Swiss Christmas
(Today I’m linking in with Blog in France’s Christmas Blog Hop…you might want to hop over there and have a look at some of the other links)
When I came to Switzerland over 20 years ago (gulp! Can it really be that long?), I casually assumed that having lived in the UK and the US, living in Switzerland would be a breeze. I knew I had two new languages (German and Schwyzertüütch) to learn, and within a couple of years I had them under my belt. What I hadn’t really realized were the cultural differences I was about to encounter. My attitude was along the lines of ‘it’s Europe, right. How different can they be?’. Wrong. They are different. But that’s OK. We’ve rubbed along over the years and if I’m honest, these days I’m probably more Swiss than British.
But Christmas. Wow! It’s completely different. They do all sorts of things we in the UK don’t and don’t do the things we do.
First off, Santa Claus doesn’t come down the chimney on Christmas Eve. He comes wandering out of the forest on the 6th of December with a disreputable character called Schmutzli (which actually translates as ‘scruffy’, but he has something of the monk about him) and is known as Sami Claus (Saint Niklaus). He tells bad children off and praises the good ones and distributes peanuts and mandarin oranges and if you’re really lucky, chocolate. He’s very busy in schools and visiting families in the village on the 6th and then he’s done, that’s it for the year.
This was always a bit tricky…when the children were small Sami Claus popped up at playgroup, at kindergarten and school ….and then for some strange reason came down our chimney at Christmas…but not down anyone else’s….explain that one please! “British people are just special”, “he’s helping out the Christkind” (the Christ child who brings the presents in Switzerland)…were greeted by “but mum, why doesn’t the Christ child come to our house?”,”why does Santa come down the chimney? At my friend’s house he rang the doorbell”, “what has happened to his donkey, don’t the reindeer like the donkey?” Chaos I tell you….and I certainly never asked Sami Claus and Schmutzli to visit our house. Talk about adding to the confusion!
On the 6th December, in addition to the traditional nuts and mandarin oranges, the Swiss bake and eat Grittibänz – bread baked in the shape of a man, often with a pipe – these go back into the annals of time, were originally in the shape of a bishop (St Niklaus), but quite why they are today just a man with a pipe seems unclear although the change seems to have taken place at the time of the Reformation (when I guess they didn’t like bishops much!).
One thing that surprised me, coming from a land where the Christmas Dinner menu is more or less cast in stone, is that there is no traditional Christmas meal here. The big celebration is on the 24th as it is in most of Europe, and generally people work until 4pm. The most common menu I’ve come across seems to be fondue chinois – but more on the grounds that it isn’t something that you would otherwise eat every day and it also involves almost no preparation.
The catering effort where Christmas is concerned goes into the production of industrial quantities and multitudinous varieties of Guetzli or Christmas cookies. The Swiss are REALLY big into their Guetzli. I know housewives who will spend the entire month of December baking them and distribute plates of exquisite cookies to friends and neighbours (who have all been baking them too!). To say that I have seen a competitive edge in women who otherwise wouldn’t say boo to a Christmas goose is putting it mildly. Thankfully Guetzli seem to keep for ages, so I’m sure most Swiss families are still eating them long into January.
Thankfully I don’t feel the need to get caught up in all the baking – I make one or two kinds to keep my husband happy and we also enjoy lots of mince pies, shortbread and a Christmas cake!
This is one of our favourite Guetzli recipes if you would like to give it a try! It’s also one of the simplest!
Mailanderli
- 250g butter, beaten in a basin until it’s creamed
- 250g sugar
- 3 eggs
- A pinch of salt
- The peel of one lemon
- 500g flour
Mix the butter, sugar and eggs until well-creamed. Add the remaining ingredients, mix well and then leave the mixture to cool in the fridge for a while.
Roll out the mixture 3-4mm thick and cut out a variety of shapes (I have hearts, various animals etc). Lay them on a baking tray and paint with egg yolk.
Bake at 200 degrees (400F) in the middle of the oven for about 10 minutes.
Enjoy!
Happy Christmas!
Helen
December 12th, 2012 at 1:52 pm
Thank You for sharing your Traditions, I find them so.. interesting. My mother is from Sweden and we were blended too-yes a bit confusing. I chuckle when reading the Swiss 12/6 cookie tradition. My grandmother, being Very traditional, always told me that it was a rule (I think Law!) and too remember this. That there were ALWAYS to be 7 homemade cookies for their coffee gatherings. I recall them coming to visit and watching EVERY women scan the plate for 7 homemade cookies (could even see their lips counting) and a Marzipan Cream Cake. There was competing there as well. They would be appalled visiting me!
December 12th, 2012 at 1:54 pm
Father Christmas having a sidekick sounds like fun! I can imagine the confusion of mixing British and Swiss traditions. My 6 year old is currently at the stage of questioning whether Santa is real or not. I have been telling her that yes there was once a St Nicholas but it was a long time ago and now people carry on the tradition because it’s fun. Curiously she really wants to believe so she just tells me I’m wrong and that Santa is alive and well!
My favourite Christmas sweet – apart from home made mince pies, which I can eat by the dozen – are Lebkuchen. A couple of years ago, out of nowhere, loads of the big guns (M&S, Waitrose, Tesco) suddenly all brought out Lebkuchen in spades at the same time. I fear they were left with loads left over (with only me buying them) and so now they are as rare as hen’s teeth again. Wie Schade!
December 12th, 2012 at 2:02 pm
Traditions here are very similar – we have mikular on 5th December. St Nicholas and the devil go around terrorizing folk, giving out oranges and coal ( to the bad children). Czech women also spend December making biscuits! I can imagine how confusing it all got for your children!
December 12th, 2012 at 2:06 pm
Lovely to read about how things are done there. John wanted to go with Swedish traditions for our two as he loved the Christmases he had there with his cousins but I wasn’t getting into that confusion. The only thing I insists done the Canadian way is the stockings get hung in the sitting room, not the bedroom. Gave in one year and the girls woke in the middle of the night and that was it for sleep!
December 12th, 2012 at 5:23 pm
Being an ex-pat is all about learning new ways of doing life. Hard enough for adults, but I imagine it is a bit confusing for children!
December 12th, 2012 at 11:22 pm
Hee hee, I remember the Christmas I spent in Canada being totally different to the UK one too, probably because the area I lived in had been populated with mainly Eastern European families bringing their own traditions. For your kids though, I think anything bringing extra pressies would have been embraced by me, and not questioned 😉
December 13th, 2012 at 11:36 pm
Really interesting – thank you x
December 14th, 2012 at 5:36 am
I think it’s quite important to keep some of our own traditions as we live as expats. I guess, you are only a “half pat” by now but I’m sure you feel like me in that we want to keep some of our childhood memories of Christmas for our kids alive. Although we’ve become very international after so many years abroad, our Christmas is as Swiss as it can be, including the tons of Christmas Gutzli I bake every year. Luckily my non Swiss friends are happy “customers”, or so they tell me ;).
December 14th, 2012 at 5:34 pm
This was a wonderful post. I love Christmas traditions but if I had to change all mine if I moved to another country it would be different. It sounds like you have done a lovely job of incorporating both English and Swiss tradition