Merry Christmas to everyone back home, and hackers around the world.
O tannenbaum…
The authentic German Christmas tree, complete with candles and straw ornaments.
Fun Holiday Fact: Germans apparently have both Santa Claus and St. Nicholas. Santa (“Weihnachtsmann” in German, literally, “Christmas man”) comes on Christmas Eve in a flying sleigh with magic reindeer. St. Nicholas comes on the Twelfth Day of Christmas (January 6, the feast of St. Nicholas) in a normal sleigh drawn by a donkey. Since he’s not magic, and can’t come down chimneys, German kids have to leave their shoes outside the front door and St. Nicholas leaves them some small presents inside.
So props to the Germans for keeping St. Nick around and adding Weihnachtsmann for a double your mythical holiday gift-bringing figures bonus. I still feel like St. Nick got the short end of that stick, though.
Ich wünsche dir gesegnete Weihnachten und ein glückliches neues Jahr.
Merry Christmas- I know it’s blasphemous, but I think you’d appreciate it: here’s one of my favorite Christmas songs: “Fairy of Tale of New York” by The Pogues (with Kirsty MacColl):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ff3aoSyYOVs
~Steve