Weihnachtsplätzchen

In winter, mostly in december when the weather is grey, Berlin dives in the night at 3 :00 p.m. . Then the balconies and windows are illuminated of decorations, all very tacky. With all its colours and dazzling stars, Berlin looks like a huge Luna Park. In my area, there is some kind of competition. The sky full of stars in golded paper of the third floor competes with the hilarious Christmas fathers, all in line (they are many of them, didn’t you know ?) in their nylon forest of Christmas trees (of course) of the groundfloor. Opposite on the balcony, you can see a little Jesus that ignites and goes out, without being tired, all day and all night. It can drive you mad. In the building, the marathon that leads to the 24th of December, begins a month before, you have to know. On the 20th of November, at 10:00 o’clock, precisely, a slight net with a cinnamon flavour climbs one by one the stairs. The day after, it’s a vanilla veil (of an endless sweetness) that caress the walls. Then comes the spined flavour of the orange. 4 days later, the almonds and nuts. The fifth day, the luxurious flavour of melt chocolate. The sixth, an exquisite steam of caramel is posing in the entire street. On the seventh day, my far-sighted neighbour of the first floor, fills endless of aluminium boxes of her Weihnachtsplätzchen, those little cakes for Christmas. She has good consciousness. At my place, at the same time of year, is still chaos before the world’s creation and a sad olfactive neutrality. The manufacturing of those little cakes for Christmas with the family, friends, at work, school, is a ritual that says a lot about the German mentality. In December, It’s as if all the living forces of the country that we say exhausted, in lethargy, depressed, crise’s minded, burst out in the warmth intimacy of the kitchen. As if all this creative energy, loaded during 11 months of the year, frees itself frenetically, furiously, between the pastry roller and the oven. Already in the end of summer, every magazine produces its special issue for its Weihnachtsplätzchen, and famous chefs gives its secret recipe. Because your little cakes can’t be only gritted cake’s commonplace. Everyone creates its own collection. And here is a nation of silversmith, lacemaker or mason that chisel, shape, stick licorice laces, spinkle like a painter , multicolored glitter on snail’s shell in almond paste, assemble very small chocolate and vanilla squares, only to build a domino. So you can see caramel towers, gingerbread pyramids, architectures in chocolate or fruits, fantastical constructions. The Weihnachtsplätzchen has nothing to do with the black English pudding. Nothing to do with the panetone or the French Christmas cake, suffocating under tons of cream. Gracious, those Weihnachtsplätzchen reveal the fantasy and the humor of their creators (yes, German can have humor). I know nobody who can resist them (to the cakes, not the German). Those who in the country make critics about the Christmas tree, the decoration of the windows, will be the first to dive for a cinnamon star. No cynic ever refused a coconut snowball. Unforgettable, those Kipferl, sort of croissant of nut and almond paste. Respected of all people, in this story repeating, you discover the true nature of the German, full of tradition, perfectionists, innovating. The collective manufacturing of those Weihnachtsplätzchen has also therapeutics virtues in this country, paralysed with anguish. Outside, the rain knock against the window and the wind bends the naked tree in the courtyard. There is a frontier between the smelly warm inside world and the dangers of the city outside. Sometimes, an echo of the outside world comes inside. Money is bad ? quick, let’s take another coriander piece in a bath of dark chocolate. The stock exchange is falling down ? Let’s make some white ice eggs. No growth next year ? In the kitchen, the cheeks are red, sweat is on the face, fingers manufacture a paste’s model. Actually, the Weihnachtsplätzchen are like a Prozac , efficient and without any secondary effects for the German.