Countries all across the world celebrate the winter solstice holiday season in their own unique ways. Some such as Christmas and Hanukah are religious celebrations, while others are non-religious celebrations of nature, people and the coming spring solstice. The reasoning behind the various holiday celebrations can sometimes differ greatly, but there are a surprising number of commonalities among the celebratory traditions. Over the thousands of years that man has celebrated the season, each group influenced others with their traditions.

Today each country and faith celebrates the holiday in their own unique ways, but more often than not you can detect common themes shared between countries. In this article we will take a closer look at how Christmas is celebrated in Germany, during which you will see that their traditions are not unlike those shared by England and America.

The youth in many countries celebrate a beloved mystical figure such as Santa Claus and Germany is no different; the German equivalent of America's Santa and England's Father Christmas is none other than the kindly Kris Kringle. Unlike Santa, Kris Kringle is not responsible for passing out gifts to excited children - that duty is reserved by another holiday figure: Christkind.

In Germany children will write letters to Christkind (translated as the Christ Child), much like American children send letters to Santa in the North Pole. The German children place their letters into an envelope heavily adorned with glue and sugar. These envelopes are placed on windowsills where they can glitter in the gentle light of the moon.

And as if the German youth didn't already celebrate enough kindly eternal figures there is yet one more: Saint Nicholas! Traditionally children will stuff their shoes with hay, straw or carrots every Christmas Eve and leave them on their doorsteps. When Saint Nicholas rides by later that evening on his proud white stallion he stops momentarily by each door so that his stallion can feed on the treats left behind. To thank the generous children, Saint Nicholas will replace the eaten hay and/or carrots with delicious candies.

Few things capture the holiday spirits of people better than the age-old Christmas tree. While millions of people set up their Christmas tree each and every year, a good portion of them don't even realize that the tradition originated from Germany. Germans love their Christmas trees just as much as Americans and Englishmen