Christmas Pyramid

Well I couldn't resist. I succumbed.

The stores here, like the US, have been pushing Christmas earlier and earlier. We started to see Christmas advertisements soon after I arrived, but things really picked up the last week of October. Stores are all stocked with Christmas decorations and goodies. But I've been trying to hold out for the more-or-less official beginning of the Christmas season which, in Germany this year is November 20th. This is the Friday before the first Sunday of Advent. This is when the Christmas markets open. This custom that started in Nuremberg now can be found in most every major city in Germany.

In any case, while browsing the ads one Sunday, I commented on a cheap Christmas pyramid offered by one store, saying that I wouldn't mind getting a pyramid for this year. One that was hand made, but not one of those huge, multi-tier ones. Just a nice one.

Magda didn't say much at the time, but she must have liked the idea because the next time we were in town she pointed to a store across the street and said "let's go in there". In my defense, "there" was not a store that was part of the Christmas hype. It was a small store that specializes in wooden objects including kids toys, decorations, and kitchen utensils. Some are machine made, but most of the decorations are hand-made. Included among the decorations was a shelf of hand-made Christmas pyramids.

We settled on one, that was not the cheapest or the smallest, but it was far from the other end of the spectrum. We liked it because it was not overly colorful, but rather focused on the wood. What do you think? Did we make a good choice? Of course, the idea is that as the candles burn, the hot air rises and spins the propellers. This in turn cases the figures to rotate. We have packed in away for now, but we will soon take it out and "give it a whirl", so to speak.