The Christmas Museum

Going back to our little trip to Rothenburg ob der Tauber since the snow is falling today and it’s just so incredibly Christmas-y feeling here, I wanted to share with you the Christmas museum we went to.

First of all, you will have to excuse some of the pictures which were taken with the iPhone. They don’t really like pictures to be taken so I was careful about it!

The museum starts from the origin of Christmas and gives a beautiful walk through the history of ornaments and decorating. Literally everything to do with Christmas is shown from the tree stands to the tree topper. I loved that they showed how over time the material used for ornaments changed with time. Some really beautiful things to see.

For those of you who don’t know…Christmas trees were first recorded here in Germany. That makes it extra special! In fact, the trees weren’t popular in the US until around the year 1850 or so. Germans sent the trees to relatives and to German soldiers around the world and this is how it came to be that many homes all over the world celebrate with a Christmas tree in their homes. And as the trees in homes began to pick up speed, the rich people had a tree for each person in the family. So having 5 trees up in your living room wasn’t unusual. Spoiled rotten….But maybe they were on to something! They decorated them with oranges, apples, breads, and cookies and the Children would help themselves to it whenever they wanted.

The Angel tree toppers have been made in the Nuremberg area for the past 300 years and legend has it that the angels were made by the doll maker in memory of his daughter who passed away.

Once the museum was over, it leads you right into a massive Christmas shop with thousands of over priced ornaments and decorations. (No pictures were allowed in here either…boring.) Really beautiful things but I wouldn’t dare pay 13 Euro for a small ornament. Not in this lifetime. But it was beautiful to see nonetheless and to see all the unusual decorations. I was searching for a typical German ornament but sadly no luck!