The Night Before Christmas by Clement Clarke Moore kicked off so many holiday trends, like the idea of a white Christmas (with a little help from Charles Dickens) and the idea (I mean revelation of course, for all of the six-year-olds ...

Nuremberg is world-famous for its Christmas market but every German town worth its gingerbread has one, too. It isn’t just tourists who flock there but locals, too, all hoping for a white Christmas to create the perfect mood. But this rarely ha...

Christmas is confusing enough with Santa, St. Nick, and Father Christmas. In Bavaria they also add the Christkind, the Christchild to the mix. Oh yes, and let’s not forget the three kings who arrive on Epiphany. It took me quite a while after a...

Germans could never afford to celebrate a big holiday like Thanksgiving at the end of November the way Americans do. But there’s a good reason for this: They’re already getting all revved up for Christmas! Germans invented the car, truly a grea...

After moving to Germany, I was excited to recreate Thanksgiving the way I knew it from my childhood. But then I learned that the traditions I wanted to recreate were not as traditional as I thought.