The Christmas Truce of 1914

German Troops Decorating a Tree in their Trench

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I remember when I was in primary school, I couldn't have been older than 8 or 9, we read a book together at Christmas as a group project. The book was a short fictional account of The Christmas Truce of 1914, where German and British soldiers put down their weapons, got out of their respective trenches, walked into No Man's Land, shook hands, exchanged gifts and played football (soccer).

Starting on Christmas Eve, many German and British troops sang Christmas carols to each other across the lines, and at certain points the Allied soldiers even heard brass bands joining the Germans in their joyous singing.

At the first light of dawn on Christmas Day, some German soldiers emerged from their trenches and approached the Allied lines across no-man's-land, calling out "Merry Christmas" in their enemies' native tongues. At first, the Allied soldiers feared it was a trick, but seeing the Germans unarmed they climbed out of their trenches and shook hands with the enemy soldiers. The men exchanged presents of cigarettes and plum puddings and sang carols and songs. There was even a documented case of soldiers from opposing sides playing a good-natured game of soccer.

- History.com

"I remember the silence, the eerie sound of silence. Only the guards were on duty. We all went outside the farm buildings and just stood listening. And, of course, thinking of people back home. All I'd heard for two months in the trenches was the hissing, cracking and whining of bullets in flight, machinegun fire and distant German voices.
But there was a dead silence that morning, right across the land as far as you could see. We shouted 'Merry Christmas', even though nobody felt merry. The silence ended early in the afternoon and the killing started again. It was a short peace in a terrible war."

- Alfred Anderson, last known combatant to participate in the 1914 World War I Christmas truce.

http://www.christmastruce.co.uk/

 

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Wordless Wednesday - Christmas

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British Mulled Wine and Mince Pies

Posted at Foodie Friday

Mulled wine is often drunk around Christmas time in Northern Europe. It's a hot, spiced wine, in France it is known as vin chaud, in Italy as vin brûlé. Germans drink Glühwein. The Swedish name for it is glögg.

Here in Heidelberg, you can buy Glühwein from the Weinachtsmarkt and you get a special Christmas mug to keep. We have 2 from last year and 1 from this year, I've put them up as part of our Christmas decorations.

Here is how you can make it yourself at home and it's real easy. I am going to be making some next week.

Ingredients

Red wine -- 1 (750-ml) bottle
Sugar or honey -- 3 to 5 tablespoons
Cinnamon sticks -- 2 to 4
Cloves -- 4 to 6
Cardamom pods -- 3 to 4
Orange peel -- from 1 orange

1. Place all ingredients in a pot and slowly bring to a simmer over a low flame. Do not boil. Cover and let steep on a very low flame for about 15 minutes.
2. Strain, ladle into mugs and serve

See, easy. You can adjust the seasoning and sugar to your own taste and also add a few shots of cognac or brandy if you like. It is delicious, I love the stuff.

I was going to put a recipe for mince pies, which are traditional British fare for Christmas. However upon looking at my recipe I realised that the mincemeat (which is not meat) has to be made two weeks in advance. The Brits are lazy and we normally just buy a jar of mincemeat from a local supermarket, I brought some back with me from England this year. Instead I'll give you a link to the recipe, perhaps you can use it next year? Also a link to the history of mince pies because it's quite historically interesting, they date right back to medieval times.

A food post with no photos? I know, I'm a horrible person.

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Snow

What a lovely first day back in Germany. I arrived home yesterday morning after a very early flight, the day was spent cleaning up and putting up some new christmas decorations.

This morning I woke up to my first snow of the christmas season and it is beautiful.

I've been listening to some Christmas classics on my kitchen CD player, Frank Sinatra, The Andrews Sisters, Bing Crosby et al. I also found some lovely indie christmas/winter songs including this one which is lovely

I'm still working on decorations, we're going to be making some printed wrapping paper today and maybe papier mache baubles.

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Leaving for England

Hi everyone,

Mikey and I are going to England tonight for a week to visit family. I'm looking forward to English weather, English money, visiting old haunts, familiar streets and English food. It's always so comfortable to go back, like putting on an old favourite sweater.

Hopefully I'm going to be able to finish up my Christmas shopping, not too much left to get!

For now I'm going to leave you with a photograph of my newest christmas creation.

I call it winter jumble (haha) it's hanging from a light fixture and is made from wool, foil, dried oranges, a pair of Mikey's mittens, fabric, coffee filters and book pages.

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A Makeshift Christmas: Paper Snowflakes

You all know how to make paper snowflakes right? Well I made a whole load of them to hang up in Mikey's room.

Don't they look lovely?

I purposefully made them more intricate than regular paper snowflakes, it's fiddly but you just cut in swirls and things instead of the normal triangles when making your snowflake. I used coloured craft paper, it's a little thicker than regular paper so I had to use real sharp scissors to cut out the pattern.

Then I attached some twine to the curtain on each window, this would have been easier if w had curtain poles. Using some old clothespegs I attached to snowflakes to the twine.

Mikey loved it, he said "Ooooooh!" and wanted daddy to pick him up to look at it.

I started sewing some of my stuffed fabric ornaments last night. Tried to crochet and failed miserably, it's surprisingly difficult for a left hander to follow right handed patterns, I kept getting very confused.

When I do my laundry later I'm also going to be felting some woolen snowballs. Still lots to do but I'm getting closer every day! Really enjoying making all of our decorations, I must admit though that we cheated a little and bought some little handcarved wooden ornaments from the Weinachtmarkt on Saturday evening. We couldn't resist, they were so cute!

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A Makeshift Christmas: Mini Paper Wreath

I saw these beautiful paper wreaths on Living with Lindsay, fell in love with them right away. The only trouble being that I do not have a hot glue gun (I really need one, haha) and I couldn't find one of the wreath hoops anywhere (admittedly I didn't look that hard). So I came up with a plan.

You will need

Cardboard

Tape (I used electrical tape, it seemed to stick the best)

Scissors

Two circular objects to draw around, one for the inside and one for the outside.

An old book (I used Dracula, not particularly festive but the book was old and falling apart anyway. See how guilty I feel about cutting up a book, I have to try and justify it.)

My book was already old and yellowed, so I didn't need to make it look vintage. If you like you can paint the edges with brown paint or coffee stain it to make it look old.

Draw around your two circles on the cardboard and cut it out, you should now have a cardboard hoop.

Take some pages from your book and cut them into 4 pieces each for the mini wreath, or you can judge the size you need by the size of your cardboard hoop.

Fold up the pages like a fan and tape to the edges of the cardboard, the inside and outside edges. Fold them over to the other side.

On the side you've folded the pages over to, continue to tape on more pieces until you've filled the cardboard. Tape a little ribbon to the back to hang the wreath with.

 

You have to be careful with this, mine fell apart on me a couple of times... mostly due to toddler intervention.

For more detailed instructions, here is the original guide from Living with Lindsay. You may find it easier to follow her instructions. I'm going to make one of hers when I can get the materials.

Next on my list are paper snowflakes for Mikey's room, crocheted decorations, paper cutout garland, Finger Knitted garland, a christmas hanging jumble of decorations and some sewn, stuffed christmas shapes made from fabric scraps.

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Christmas Shopping Days

This morning I woke up early, it was still dark. I opened up the windows in the livingroom to let in some cool air and spent an hour stretching and doing yoga. It was divine.

The rest of the day the weather has been good, crisp and cold but the sun has been shining. This afternoon Mikey and I did a little of our Christmas shopping. I got some gifts and also some yarn to make some more Christmas decorations. I'm going to attempt to crochet, it's going to be interesting. That is of course after I finish making my wreath and the decorations for Mikey's room. After the crochet I'm going to have a go at sewing some little stuffed Christmas shapes. We have still yet to get a tree, I keep hinting at my darling but hints don't seem to work so well. So much to get done, but I'm taking it slow.

On the way to town I got whistled at and yelled at in Italian by two men. Seriously, I'm pushing a toddler in a stroller and you're going to whistle at me?

We wandered around a little of the Weinachtmarkt, but decided to save the rest for next Saturday so that husband creature can come with us. The decorations in Heidelberg are always so pretty, there were a lot of street performers too, Mikey loved them and it reminded me a lot of Covent Garden in London.

We stopped for something to eat and something warm to drink, then went to look at clothes (Mummy has to look at clothes. Half of mine are ready to fall apart while I'm wearing them). In the underwear department Mikey was accosted by a 4 year old German girl. They stood talking to one another for about 10 minutes, the girl in German and Mikey in toddler-ese. They both thought the other was pretty hilarious. While looking at clothes we met another British lady (from Liverpool judging by the accent) with another toddler. The toddlers chatted with one another while the mummys chatted. Before we knew it it was already dark out so we walked home. A drunk Irishman nearly tripped over Mikey's stroller and said good morning to us.

After Spaghetti Marinara for dinner and some playing with the Mikey monster, we put him down for bed and I'm now sat here with the husband. We are both enjoying a lovely mug of hot chocolate and relaxing. This is what it's about.

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A Makeshift Christmas: Foil Star Mobile

I'm going to be making a lot of our Christmas decorations this year. Last year we barely bothered, Mikey was only a year old so wasn't particularly interested. We put up some lights and that was about it, we didn't even get a tree.

Here's the first thing that I've made, a mobile.

It's made from cardboard, kitchen foil, transparent thread and a twig from one of the trees outside. Just things that were lying around the house. Want to know how to make your own?

You will need

Cardboard, mine was from a recycled mailing box.

Kitchen foil.

Transparent thread, although you could use any kind of thread or even some ribbon or twine if you have it.

Twig, mine was about the length of my forearm.

Elmers glue.

Tape

Pencil

Scissors

Take your cardboard and roughly draw a whole lot of stars on it, they don't need to be neat and tidy unless you want them that way. Cut them out.

Spread out a sheet of foil, scrunch it up a little if you want your stars to look wrinkled. Apply glue to one side of a star and press it down onto the foil. Cut around it, leaving the foil between the points of the stars, you'll need this to fold over the edges.

Cut a line down the middle between the points of the stars. Apply glue to the side of the star legs which does not have foil and fold the spare foil over. Repeat this on the opposite side until the entire star is covered with foil. Repeat for all stars.

When your glue is dried you need to attach your stars to the twig. I tried to space them out a little so that they were different heights, but it's up to you. Tie one end of the thread to the twig and then measure (eyeball) how long you want it to be and cut. Tape the thread to one of your stars. Repeat for all stars, being careful not to tangle them.

To hang, tie a ribbon or some thread to the middle of the twig. Make sure it will hang fairly straight where you've tied it, My twig was a little heavier on one side so I had to move my ribbon along. Then you tie a loop in the ribbon and hang it somewhere!

I'm totally pleased with how mine turned out, when I got the idea I only half expected it to look good! When they're hung in a window they reflect the light beautifully.

These instructions of course aren't set in stone, play around with them and think of different ideas. You could add glitter, or instead of using a twig you could hang them on something circular. You could add silver ribbon to each star to make them look like shooting stars. Anything you want, it's your Makeshift Christmas!

If you decide to make this, let me know how it goes by leaving a comment! I'll link to all of the pictures I'm given!

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