Of course, the Christmas tree is German light culture!

Friedrich Merz thinks it's good if we buy "a Christmas tree before Christmas". He's right. Because it would be stupid after the festive season. And how does German culture actually work when buying a Christmas tree? Insulting the seller if he doesn't do it quickly enough?

If you're reading this, I'm already eagerly awaiting the Christ Child, the speech by King Olaf the Uncommunicative and "Three Hazelnuts for Cinderella", including the cheerful music with the sweet oboe and the happy ending. In my family circle, I will praise ARD for still broadcasting the film - without a trigger warning - even though it is not diverse, only white and heterosexual people are in it, a child is beaten and two women end up in freezing water, which could remind some refugees of their dangerous boat trip across the sea and retraumatize them, which is why they might join the Islamic State and attack a Santa Claus.

I will give the children in our group the tip not to follow the example of the Cinderella prince and his buddies and constantly run away from the teacher. "The Pisa results," I will say in a friendly but serious voice, "show where this leads. Please always go to school!" Pedagogically valuable advice goes down very well with us in the family, whose members I unhesitatingly place in the politically correct center.

As you can see, I'm in a joking mood, in a better mood than recently, but also as cynical as ever - I can't help it, even before the festival of love. I've been in Christmas mode all week and am enjoying the less stressful time. I'm watching "Babylon Berlin", which doesn't mean I've broken into the Pergamon Museum, but I'm watching the fourth season of the TV series. For anyone who didn't want to, couldn't or wasn't allowed to watch it, I'm happy to summarize it here: Smoking. Talking. Smoking. Singing. Smoking. Dancing. Smoking. Dancing. Smoking. Hitting. Talking. Smoking. Dancing. Smoking. Spanking. Running. Smoking. Talking. Smoking. Sex. Laughing. Smoking. Dancing. Smoking. Smoking. Investigating.

Yes, you read that right, there are also investigations on the fringes of dance events and family and love stories. It no longer has much to do with the great books by Volker Kutscher. Except that the movie, like the novels, is teeming with Nazis. They really are everywhere. But I don't want to get political here, even if everything is political in these times, I admit that. Calling a low "Zoltan" is risky, because the first name comes from sultan and we know which cultural group sultans belong to. A clumsy choice of words, in my opinion. Afterwards it says: "The Muslims bring us the storm. And he who sows the storm reaps the hurricane.

As long as the supply chains of lights work ...

Let's turn our attention to the Christians. They are dying out. The demand for Santas is already declining. Perhaps it is also due to the prices, the performers charge around 100 euros per performance - a real German Christian would rather buy a Christmas tree for that kind of money and decorate it with ornaments "made in China". Two thirds of the Christmas decorations sold worldwide are produced in Yiwu, which provides a good living for the formerly destitute population as long as the supply chains of lights continue to function. Thanks to our Progress Coalition's Christmas lights supply chain law, human rights are respected in the production of Christmas tree baubles and other trinkets and decent wages are paid. If not, then it matters. Money is important.

Friedrich Merz, who I was upset about, knows that too. He mistakenly doesn't consider the Christmas tree to be part of the German Leitkultur, but rather its purchase. "When we talk about a guiding culture, about our way of life, then for me that includes buying a Christmas tree before Christmas." Buying them after Christmas would be really crazy, even if they are certainly cheaper. But keeping a spruce or a fir tree for a whole year is not an option. A typical Merz statement. Gee, you old arch-capitalist in the guise of a Christian, do you only ever think about business and money? Surely Blackrock has invested in coniferous forests.

Merz must have a thing for Santa Claus

Mr. Merz went on to say about his recommendation to buy a Christmas tree before Christmas: "It's the kind of cultural identity shaped by Christianity and the West that is passed down through generations, that our children are shaped by and that they then carry on in one way or another themselves." What the purchase of a Christmas tree has to do with a cultural identity shaped by Christianity and the West is beyond me. And how does German Leitkultur actually apply to shopping? Insulting the sales clerk if he doesn't move fast enough? Ridiculing the woman with the headscarf in front of you at the checkout? Never mind. Mr. Merz is known for talking nonsense.

Although I have nothing against German lighting culture. A Christmas tree has to light up. Just like - to use a cliché here - the eyes of children when they unwrap presents that they no longer notice a week later at the latest. Mr. Merz is a Catholic, he certainly likes St. Nicholas. Among Catholics, Santa Claus has fallen into disrepute: as an advertising figure of a festival that has degenerated into a consumer frenzy and sacrificed its Christian values to commerce. Catholic-Marxist criticism of capitalism is often combined with America-bashing. After all, it was Coca-Cola that made the red and white fat man popular in the first place.

Hardly anyone knows St. Nicholas anymore, Protestants and atheists like Santa Claus. For many children in the declining West, the red skirt bringing presents is spiritually and emotionally closer than the newborn Jesus, who should actually be the focus of the feast of charity - at least according to the Christian churches. Yet the real St. Nicholas was a multicultural role model from what is now Turkey. He was a wealthy heir, spent money on good causes and protected women from other people's dicks by preventing a father from turning his daughters into prostitutes by giving them gifts.

Martin Luther took advantage of this. The clever reformer no longer wanted to celebrate saints on December 24 and 25. So Christmas became a family celebration among Protestants, where people gave each other presents. The first Christmas trees can be traced back to Luther's time, albeit in Alsace. This was immediately controversial; the church thought it was silly and warned people to be good and stop putting up trees. But at some point, Catholics also discovered the joy of giving gifts. After all, they too learned at some point that Santa Claus punishes those who are not good.

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The decline in demand for Santas might be due to the high prices they charge, leading Christians to opt for buying a cheaper Christmas tree instead. Friedrich Merz, on the other hand, views the purchase of a Christmas tree as a vital part of German Leitkultur, a tradition passed down through generations and a reflection of Christian and Western cultural identity.

Source: www.ntv.de