O Tannenbaum, O Tannenbaum

O Tannenbaum, O Tannenbaum

wie treu sind deine Blatter!

Du grunst nicht nur

zur Sommerzeit,

Nein auch im Winter, wenn es schneit.

O Tannenbaum, O Tannenbaum

wie treu sind deine Blatter!

My family tradition is to decorate the tree with my dad's East German ornaments. During his time in the Army, he spent quite a bit of time in Berlin, when the wall was still up separating East from West. He started collecting and bringing home these handcrafted wooden ornaments, and now the tree has to be ceiling height to fit them all on!

I have many childhood memories of my sister, brother, and I pulling the ornaments from their boxes and nest of tissue paper and laying them all out onto the coffee table to get them in order for donning the tree. My siblings and I also had a few favorites, especially the cage with a rabbit inside. The door actually opens and their is a tiny wooden rabbit that you can take out.

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Another personal favorite is the tree with all the presents underneath. I recall having to find a very sturdy branch to hang this one because of the weight.

And there are so many more! Nutcrackers and nordic skiers, trains and bedwarmers, stars and cottages, birds and angels. To me, this is Christmas.

My parents also have quite the nutcracker collection. I believe these are also East German, but not all of them. My mom and aunt have searched the country wide for specially stores that carry these, but they are hard to find. Although the 'cracker' put really moves, I can still hear my mom saying, "Careful with that!" whenever Megan, Derek, or I would start moving the jaw up and down.