All Praise to the Christmas Tree

Boxing Day has arrived and Santa’s been, unfortunately he didn’t have enough room in his sleigh for the art supply shop, champagne, bling and I fear that the Degas will have to be DIY but Santa did bring these! Now that is the perfect Christmas tree for a pastel artist isn't it? 

I usually get a boxed set for Christmas but the disadvantage of that is you often end up with lots of colours that you don’t use so much, like ghastly greens, so this year it’s a selection of some of the colours I use the most. Unisons really are my pastel work horse after many years of trying various sorts I work mainly with Unison, Schminke and Sennelier. 

In Germany there are lots of different regional Christmas traditions and one from round about Swabia is ''Christbaumloben'' which roughly translates as ''praising the Christmas tree!''. 

As Christmas trees are traditionally put up on the evening of the 24th here on the 25th or 26th of December in Swabia you may get a visit from your neighbours (or if you are in a sports club or team your team mates) to praise the beauty of your tree; its beautiful baubles, the spectacular lights and how beautifully straight the tree trunk is. Even if your tree has a couple of flaws these will be commented on in an ironic but flattering way, some groups even carry their own tree with them just in case the house they visit doesn’t have their own tree. As a reward for all of these songs of praise the owner of the tree has to give the visitors a round of drinks, usually Schnapps! Sometimes it takes several rounds before the ''praisegivers'' move on to the next house or local inn, ''Christbaumloben'' is thirsty work and can take up to a couple of days until the last tree has been worthily praised. 

Just wondering if I should introduce this tradition into other regions too, sounds like a job for me, especially when my pastels are redundant over the Christmas season!