the tree is taller than the kiddos this year. Because of our tiled floor, I opted to forego glass ornaments, and J was amazed at the design of the German Christmas lights as the cord is fashioned in a loop. Most likely these lights will be thrown out with the tree as there's no humanly possible way we'll be able to detangle them.
Littlest asked to be the one to place the star on top of the tree.
She couldn't stand that it looked crooked and asked J to fix it! That's my girl!
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