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The Traditional Amish Christmas Celebration Showcases Their Design Integrity

The simple integrity of an Amish furniture craftsman is extended into how the Amish celebrate Christmas. Focusing on the reason for the season as much as they focus on the reason for a piece of home furnishing keeps their Christmas celebration spotlight first on the birth of the Christian Messiah and secondly on family and friends. Their gifts, like their crafts, are useful and thoughtful and the holiday is as uncluttered and memorable as their solid wood designs.

• An Amish Christmas is a two-fold and two day event that encompasses both faith and fellowship. The birth of their savior is the most highly regarded holiday in the Amish community, with the observance lasting two full days but can last in to February with all the visiting from home to home.
• Christmas dinner is usually a big part of the Amish family’s Christmas celebration. The Christmas meal rivals the very elaborate Amish wedding dinners. The menu may include delicacies such as salads, roasted chicken, and mashed potatoes with gravy, stuffing, fruits, homemade breads, cakes, cookies, pies, and even Christmas candies.
• Each Amish community varies in their exact celebration of Christmas but the focus of it as a religious observance does not. While some communities enjoy the traditional German festivities of a candle-lit tree other, more strict communities, may frown on that as an unnecessary extravagance. In fact, the more closely tied to Germanic roots, such as in the Pennsylvania Dutch communities, the more accepted some original and traditional Christmas activities are.
• The main focus of the Christmas season is to honor and celebrate the Christ child and December 25^th is devoted to fasting, prayer and scripture. December 26^th, also known as Second Christmas, is about spending time with the family and friends.
• Popular decorations in the Amish home may include a lit candle in the window, symbolizing Jesus of Nazareth’s birth. Simple, natural and of course, hand-made decorations like stars, angels, and greenery are strung with popcorn and hung on doors or in windows.
• Nativity scenes known as “putz” are put together by local Amish children at local churches to help children better understand the story of the Christ child’s birth. Entire communities come together to build these often elaborate sets and share in quiet contemplation over this eternally historic moment.
• Most Amish communities have a schoolhouse and each school plans and hosts a Christmas pageant for the local families. The Amish school children make all the decorations, provide the entertainment in song, stories, poems and stage plays; all celebrating the meaning of Christmas. Often humorous, this may be an Amish child’s only permitted chance to put on such a performance. Refreshments are served and exchanged, as well as gifts for the teacher such as Amish quilts or other Amish crafts or toys.
• To recognize that Jesus gave the greatest gift of all and that the Magi brought him gifts from afar that symbolized future important events in his life, the Amish do exchange gifts. Usually the families keep it simple and actually exchange names so that each person is given a special but useful gift.
• If an Amish family participates in the practice of exchanging Christmas cards they are always hand made and sometimes crafted by the entire family. These cards are usually only given to their “English”, non-Amish friends. They may also include coveted Amish made cookies or candies.

Tags: amish christmas, amish christmas celebration, amish christmas tree, Amish Furniture, amish nativity, putz

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 17th, 2008 at 12:44 am and is filed under Amish Furniture, Holidays. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.