Deck the Hall with Boughs of Holly

I saw my first Christmas tree shortly after I arrived in October, but decorations were not in full swing until the end of November.  Like the US, here Christmas Trees, Nativity Scenes and Christmas lights adorn houses rich and poor, but the style is different.  Great attention is paid to the nativity scenes.  They are not just a cresh, but often an entire village of figurines, complete with colored sand and wood shavings.  This is one of my favorites.

But sometimes they are very simple too!  In the house of one of our friends we encountered another one of my favorites.  It was two statues, one of Mary and one of Joseph on a table covered with a white sheet.  In between them was a single white candle glowing brightly.  Here you do not put baby Jesus into his cresh until he arrives at Midnight on Christmas Eve. 

All the Christmas Trees, all stored carefully at the end of the Season to be used the following year, have ribbon wrapping them.  Some also have balls, others poinsettia flowers or butterflies.  Bows of sorts decorate the tip top instead of angles and stars.  And usually the tree is one or two colors – red and gold being the most prevalent.  Tensile and apples are also popular decorations.  Many are very beautiful and look like they belong in a catalog.

My neighbors love blinking lights.  They blink on the trees and they blink outside of the houses.  Most homes only have them inside, but one in ten has a few strands outside too.  It is nice to see our neighborhood so festively decorated!

We decorated our house too!  We have a little Christmas tree, a gift from years ago, complete with its blinking lights.  And we have a nativity scene which we made in the local style.

I made an advent calendar for us to use … but didn´t complete it until the second week of December … so I supposed it will get more use next year.  And we all worked on our handmade advent wreath.  I think it turned out quite well!  When we were working on it, my housemates laughed about how I would make a good preschool teacher, creating something out of poster board, crayons and some wire!