From: "Katharina Hines" <hines60@hotmail.com>
The tradition to bake for christmas started around 1400 in the convents.
Old documents from the 1400 say, that religious women (nuns) gave presents
of cookies, cakes, carps and cheese. All of these were molded in pretty
forms.
In 1510 nuns made the dough for Lebkuchen (ginger bread) for the first time.
The "Spekulatius" which named after the holy Nicolas. His surname was
Speculatius, that means in latin, some thing like inspector.
Around 1500 baked goods in different shapes and forms were a very big
fashion.The "Christmas Stollen" is known for over 500 years.
About 1475, the head cook of the castle "Hartenstein" by Torgau had the
receipt for the Christmas Stollen in his cook book.
The Christmas Stollen is the symbol.
It is the symbol of the cradle of the christ child.
Especially the "Dresdner Christstollen" was so famous, that the dukes of the
saxony, thought it was honor to give a "Dresdner Christstollen", to their
kings for a christmas present.It has been said, that Marzipan is a 'harems candy'.
In the 1800 Marzipan was made famous by the Luebecker sugar bakers.
The making of the Marzipan was a very hard and very time consuming.
The Marzipan was made out of Almonds, from Sicily.
It took a long time to crack the shells of the nuts, to hull them.
Then the Almonds were ground and mashed with a wooden club.
After that sugar was added. Then all of this was put in a large cooper
kettle and roasted, but it had to be stirred constantly.
After all of that the past was ready for the sugar baker.Oblaten (Wafer) is a very young christmas ornament.
The pretty , lusted and bright pictures became famous around 1860.
This made the work of the Lebkuchen Baecker ( ginger bread maker)
a lot easier.
The cakes were not decorated any more with Almonds and colored sugar, but
with ornaments for the Oblaten.Green and red are always has been the classic christmas colors.
Red is for christen people who spilled the blood of Jesus Christ.
Green is the color of his faith fullness to the people.
The old rules of christmas lives on. When the table on Christmas is
decorated with green branches from the fir tree, red apples and golden
stars.Katharina