Fall quickly turned into Winter here in Switzerland and with it comes new experiences and lots of grey skies. I had been told that from November to February, it is pretty grey and dreary here in the land of sausage and cheese. It has been suggested that we take plenty of trips up into the mountains to find some sunshine or we run the risk of succumbing to a bout of seasonal depression. Ahh...nothing says the holidays like mommy staying in her pajamas for a week straight with a collection of empty wine bottles by her side. So far we are all smiling our way through the season, but this may have more to do with our excitment over a trip back to Chicago than our ability to go without sun for weeks on end. We were all counting the days until we returned "home" to see our friends and family. Even Bryan who has missed home less than the rest of us, admitted that he really needed a trip home. The Christmas season here is beautiful and interesting in a lot of ways, but the Mjaanes family was ready for a little Christmas American style.
Before we headed back to Chicago to celebrate Christmas and New Years with our families, we experienced some of the Swiss traditions of the holidays. Not everything about Christmas is so different. They don't have Santa Claus, but they do have Samichlaus. He looks a lot like Santa. Red suit, funny hat, white beard. He's not fat like our American Santa. But the Swiss don't tend to appreciate obesity quite like our Big Mac loving culture. The kids get to visit with Samichlaus at school and in general it seems very similar to our ho ho ho version. EXCEPT, the Swiss like to shake things up a bit and scare the living crap out of their children. Samichlaus has an evil twin named Schmutzli. Seriously people, I couldn't make this stuff up if I wanted to. Schmutzli looks very similar to Samichlaus, except his outfit is black instead of red, he has black charcoal on his face and he carries a switch and a burlap bag. Why the switch and the burlap sack, you ask? Well, for the naughty little Swiss brats, of course. Legend has it that the naughty little ones get whipped by psycho Schmutzli and then thrown in his burlap sack, never to see their mummy and daddy again. I find it amusing that they don't celebrate Halloween, but they incorporate beatings and kidnappings into celebrating the birth of baby Jesus. Now, I'm not opposed to terrifying my children on occasion. (Ask me about taking the boys to a haunted house when they were 3 and 4. Some therapist is going to be very wealthy some day.) But this takes it a little far for me. Z's class took a field trip to search for Samichlaus's little shack in the woods. Keep in mind, these kids are 4 years old and are searching the woods for Samichlaus and a scary dude that may or may not want to whip them and drag them off into the woods in a sack. And I know a couple of these kids to be prime candidates for some face time with Schmutzli. Fortunately, Schmutzli's bag remained empty that day and all the kids received a bag of "sweets" from Samichlaus.
In addition to Samiclaus, the kids' school also incorporates a Swiss baking tradition into their curriculum. In all the markets this time of year, you will find little bread people called Grittibanz. They are puffy white bread men with raisin eyes and are usually sprinkled with sugar. I didn't notice them much until Z's teacher let me know the class would be making them in class. It was while helping the kids make their little bread people, that the teachers offered a little history on the meaning of the word Grittibanz. Although no one seems to know why they are a part of Christmas, someone figured out where the word came from. And once I heard the meaning of "Grittibanz", I would have much preferred being lied to and told they were just cute little Christmas elves made out of dough. But the word “Grittibanz” means old man with his legs spread. Nothing takes the pleasure out of eating a delicious sweet bread around the holidays than being told what I'm eating depicts an old man with his legs spread. The origins of some words are really best left undeciphered. Fortunately the kids were too busy wolfing down their old men with spread legs to care about his origins.
My favorite part about the holidays in Switzerland are the Christmas markets that pop up in almost every town. Most of the Swiss towns feel very old and quaint on your average day, but when they throw up some white lights and line the streets with cute wooden huts decorated with garland, I'm all over it. Since this was my first holiday season in Switzerland, I was somewhat of a Xmas market junkie and picked a new one to visit almost every weekend between Thanksgiving and mid December. The biggest draw is the ambiance and the Gluewein. I'm yet to find an American here that likes gluewein, but I'm sure you'll be shocked to hear that it is yet another type of wine on the list of wines I enjoy. It's kind of a spiced red wine that is served warm and in some weird way, it smells like Christmas. There is also a lot of Raclette cheese served at the markets, and while the gluhwein smells like Christmas, my friend Crystal describes the smell of raclette cheese as "smelling exactly like dirty feet".
The rest of the little Christmas huts are filled with handmade Christmas ornaments, wooden toys, spices, scarves and hats, and just about anything else you can imagine. There are a few booths that resemble infomercials with guys slicing and dicing vegetables with the "Amaaaaaaaazing Veggie Chopper and Shredder!" Even in German, the cheesy sales guy sounds, well, cheesy. They tend to jolt you out of the fairytale that is a Swiss Christmas Market. But for the most part, it feels like you have gone back in time when you see alphorn players and processions of people dressed in traditional Swiss garb ringing giant cowbells as they walk through the cobblestone streets. I didn't buy much at the markets, although I was tempted by the Amazing Veggie chopper. But it just didn't feel right buying it without spreading it out over just 3 easy payments.
So our pre-holiday festivites in Switzerland were magical in a lot of ways, but we were really excited to get home to enjoy some of our American traditions. Usually I get all excited to set my radio to the "all Christmas carol" station from end of November until Christmas. But this year I can probably count the number of Christmas carols I heard on one hand, with the exception of the 839 performances of Jingle Bells performed by my two year old while riding in the back seat. And there are no obnoxious displays of Christmas lights in Switzerland, just white lights tastefully decorating the downtowns. I never really cared for giant blow up Christmas decorations or flashy colored lights, but you'd be surprised how much you miss them after seeing nothing but white lights for a month. I can only imagine the anxiety attacks I could cause my pleasant but reserved Swiss neighbors by inflating a giant blow up santa outside our building.
The best Christmas gift our family received this year was being able to spend time with our family and friends here in Chicago. Being away has made us appreciate the time we have with them more than we ever have before. It will be hard to leave them knowing we won't be back until July, but we feel very blessed to have made some really wonderful friends in Zurich that make our adventure more enjoyable during the fun times, and less lonely during the "what the hell have we done?" times. We're looking forward to a 2010 full of friendship, excitement, and as always, lots of laughs as we fumble our way through our Swiss adventure. Happy New Year!
