Mitch and Isi discuss the differences between a German and a British Christmas in their festive cabin. What do you eat? Who delivers your presents... and on what day? They discuss Mrs Claus, raclette, Zulu, zuzhing and of course... booze, booze, booze.

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Transcript

Mitch:

[0:00 ] For those who are listening and have children in earsight, we may approach subject of Santa, Weihnachtsmann, of the Christkind. So there might be some spoiler alerts for little ears.

Christmas song? Bing bong, bing bong, bing bong, bing bong.

Isi:

[0:23 ] Oh, my singing is fantastic. No one has Christmasy mood now.

Intro

Mitch:

[0:58 ] Okay no, let's have a relaxing one. Okay. Let's imagine we're in a little log cabin.

Isi:

[1:03 ] Ooh.

Mitch:

[1:04 ] It's snowing outside.

Isi:

[1:06 ] Mm-hmm.

Mitch:

[1:07 ] We've just opened a bottle of whiskey or red wine. What would you like?

Isi:

[1:11 ] Red wine. Bottle of whiskey!

Mitch:

[1:14 ] Or Prosecco.

Isi:

[1:16 ] Prosecco.

Mitch:

[1:17 ] Okay. And the fire's on. I'm just going to open up and throw a log on the fire. All the sparks go up in the fire and it's Christmas day for our listeners.

Isi:

[1:29 ] And we're alone in a cabin in the woods or what? (Yeah, this isn't another survival episode.( And we are live, let's be authentic here it's the 20th, not far away from the 25th. So we are recording this five days before for Christmas day. (But for you guys.) For you guys, it's a Christmas day today, if you listen on Christmas but it's the 25st of December and this podcast will be a short one, a short hello for Christmas because we didn't want to go on a break. We wanted to produce a little something, something podcast. (A snippet.) A snippet um... to talk about Christmas and say hello and wish you a merry Christmas obviously only if you celebrate and otherwise a good end of the year a good start out into 2024 because it will be our last podcast of the year.

Mitch:

[2:21 ] Isi, what does Christmas Day look like for you as a German? And then we can compare notes. (Yeah.)

Isi:

[2:28 ] So in Germany, we start celebrating Christmas on the 24th, on Christmas Eve. That is like the big day.

Mitch:

[2:36 ] We do 25th in England.

Isi:

[2:37 ] Yep. We celebrate in the night.

Mitch:

[2:41 ] Day.

Isi:

[2:42 ] And that's, yeah, Christmas Day is like morning through the whole day, isn't it?

Mitch:

[2:46 ] In England, the whole day is dedicated to...

Isi:

[2:49 ] In Germany, we have the 24th, 25th and 26th for Christmas.

Mitch:

[2:53 ] Hmm. We just have 25th.

Isi:

[2:55 ] No, you don't.

Mitch:

[2:56 ] Yeah.

Isi:

[2:57 ] Boxing Day.

Mitch:

[2:57 ] Oh, 25th and 26th. (Yeah.) Yeah, yeah. Sorry. But 24th, I even worked one day on the 24th.

Isi:

[3:04 ] Hmm.

Mitch:

[3:04 ] And I was driving home for Christmas.

Isi:

[3:09 ] What else? We do have gifts. (But are you open on the 24th?) On the 24th. I mean, not everybody does the same,we do it we we do gifts first and gifts and drinks and then dinner. (Gifts, drinks, dinner. And in England we go; drink, drink drinks, drinks, gifts, drinks, drinks, drinks, drinks, little sleep, then dinner, then another little sleep whilst watching the film Zulu, or the great escape and then...) What is Zulu?

Mitch:

[3:40 ] It's like an old Michael Caine movie. (Okay.) And then After Eight / Bailey's session and then pass out on the sofa again.

Isi:

[3:48 ] Okay. On the 25th, we usually in our family rest. Because our Christmases usually, are very long into the night.

Mitch:

[4:00 ] Hibernating like some grizzly bears.

Isi:

[4:03 ] And we also have like some good food or so. but it's like, it's a day of not doing much. We also have a small family so um there was no one else to visit on that day so we just chilled, long walks, good food. But um... (Is that normally the day you do a visit the old and wrinkly people?) Hey! (Sorry.) No, other families go either yeah, grandparents, aunts, uncles somewhere or you go visit your friends or so. But it's the day where you change places to celebrate with someone else. And then, Boxing Day for us, is not called Boxing Day, obviously.

Mitch:

[4:39 ] I don't know why it's called Boxing Day. I'd have to look that up.

Isi:

[4:42 ] Then people meet again. My parents always meet friends on that day. Have a little Christmas. We always, my sister and I, have been meeting friends for the past, nearly 20 years. And do like a Friendsmas, or however you call that. Friends Christmas. And in some countryside regions, people go to pubs and they keep a stone with them and if you forget a stone you have to buy a round or so, I never understood it, I don't know. (And who is Santa Claus for you? He has many names he goes by, like the devil.) we don't have Santa... well, it depends if you... if you celebrate Christmas, in the religious way, then it's the Christkind coming on the 24th, bringing the gifts, which is basically, I don't really know. It has the looks of an angel.

Mitch:

[5:31 ] The Christ child in English, I guess.

Isi:

[5:34 ] It's the Christ child. So basically it's Jesus. But it looks like an angel and it comes, I think, with a sledge as well. It's a bit, yeah, that's how I know the pictures. It sits in a sledge.

Mitch:

[5:47 ] Like a cherub? You know cherubs that fire little love arrows?

Isi:

[5:50 ] Yeah, it's like the typical angel thing. But yeah, I don't really know. It has like a white dress on.

Mitch:

[5:56 ] Floaty dress. And they bring the presents?

Isi:

[6:01 ] They bring the presents. Um... and then there's also Nicolaus who looks a bit like Santa Claus, but more religious. (Yeah.) And he comes on the 6th of December and brings gifts then already. (Ah, you have Nicolaus Day or something, no?) Well it really depends what you teach your children, really. So you can also obviously just have Christmas for the traditional way and not for the religious way and then you would maybe also say Santa Claus comes. But I don't know. Oh yeah, the Weihnachtsmann.

Mitch:

[6:35 ] Do you think?

Isi:

[6:36 ] Oh yeah, we actually do have Santa Claus.

Mitch:

[6:38 ] Okay. When he comes on the 5th.

Isi:

[6:40 ] The Weihnachtsmann. Christmas Man

Mitch:

[6:41 ] Christmas Man. (Weihnachtsmann.)

Isi:

[6:43 ] He comes also on the 24th.

Mitch:

[6:47 ] After or before the lady Jesus?

Isi:

[6:48 ] Either Christkind or Weihnachtsmann. Or baby. Baby? Did I say baby?

Mitch:

[6:52 ] The baby?

Isi:

[6:53 ] You said baby.

Mitch:

[6:54 ] I didn't.

Isi:

[6:55 ] Maybe Jesus, you said.

Mitch:

[6:56 ] I said after or before the lady Jesus.

Isi:

[6:57 ] Lady Jesus. I don't know if it's a lady. Let's say it's a baby.

Mitch:

[7:02 ] Baby Jesus. Who delivers the gifts? Weihnachtsmann or Baby Jesus lady?

Isi:

[7:07 ] I think they can both deliver the gifts. I'm not well prepared for this.

Mitch:

[7:10 ] Should we make a disclaimer at the beginning of this, warning parents that your children may lose all faith?

Isi:

[7:16 ] So, yeah, one of those come. Or maybe... maybe for some they come together. I guess it's like how you define your own Christmas story.

Mitch:

[7:25 ] It's very confusing. We just have one man and he comes through the chimney, through keyholes. He has a magic key. He has magic reindeers, that can fly. He has a sleigh and in that sleigh, holds enough presents for... how many people are there in the world? 6 billion people?

Isi:

[7:44 ] A lot more.

Mitch:

[7:45 ] But he has enough presents for everyone around the world. He has a naughty list. He has a wife. He lives in the North Pole. (He has a wife?) Mrs. Claus. She looks after the elves, who they make the presents. They make the fur...

Isi:

[7:57 ] She looks after them? What does that mean? She cooks for them? She gives them the salary? She does the accounting?

Mitch:

[8:03 ] I don't know the details. Yeah, maybe.

Isi:

[8:04 ] Company management? Is she an HR?

Mitch:

[8:07 ] HMRC should make sure she's, you know... the elves make the skateboards, the rollerblades, PlayStation 4s. They make all that stuff, that goes on the back of the sleigh. He comes, when he comes on the 24th night, you're supposed to be in bed and not see him. He has big black boots and you're supposed to leave out a mince pie for him to eat; a glass of sherry or whiskey depending on what he... your grandad likes to drink. And a carrot for his reindeer. One of the reindeers has a red nose called Rudolph. There's a weird song in British culture of a kid coming downstairs to see his mum making out with Santa Claus, yeah. I saw Mummy kissing Santa Claus, underneath the mistletoe that night. (But it's not a real Christmas song, right?) And it's sung by Michael Jackson, so the morals are all over the place.

Isi:

[9:00 ] Let's stop it right here. Kids sing that?

Mitch:

[9:03 ] Yeah.

Isi:

[9:06 ] Isn't Christmas so confusing anyway? Such a confusing thing. And the elves, they make all the gifts.

Mitch:

[9:13 ] In the North Pole.

Isi:

[9:14 ] Whatever you want? They know how to do it all

Mitch:

[9:16 ] And he and you... sometimes...