The Olneyville times. (Olneyville [Providence, R.I.]) 1887-1917, 1909-03-05
HOLIDAY TIME IN MUNICH.
Streets Lined With "Christbaume'-
Plays Staged For Children.

Plays staged For children.
Munich at Christmas time is full OF
interest ard charm TO the foreigner.
The churches all exhibit krippen, as
the Germans call the quaint WAX
groups representing the Nativity.
In the National Museum at Wash
ington there is a wonderful collection
OF these groups. brought from Italy
and Spain. where famous artists still
consider il an act Of piety 10 con-
struct them. In comparison with
these the Munich krippen are crude,
but they are picturesque and inter-
esting.
The figures vary in size from three
inches 10 three feet in height and are
placed on small stages behind glass.
The stable. by the way. is invariably
an ivy clad ruin swarming with silk
robed personages.
At Christmas time one stands
spellbound before the windows OF the
baker shops and the conditorei. Truly
such wonderful edibles were never
before constructed. says the Travel
81
tion of art TO dream of eating them.
Marvellous chocolates moulded into
the shapes of every known bird,
beast or fowl are 10 be had for less
than the proverbial song.
The lebkuchen especially are ver-
table creations. One Of the latter
represents the Christ child with his
tree. another a fat old st. Nicholas,
a third an officer in full uniform max.
ing love to a pretty maid. while a
fourth portrays an entire Christmas
scene Gas in n holiday number OF
Punch) with joke and all outlined
in the finest pink and white icing on
a huge brown cake.
Outside the churches and shops
Christmas is equally in the air. Five
mornings before the great day one
awakens to find the broad avenue be-
low ones window mass OF waving
treetops. Serried ranks of pine trees
fastened on squares of wood and
standing up straight and proud line
the sidewalks as far as the eye can
reach. Like the proverbial fairy for.
est it has sprung up in single night
The sale Of the Christbaume, ne
the Germans call them, Is presided
over by ruddy faced peasant women,
who I'm spite Of the biting cold look
as If they enjoyed their employment
Perhaps no better example could be
cited OF what heavy manual labor
German women are capable OF per.
forming.
Women assist in the Telling OF
these trees in their far off mountain
homes; women cart them to town
where after mailing them TO blocks
piling them together az night and
rearranging them in an upright posi-.
ton each daybreak (no pleasant task
on bitter December morning) WON.
en- will finally deliver each at the
house Of its purchaser.
Labor and time are reckoned cheap
by the poor in Bavaria, for-after a
considerable expense Of both on the
part of these indefatigable creatures
one may purchase a seven foot
specimen OF their wares for about
twelve cents.
But the supreme pleasure OF the
Christmastide for Munich children l,
found at the theatre. The holiday
performances consist OF some familiar
nursery tale charmingly dramatized
in the simple rhymed verse TO which
the German tongue so peculiarly
lends itself.
The piece is then staged as mag.
niicently as If Faust" or "Midsum.
mer Nights Dream" were to be given
and is presented by the best actors
and actresses OF the company. Day
after day the theatre is crowded with
happy children ant older folks.