Saturday, December 25, 2021

Czechs vs Santa Claus

Again, 24 December in Central Europe is Christmas.  In the USA, and the UK, the 24th is Christmas Eve and the 25th is Christmas Day.  In the UK, the 26th is Boxing Day which isn't a thing in the U.S.

In Czechland, and Germany, the 24th, the 25th and the 26th of December are public holidays.  Like all public holidays you hope that they don't fall on the weekend because then you lose the free day off.

In Germany, the 25th and 26th are Erster Weihnachtstag and Zweiter Weihnachtstag, respectively the First and Second Christmas Day.  The 26th is also Stephanstag (St. Stephen's Day).

In Czechland, the 24th is Štědrý den.  The 25th is první vánoční svátek and the 26th is druhý vánoční svátek, the First and Second Christmas Day with the 25th also called Boží hod vánoční (the Christmas Feast) and the 26th also being Svátek svatého Štěpána (St. Stephen's Day).

Today we started out with Oma's typical German breakfast.  This is coffee with fresh bread rolls, meats, cheeses, butter, home made jams, and hard-boiled eggs.

We went for a walk around town for a couple of hours and then just relaxed for the rest of the day.  There are always fairly tales on German TV and of course we had to watch Drei Haselnüsse für Aschenbrödel which is the German version of Popelka.  It's always on TV in what used to be East Germany.  It's not as popular in Western Germans.  Also for some reason, in the east, Cinderella is "Aschenbrödel" but in the west they say "Aschenputtel".

This afternoon Oma put out another Christmas feast.  

We had duck and goose, with potatoes and gravy, dumplings, red and green cabbage.  It was delicious!  

Dinner was way better with everyone here in Berlin than it was during last year's Covid Christmas where I joined them for dinner on Skype.

While we were celebrating Christmas last night with the Weihachtsmann it seems that the Czechs were fighting with Santa Claus.


On 24 December, NORAD (the North American Aerospace Defence Command) tracks Santa Claus' trip around the globe.  They've been doing this since 1955.

Řízení letového provozu ČŘ, Air Traffic Control of the Czech Republic, is responsible for the airspace above Czech territory.  They put out a video on Twitter that Supersonic Ježíček submitted his flight plan and was doing Mach 9 (11.113 km/hr or 6905 mph) through Czech airspace.

©ŘLP ČŘ

Remember that Santa doesn't bring the presents.  Ježíček does.  In the following video I found out on YouTube, the Czech military shoots Santa out of the sky and then tanks surround him.  At the end of the video there is a disclaimer that neither Santa or any reindeer were injured in the making of this video.  You'e got to love the dark Czech sense of humour.

©tvarmycz

The Czech police went even darker.  They put out a public service video to illustrate the dangers of driving while SMSing (texting).  In the video, Santa gets distracted while driving and has an accident.  The Czech police come to the rescue by taking over his delivery route.

©Policie ČR

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