A decorated Christmas Tree in Munich. A little large for what I was looking for.
My little sister had been teaching in Kenya, so the family decided to meet “halfway” in Germany for Christmas 2011.  I felt like Kevin McCallister in the “Home Alone” movies, worried we wouldn’t have a real Christmas tree.  So I had researched ahead of time where to get a little Christmas tree  and Odeonsplatz in Munich was recommended on a ex-pat forum. The key issue with this plan is we were staying two U-Bahn stops away from Odeonsplatz, which would make for an interesting subway ride if I were carrying a tree. And we’d be arriving the afternoon of Dec. 23rd, leaving little time and having to bet huge on the Christmas Tree market still having little trees.
So I was delighted to find a flower store a few blocks away from our apartment that not only sold little Christmas trees, but ones that were already pre-decorated with red bows and golden ornaments. Some even had red candles! I opted for one without candles as I wasn’t sure our housekeeper would even like us having a Christmas tree in the apartment let alone one that could be on fire.
Now so far this story doesn’t seem very strange. I wanted to find a Christmas tree…and I found one! But while carrying the tree home, I got some strange looks from the locals.
Success! I found my small Christmas Tree!
My suspicions about something amiss continued when the housekeeper saw me carrying in the tree. After her unhappy comment that she’d handle getting rid of the tree when we left, she also informed me I had purchased the wrong type of tree. To me it looked like a Christmas tree, but it turned out this was not a “house” tree, this was a “graveyard” tree! Apparently in parts of Bavaria there is a tradition of decorating loved ones graves on Christmas Eve with wreaths, holly, mistletoe, and graveyard trees, which are then lit with red candles.
Ah well, I think our tree looked great! Here is a before shot of the tree with our presents.
My little tree with presents awaiting Christmas Day.
And then it decorated after I opened my present: lots of little ornaments!
And the tree after Christmas morning decorated with the presents I received: Ornaments!
After I returned home I tried to find information on this specific tradition, but found very little. Here are a few links that briefly mention this tradition:
- An Image of a graveyard Christmas tree decorating a grave in Munich.
- A brief description of German Christmas Traditions.
- An overview of Victorian Christmas Traditions including graveyard trees.
Travel Missteps is an every-other week series on how sometimes part of the journey is making mistakes and getting lost.
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