I grew up in Nurnberg,Germany. My father was in the Army and my mother was a German war bride. We moved from the USA back to Germany when I was five and lived there until I was ten years old in an apartment building that my grandparents owned, so my grandparents were always a part of my Christmas memories.

On Christmas Eve my older sister or another relative would take us children to the Kristkindlemarkt in Nurnberg. That is the strongest part of my memories. I loved the market. We never had any money to spend so we just walked through the rows of booths and looked at the Christmas wonders. Most booths sold the things for which Germany is famous- the traditional arts and crafts and foods that filled the air with delicious aromas. Besides the Lebkuchen, pastries, wursts and other assortment of foods, one could always find a fishmonger. Yes- they are real! They sold whole, smoked and grilled fish wrapped in brown paper and one ate it right from the wrapper. Hamburgers? No such thing- then! Sometimes we had enough money to share a fish, but after a few years I learned that while we contributed equally to its purchase, my older sister got most of the fish. By the age of ten I used my few Pfennig to buy mints or a cookie for myself instead.

I remember how cold it was. My fingers and toes would feel numb with cold but rarely was there snow. Despite the cold, I never wanted to leave the market: the wonderful lights, sights and sounds made it look and feel like a fairytale come alive. I remember one year we saw some children playing on a farm cart, apparently unsupervised. This was scandalous behavior by proper German standards and I heard many tisks and tongue clucks from the adults around me. I was fascinated by them. They were not doing anything bad. They were just climbing on the cart,laughing and enjoying themselves. Even though I could not understand a word, I knew they were speaking English- American English. I wanted desperately to tell them that I was an American too, but I could speak only German.

When we got home, the Christmas tree would be up. My mother always put it up on Christmas Eve while we were out of the house. My trees have never been as beautiful as the trees from my childhood. My mother hung each strand of tinsel individually and the ornaments were wonderful glass ornaments from Prague. The branches were always sparse because the tree lights were real candles. We did not have electric lights until we moved back to the USA.

Each of of children received maybe two presents- a toy and something to wear, but Christmas dinner was wonderful and we always had oranges, nuts and dates and things we never saw at any other time of the year. And yes- there was always Lebkuchen! Strange, how I had no idea how poor we really were.

By the way- the traditional Christmas Eve dinner in Germany was always fish; a carry-over from its Catholic traditions; a Day of Fasting. Christmas Day was usually duck with all of the trimmings.