December flies by in the blink of an eye and it's already Christmas again. Time to calm down and slow down a little. Time to be with the important people in your life. And that's exactly what we wish you this year.

The JUNGLÜCK team also got into the festive spirit this year - despite another virtual Christmas season. In coffee chats, meetings or in small groups in the office, we have exchanged ideas about family traditions and our own rituals and discovered many funny similarities as well as new ideas. Various Christmas anecdotes, cookie accidents and gift ideas later, we came up with the idea of sharing these wonderful stories with our community. Perhaps you will recognize one or two traditions, get a little inspiration to try something new or see this post as a little nudge to indulge in your own memories.

Uta (Customer Care): "We no longer put tinsel on the tree because of the environment. Loriot (if you remember him) has a wonderful sketch in which he says "there used to be more tinsel". This has now become a common phrase in our house when we light the tree on Christmas Eve."

Anna (Online Marketing): "We also have something really funny. The "Christ Child" still comes every year. After dinner, my sister and I have to go into her room and my mom secretly puts the presents under the tree and then rings a bell. Only then are we allowed back into the living room. We may be 25 and 19, but we do it every year."

Giulia (Influencer Marketing): "We divide our Christmas menu between all family members in advance, so that everyone cooks one dish. Then we all cook together, chat and drink wine."

Kim (Customer Care): "In my family, we have a few funny traditions that have been practiced every year for as long as I can remember. We always put on a Wolfgang Petry Christmas edition CD to accompany the music at PM . After we've listened to it 15 times in a continuous loop, it's time to hand over the presents. Just like Anna, my brothers (27 and 13) and I have to go to our old children's rooms. There we wait until a bell rings and my father closes the front door loudly and shouts "Bye Christkind, see you next year". The crowning glory is always the family photo with a Christmas hat (taken with a self-timer).

Michael (Product Management): "We always have veal sausages for lunch on Christmas Eve... unfortunately not vegan (I stand in the corner and feel ashamed). Christmas Eve is the only day of the year when my father gets all sentimental when he sees his family gathered together like this. He sometimes sheds a tear - a great act of emotionality for an old-fashioned straight man."

Elisabeth (Shop Management): "We always ring in the Christmas season by baking cookies. As my father is a chef and likes to test new recipes, there are more varieties every year. So far, we've baked 14 different varieties. On Christmas Eve, after dinner and unwrapping presents, it's a tradition to play activity games. And like Anna and Kim, we still ring the bell every year."

Lotte (International): "My father loves Christmas and thinks about a delicious Christmas menu weeks (months) in advance. He used to print out the menu neatly for everyone and put it on the table as a small menu. Last year, he sent it to everyone as a document in the Whatsapp family group to save paper."

Kim (Customer Care): "Another little anecdote: Because of my birthday on 23.12, I used to be very sad that I never celebrated a "real" birthday, as everything was always under the cover of the following day. Friends and family usually didn't have time on that day and there was never a real birthday feeling. My parents noticed this and since then the house has only been decorated and the tree put up on December 24th. P.S.: Nowadays, I don't see it that way anymore & we often decorate the tree several days before Christmas Eve. But it used to be a real disaster in my eyes."

Hannah (CSR Management): "To make unwrapping presents a bit more exciting, we've been rolling the dice for presents ever since I was little. Whoever rolls a 6 gets to unwrap. Last year it got out of hand and we extended the whole thing to games of skill: only those who completed a certain task were allowed to unwrap a present. The whole thing became even more fun with a few glasses of wine."

Lena (Content Management): "Christmas Eve has been exactly the same in my family for ages: we have cream of potato soup with various toppings and salmon, aioli and baguette (for once, I'm not as vegetarian as usual that evening). It's actually a pretty unfestive meal... But when the four of us sit down in the living room next to the fireplace and the decorated Christmas tree and start eating, it's just so special every year. We also have a nice tradition for the presents. In order to be able to enjoy giving and receiving presents together - and so that everyone isn't busy with themselves and their own pile - we raffle off the Christmas presents every year. This means that each gift has a number and we draw the lots from a pot in turn. Whoever has drawn the lot has to go and look for the present under the tree (there's a bit of Easter in there too). Whoever has wrapped it is then allowed to say who it is for. We all watch it being unwrapped and enjoy it together. This has led to some funny situations... Some years I get an old Pritt pen as a present. A running gag in my family: when I was very young and first noticed that someone in my family received presents on different days of the year, I really wanted to join in and wrapped up a dried-up Pritt glue stick from my desk and gave it to my dad. I obviously hadn't fully grasped the concept of gift-giving, but the gesture counted and still makes me laugh to this day. Perhaps the best gift of all."

Lisa (CR Management): "For several years now, it has been our tradition to spend Christmas Eve in our own four walls and only get together in a larger group on Christmas Day. Such get-togethers have also become rare in the meantime, as some of us have moved away from home. That's why there's no big program except eating a lot, giving presents, chatting a lot and enjoying the time together."

July (brand and communication design): "In our house, the living room and kitchen are open and as we can never close a door, my dad always "covered" the living room with a sheet on the 24th so that my sister and I (now both in our late 20s) couldn't see the presents. The year before last, there was no sheet hanging in the morning and we saw the presents under the tree ... you can imagine the drama... Last year the curtain was up again. Apart from that, we always eat soup with fritters. It's a tradition with us and PM just before the presents are given, the bell rings. BUT everyone is sitting at the table... how can that be? My dad used to record the bell ringing when we were little (he would wait 10 minutes and then record it) so we always thought it was the Christ Child. Well, and the tradition continues to this day. Then we always play games, drink wine, sing and play guitar in front of the decorated tree and then it's time to open presents. It's always very touching and exciting to see how the person reacts. Giving someone something they're really happy about is pretty much one of the best things."

Finja (Business Development): At Christmas, we always make our own ravioli with chestnut filling, among other things - super tasty! And vegetarian, because my sister and I don't eat meat. We also always give our parents a board game as a present, which we can then play on Christmas Eve and over the holidays:grin: And there's always a huge family get-together on the first or second holiday (without corona) because my dad has 16 siblings.

Time for mindfulness

Our Christmas motto this year was "Mindful gift-giving". A very beautiful and versatile message, because it is not only about making conscious and sustainable decisions when buying gifts, but also about expressing with the gift that you have thought about the person's wishes and are just as mindful of yourself. 2021 has been an up and down and back and forth year for all of us. Christmas is the time we are given every year to be with our loved ones, to switch off, to eat too much, to reminisce, to laugh until our stomachs hurt, to be close to each other, to reflect, to be mindful.

We hope that you take this mindfulness with you into 2022. Do what you feel like doing, listen to your gut feeling, take your time, indulge in self-love, be with yourself and those who are important to you. Just be yourself.

Merry Christmas from the entire JUNGLÜCK team!