It’s just not going to be windy or sunny enough this Christmas.
Germans urged to switch off Christmas lights this year to cut energy usage as Russia keeps tight hold on Europe’s gas supply – Germans should turn off their Christmas lights this winter to save energy as Russia clamps down on gas flows to Europe, according to non-profit environmental organization, Deutsche Umwelthilfe.
For that traditional German Christmas Market feeling.
And then the next stupid Covid wave comes along and ruins everything! I’ll just have to drink my Glühwein at home alone, I guess.
Munich’s iconic Christmas market has been canceled for the second year in a row due to a significant rise in Covid-19 cases in Germany.
The “bitter news” was announced by the city’s mayor Dieter Reiter, who said he’d been left with no choice but to call off the popular event, which usually attracts around three million people annually, as the country grapples with record breaking infection rates.
In Germany. Ho, ho, ho, or something.
Coronavirus digest: Unvaccinated banned from some German Christmas markets – Hamburg has introduced tougher restrictions and Munich’s Christkindlmarkt has been ditched altogether. Meanwhile, Germany has recorded its highest ever daily caseload.
“It’s because I’m green, isn’t it?”
Did Germans flock to the stores and through the crowds yesterday to get their Christmas shopping done before the big Christmas lockdown?
And to get their COVID19 infection while they were at it? Of course they did. They had to. But they know that their government is only locking them down for their own good so they are thankful that they were allowed to Christmas shop for as long as they did.
Germans flocked to the shops to get their Christmas shopping done. Now it’s forced them into lockdown for the holiday.
“The people are fed up with the situation.”
Not fed up enough, it seems. Happy Holidays!
In Germany. And no, it’s not the COVID-19 Grinch who did it. It was that other one with her evil elves below.
Germany set for nationwide hard lockdown from Wednesday: report – Germany is set to close most shops from Wednesday as it tightens lockdown curbs, according to a draft government proposal. Chancellor Angela Merkel is to meet with federal and state leaders on Sunday morning.
“Maybe Christmas doesn’t come from a store. Maybe Christmas perhaps means a little bit more.”
OK, Rudolf. That’ll be enough with the drinking. It’s Christmas. Time to get to work.
That means Christmas. You know, like the word for Christmas that the German Integrationsbeauftragte (Integration Commissioner) purposely left off of her official Christmas card greeting this year?
“No matter what you believe in…” She writes, “We wish you a peaceful holiday season and a good start in the coming year.” But no mention of the word Christmas. You know, for like, I dunno, Christians?
You certainly couldn’t call Weihnachten a dirty four-letter word. It’s way bigger than that. But it’s sure dirty enough because in the Germany of 2018 it’s the kind of word you do not to want to put into your mouth, much less into writing, during the Christmas, I mean holiday season. At least not when you’re the Integration Commissioner here.
But wait. Shouldn’t that be one of the first words somebody interested in integration in Germany would want to use?
“Es ist bedauerlich, dass falsch verstandene Toleranz augenscheinlich dazu führt, dass Weihnachten, das Fest der Liebe, unsichtbar wird.”
New fortified security measures at Berlin Christmas market.
All week, workers have been installing 160 giant, square, lattice-work frames on the perimeter of Charlottenburg’s Breitscheidplatz, the site of the fatal attack.
Enormous sand-and-stone-filled bags have been lowered into each frame, which have all been bolted to the next to form a long row. Narrow access points have been protected with extra bollards.
During the market, private guards will patrol the grounds, joined by a heavy presence of uniformed and plainclothes police officers.
The Berlin Senate has said the elaborate €2.5 million ($2.9 million) installation will provide “unprecedented protection” against trucks weighing up to 40 tons.
This reminds me of German oddity 234. Germany is a country that now places the ugly security controls, bollards and heavily armed police it used to have on its national borders at Christmas markets and Volksfeste around the country instead.
“It wasn’t my idea. This decision came from Brussels.”
Observing Hermann 