Low key Christmas

I miss being home at Christmas-time, but I’m also appreciating how Christmas is not so in-your-face as it is at home. People don’t go crazy with Christmas lights and decorations, every other TV commercial isn’t Christmas advertising, and I don’t hear Christmas carols everywhere I go.

The upside is that I don’t have that feeling of Christmas overload … 3 days post-Thanksgiving. The downside is that the general atmosphere doesn’t seem quite as festive as at home. If we could only turn down the volume a bit. Unfortunately that seems unlikely, since each year we feel we must do that little bit more than last year.

There is one phenomenon that is big here: the Christmas markets. People told me, “You have to visit the Christmas markets.” They were given such a build-up it was almost impossible not to be let down.

I’ve been to three different markets: here in Düsseldorf, in Köln, and in Aachen. The first two were so overwhelmingly crowded with people, and so underwhelming full of kitschy stuff to buy, that I wasn’t interested in seeing any more.

I was wondering what the attraction was, besides being an excuse to drink outside, eat ½ meter long bratwursts, and shop at times when stores are normally closed.

Then my friend from work invited me to go with him and his wife to Aachen, where his 3 children are at the university.

Aachen is a very cool, and very old, town near the border of Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands (it has 3 names, in German, French, and Dutch). We got there early on Sunday, so the market was not very crowded at first. It was also the first day that it’s been cold here, so it actually felt like winter. We walked around, drank hot chocolate and spiced wine, and tried many of the food samples people were offering.

We later went to eat lunch at one of the many student hangouts, where you can get a pizza for 4 Euro or in my case a half chicken with frites and a salad for 4.80. My friend’s kids were there, and I worked hard to understand as they all spoke at their normal speed.

I found myself having a quite a good time. I realized what was different from the other markets: here, I was simply enjoying being with friends. And that I’m guessing is one of the big attractions to going to the Christmas markets.