Tag Archives: Christmas

Frohe Weihnachten!

Posted on by Leave a comment

With the holidays coming up and the loss of my mother who hailed from the Harz Mountains this year, it fell to me to make the standard-issue Pfeffernüsse to the old family recipe just as it fell to her some 30 years ago on the passing of my oma. To keep it as throw-back as possible, I made sure to drink a nice Doppel Bock out of my grandfather’s stein while wearing a surplus Einheitsmütze (the Pickelhaube is too heavy!) as my GSDs watched from afar.

I’m digging it. All they needed after this was the powdered sugar before they were packed up for my two adult kids and my brother in Pittsburgh. Made with black pepper (hence the name) anise, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, and nutmeg, they are spicy and really do smell and taste like no other cookie. They have always meant Christmas to me.

With all this being said, here are two 101-year-old German Red Cross posters from WWI. The first, drawn by Walter Püttner, shows a Christmas angel (Christkind) pulling a sleigh loaded with bundles and delivering one to a German soldier.

Text: Christmas collection by the Bavarian Red Cross for the armed forces. Rehse Archiv für Zeitgeschichte und Publizistik. Via the Library of Congress

The second, by Adolf Franz Theodor Münzer, has a Christmas tree (Weihnachtsbaum) decorated with candles in front of a red cross.

Text: Christmas in the field! 1917. Contribute money and gift packages for our warriors! Via LOC

Sorry, though, no Pfeffernüsse left to share.

Christmas 1941, Hong Kong

Posted on by Leave a comment

As it is already Christmas across the International Date Line, take this into perspective.

1941 12 19 Hong Kong, Counter-Attack at the Wongneichong Gap by Giuseppe Rava

1941 12 19 Hong Kong, Counter-Attack at the Wongneichong Gap by Giuseppe Rava

On this day in 1941, the Hong Kong Garrison was mounting a doomed defense against the might of Japan. Heavy among the embattled defenders, outnumbered nearly 4:1 by the attacking Japanese was “C Force,” a group of some 2,000 Canadians consisting of a brigade headquarters and a battalion each of the Royal Rifles of Canada from Quebec and Winnipeg Grenadiers from Manitoba. The below from the Toronto Star Weekly, 21 December 1961.

canadian christmas hong kong 1941

“It was the morning of December 25, 1941, in Hong Kong. The sun shone bright and warm. Along the road bordered with blood-red flowers strolled a Canadian soldier, steel helmet perched on the back of his head and singing at the top of his voice. Fellow soldiers taking cover in the basement of a house shouted at him, “Take cover – get off the road!” The Canadian shouted back, “It’s a lovely day and it’s Christmas morning.” Then he picked up his song and continued to stroll along the road, to disappear forever.”

“Who he was, where he came from and what eventually happened to him, the survivors of the Winnipeg Grenadiers who had shouted out to him never did learn. But the unreality of this occasion – the casual, singing soldier strolling along, oblivious to the earth-shaking explosions or the hills of Hong Kong which at that moment were a mass of roaring flames – did not unduly amaze them. It was, so they thought, merely an appropriate part of the greater unreality which was the battle of Hong Kong itself. This does not mean that there was anything unreal about the savage fighting that had gone on for 18 days as 14,000 Canadian, British and Indian troops attempted to hold off 60,000 experienced, superbly trained Japanese troops. ”

Both the Royal Rifles and Winnipeg Grenadiers were rebuilt.

remember hong kong