{"id":94,"date":"2003-12-06T18:04:17","date_gmt":"2003-12-06T22:04:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chocolatedream.net\/blog\/archives\/2003\/12\/06\/holiday-traditions\/"},"modified":"2003-12-06T18:04:17","modified_gmt":"2003-12-06T22:04:17","slug":"holiday-traditions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/multifaceted-abnormal.net\/blog\/archives\/2003\/12\/06\/holiday-traditions\/","title":{"rendered":"Holiday traditions"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.chocolatedream.net\/files\/photos\/christmasmarket.jpg\" hspace=5 vspace=5><br \/>\nThis week I took a couple of pics of the Christmas market on Barf\u00fcsserplatz and the big tree in the courtyard of the townhall. I just love the decorations in the dark, and the way people walk around with wide eyes taking everthing in&#8230;<br \/>\n<!--more--><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.chocolatedream.net\/files\/photos\/townhall-wishbox.jpg\" hspace=5 vspace=5><br \/>\nPasser-bys were completely enraptured when they entered the courtyard with the big tree to sign the wish book standing there and heard voices float through the air singing Christmas carols.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.chocolatedream.net\/files\/photos\/townhall-singers.jpg\" hspace=5 vspace=5><br \/>\nAfter some looking around I discovered the source of the beautiful singing &#8212; some girls were standing hidden in a corner behind the tree and sang, just for their own pleasure, not for money. <\/p>\n<p>Christmas time can be so beautiful!<\/p>\n<p>Today it&#8217;s St. Nicholas Day, which is quite big here in Switzerland. For us it&#8217;s the day when Santa Claus comes. We call him Santiklaus, Samichlaus, or Niggi-N\u00e4ggi and tell him verses to get sweets, and he often comes accompanied by a Schmutzli, a dirty big guy who&#8217;s ready to put the naughty children into a big bag or thrash them with his staff&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.chocolatedream.net\/files\/photos\/samichlaus-urs.jpg\" hspace=5 vspace=5><br \/>\nThis particular Samichlaus is our neighbour from downstairs, with an imposing Schmutzli at his side and one of our cucumber green trams in the background. My brother and I met him by chance while Christmas shopping this afternoon.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.chocolatedream.net\/files\/photos\/samichlaus-dog.jpg\" hspace=5 vspace=5><br \/>\nNot all Samichl\u00e4us seem to think a Schmutzli is necessary &#8212; this one had thought of a new mode of transportation and brought his dog&#8230; We couldn&#8217;t help but feel a bit sorry for the poor animal, espeically because its master insisted on smoking like a chimney while leading him around. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n<p>I love Santiklaus &#8212; and this morning, I even found a boot filled with chocolates and apples in front of my door&#8230; Got my day off to a great start right away!<\/p>\n<p>Hope you&#8217;re all enjoying the season in your own way! Btw, I just noticed that this is my 100th entry in this blog &#8211; kind of impressive, huh?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This week I took a couple of pics of the Christmas market on Barf\u00fcsserplatz and the big tree in the courtyard of the townhall. I just love the decorations in the dark, and the way people walk around with wide eyes taking everthing in&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-94","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life","category-photos"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/multifaceted-abnormal.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/multifaceted-abnormal.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/multifaceted-abnormal.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/multifaceted-abnormal.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/multifaceted-abnormal.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/multifaceted-abnormal.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/multifaceted-abnormal.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/multifaceted-abnormal.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/multifaceted-abnormal.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}