Christmas in Austria

The Christmas tree plays a most important part. Every town sets up its own huge tree on the main square and frequently there will be an extra one, adorned with bread crumbs, for the birds. In families the tree is decorated with gold and silver or sometimes colored balls, tinsel, sweets and candy wrapped in tinfoil, gilded nuts, etc. Electric Christmas lights are not too popular throughout Austria and in most homes candles are used. Candles are also placed in windows as a symbolic Christmas greeting to those absent from home and in commemoration of deceased family members.

On Christmas Eve shops close latest by 6 p.m. and there are no movie or theater performances and no concerts. Bars, restaurants, night clubs are likewise closed and traffic is almost non-existent. Around 7 p.m. on Christmas Eve (December 24th) the tree is lit for the first time and the whole family gathers to sing Christmas carols. “Silent Night, Holy Night,” written and performed for the first time on December 24th, 1818, by Josef Mohr and Franz Gruber in the Austrian village of Oberndorf, is still the favorite Christmas carol.

Presents are placed under the tree and young children believe that they were brought to them -- as a reward for good behavior -- by the Christ Child (Christkind). Austrian Catholic Christmas tradition has it that it is the Christ Child himself (or rather, an eponymous cherubic figure known as the “Christkind”) who decorates the Christmas tree on Christmas Eve and brings the children their Christmas presents, and it is to him that their letters and wish lists are addressed in the weeks before Christmas.