A Pennsylvania Dutch Christmas // Heirloom Customs Weave A Tapestry of Delicacies

The Moravian towns of Bethlehem, Nazareth and Lititz inPennsylvania are transformed each Christmas into virtual fairylandsof candlelight, star lanterns and evergreens. For the Moravians,Christmas is extremely elaborate, with highly ornamented pyramids offruit and evergreens and entire miniature villages of putz (carvedfigures) built under the Christmas tree or across one wall of themain room in the house.

Since the Pennsylvania Dutch consist of so many diversereligious groups, it's hard to generalize about the way Christmas iscelebrated. But, against this rich tapestry of Christmas feasting -from the Moravians, who prepare for it months in advance, to theAmish, who observe Christmas only as a religious holiday, withoutChristmas trees, gifts or even special holiday foods - there arecertain customs that characterize the Pennsylvania Dutch majority.

Foremost among these is the idea of erecting some type of treedecorated with foods and ornaments. This custom comes from the factthat Dec. 24 was observed as Adam and Eve Day, which focused on theTree of Life. Most European historians of Christmas recognize thiscustom as a Christian reshaping of pre-Christian midwinterobservances that brought greenery into the house.

The oldest forms of the Pennsylvania Dutch Christmas tree werenot actually trees but branches. The grischdaagszweeg or zuckerbaamwas usually a large branch of wild cherry brought into the house onSt. Barbara's Day (Dec. 4) so that it would bloom by Christmas. Itwas hung with cookies and candies, the main gifts children received.A variant of the grischdaagszweeg was the grischdaagsmoije, anevergreen bush, usually mountain laurel or juniper, set up on a tableor hung from the ceiling.

On Christmas Eve it was customary in some households to leaveempty plates on a table near the tree, one for each child in thefamily, to be filled with cookies and candies by the Grischtkindel(Christ Child) during the wee hours of darkness. Bad children wereleft switches.

Aside from the Grischtkindel, the other major gift bringer wasthe Belschnickel, the Pennsylvania Dutch counterpart to Santa Claus.An adult member of the family would don furs and a frightening mask,and on Christmas Eve, when all the children were assembled, thisfierce-looking creature would burst into the house ringing bells,snapping whips and tossing nuts and candy at the shrieking mob.

Being spooked by the Belschnickel is one of the great childhoodgames the Pennsylvania Dutch reminisce about most when the subject ofold Christmas customs comes up. The Belschnickel still appears nowand then, but has been replaced for the most part by the benign andportly Santa Claus.

An extension of the Belschnickel tradition was the custom ofbelschnickling, which took place on Second Christmas (Dec. 26), informer times a great market day throughout the Dutch Country. Thebelschnicklers were usually teenagers dressed in costumes who"mummed" from house to house amid the din of noisemakers, demandingrefreshments. Mifflinburg rose soup and nut sticks (niss-schtengle)(recipes follow) evolved almost exclusively as food forbelschnicklers.

Christmas Day itself was a time for unabashed celebrating, orschmausing, a time to relish the labors of weeks of preparation, beit butchering and sausage-making or the seemingly endless baking ofcookies and cakes.

The Society of Pennsylvania German Gastronomes issued a pamphletin 1928 on classic Pennsylvania Dutch feasting under the pen of BlandJohaneson. It extolled the kind of old-style schmausing for whichtowns like Womelsdorf had once been famous.

There was a time when schmaus was considered a vulgar way ofsaying "banquet" in Pennsylfaanisch, and only the word fescht woulddo. But today the very quaintness of schmaus with its rusticchow-down connotations evokes pleasant images of lusty feasting underbackyard grape arbors or, in cold and snowy weather, at a vast tablespread with culinary booty within full view of the Christmas tree.

St. Martin's Day (Nov. 11) initiated the unofficial start ofholiday feasting. Historically this was the day when rents werecollected from tenant farmers and others who had agreed to use one'sland for a fee.

For rich farmers with large incomes falling due, Mordidaag was aday for celebration, a time to feel generous, yet also a time tothink ahead toward Christmas and all the debts that demandedrepaying. The farmer who was both rich peasant and poor nobleman wasthe true Father Christmas, for it was in his best interest to keepthe festive traditions alive.

Here are some recipes to celebrate the holidays,PennsylvaniaDutch style.

Traditionally served to belschnicklers with rose soup, nut stickcookies first appeared in the Neuer Gemeinnutziger PennsylvanischerCalendar for 1909. In the Pfalz, as in Alsace, they are known asnuss-spritzen and are formed by forcing the dough through a pastrygun. This allows for some of the fanciful shapes our German brethrencreated for Christmas. The Pennsylvania Dutch, however, hand-rollthe dough into fat almond-shaped sticks; hence the term schtengle.

Popular in the Buffalo Valley area of Union County into theearly part of this century, old-fashioned Mifflinburg rose soup wasmade only at Christmas. It's served not as a starter course atdinner but as a refreshment for the belschnicklers who went fromhouse to house begging for treats.

Kids of all ages love edible creatures, and Wilbur Zimmerman ofcentral Pennsylvania is one of them. Christmas shortbread "mice"cookies, an heirloom recipe from his wife's family, was a favoriteamong Pennsylvania Dutch children a century ago. Fitted out withcurrant eyes and little paper ears and tails, the cookies resemble -well, what else - real mice. NUT STICKS (NISS-SCHTENGLE)

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter

1/2 cup superfine sugar

1 extra-large egg

3 1/4 cups (8 ounces) finely ground hazelnuts or hickory nuts

1/4 cup rose water (see note)

2 cups pastry flour

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground allspice

3 tablespoons rosehip jam

1/5 cup confectioners' sugar

Beat butter and superfine sugar until light and fluffy.

Beat egg until lemon colored; work into butter mixture. Fold innuts and rose water.

Sift pastry flour, cinnamon and allspice together twice, thenadd to butter mixture. Stir to form a soft dough. Cover andrefrigerate for 5 hours.

Form dough into fat almond-shaped sticks 2 inches long. Arrangeon greased baking sheets.

Bake in a preheated 350-degree oven until golden brown on thebottom, about 15 minutes. Let cool on wire racks.

While cookies are cooling, in a small bowl combine rosehip jamwith confectioners' sugar. Pack mixture into an icing decorator witha small tip. Make a zigzag of icing down the center of each cookie.

Makes 4 to 5 dozen cookies.

Note: Rose water is sold in Middle Eastern and Indian grocerystores and in some specialty food stores. MIFFLINBURG ROSE SOUP (MIFFLINBARRIER ROSESUPP)

4 large red potatoes (2 pounds), peeled and cut into chunks

1 cup chopped carrots

1 cup chopped onions

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

3 tablespoons sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons sea salt

1 cup whole milk

1 cup whipping cream

1 tablespoon rose water (see note)

Unsprayed red or pink rose petals

Place potatoes in a saucepan and cover with water. Bring to aboil over high heat. Reduce heat, cover and cook until soft. Drainand set aside.

Meanwhile, place carrots and onions in a separate saucepan with2 cups of water. Cook, covered, until soft.

Place cooked potatoes, carrots, onions and cooking liquid in afood processor along with butter, sugar, sea salt and milk. Processuntil pureed. Add cream and pulse 2 or 3 times.

Pour soup into a clean saucepan and warm it over low heat. Whenhot but not boiling, add rose water.

Serve immediately in cups garnished with minced rose petals.

Makes 6 to 8 servings.

Note: Rose water is sold in Middle Eastern and Indian grocerystores and some specialty food stores. "MICE" COOKIES (MEISLI)

3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature

2 tablespoons confectioners' sugar, plus some for sprinkling oncookies

1 tablespoon rose water or rum (see note)

1 cup finely ground hickory nuts or hazelnuts (see note)

2 cups flour

Currants

Construction paper

Beat butter and confectioners' sugar. Stir in rose water, thennuts. Gradually beat in flour until dough is stiff, then mix doughwith fingers and knead until smooth.

Break off pieces of dough and mold them into 2-inch mouse"bodies." (Remember, mice are thicker at back than at the head.)Pinch face a bit to make a long nose. Place on greased bakingsheets.

Bake in a preheated 325-degree oven until light brown on thebottom, 20 to 24 minutes.

Roll hot cookies in a generous amount of confectioners' sugar.Set on wire racks to cool.

To make cookies look more realistic, press bits of currants intothe faces to make eyes, and cut out paper ears and tails. Cut pointson bases of ears and tails so they will stick into baked dough.

Store in airtight containers.

Makes about 30 cookies.

Note: Rose water is sold in Middle Eastern and Indian grocerystores and at some specialty food stores.

The nuts, regardless of type, must be ground to an even, fluffy,sawdust consistency. The texture and weight are crucial. This iseasy to accomplish with a Swedish nut mill (mandelkvarn) or a coffeegrinder, but not with a food processor. Food processors will onlyreduce nuts to a fine, gritty consistency before turning them intopaste.