The Striezelmarkt, Germany’s Dresden region, is arguably a worldwide Christmas gift production center which continues for nearly one month.

This is the time when Dresden Stollen fruitcake, Pulsnitzer gingerbread, wood carvings from the Erzgebirge Mountains, Dresden Pflaumentoffel, Lusatian indigo print, Silesian ceramics, Bohemian glass, and Meissen porcelain dominate the lives of visitors who come from all over to thoroughly immerse themselves in Christmas.

Knecht Ruprecht is a companion of Father Christmas in many different German speaking areas of Europe.

In some German-speaking communities (particularly in southern Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Liechtenstein), the character of Santa is replaced by the Christkind (literally “Christ child”).

He or Father Christmas brings the presents not on the morning of December 25th, but on the evening of December 24th. A knock on the door heralds Father Christmas’s arrival; someone dressed in a red suit and white beard enters with a sack and a stick, supposedly for punishing the children if they have been bad. He asks how well-behaved the children have been, and they have to say a poem or sing a song.

For families who lack a suitable figure, or to confuse suspicious children, Father Christmases can be hired to come to homes and play the part. The Christkind, by contrast, is never seen. However, it rings a bell just before it leaves in order to let children know that the Christmas tree and the presents are ready.

It is a tradition to lavishly decorate a Christmas tree in the days preceding Christmas, and late Christmas Eve, for the tree to be unveiled and presents to be exchanged. In Protestant Christian churches, there is often a service in the late afternoon, intended to immediately precede this - this service often caters to families with children.

See Saint Nicholas for information about Saint Nicholas Day, a festivity similar to Christmas from which many English and American traditions derive.

Source: Wikipedia