Dora Heldt: We give you a Christmas story of the bestselling author!

Dora Heldt's story "Because Christmas is ..." is one of 21 contributions from the short story collection "Christmas Shine - A Sackful of Stories". The complete collection was published as an eBook on the self-publishing platform epubli (4.99 Euro). In addition to Dora Heldt have u.a. Gisa Klönne, Anke Greifeneder and Thomas Gsella contributed stories. Proceeds from eBook sales go to the Writers in Prison organization, which campaigns for illegally imprisoned writers and journalists, and the Mourning Burrow, which gives life to children left behind.

Dora Heldt's story "Because Christmas is ..." ...

Download now as PDF

Download now for your eReader (Right-click, save target as)

And how does Dora Heldt celebrate Christmas herself? This has been revealed by bestselling author ChroniquesDuVasteMonde.com. Similarities between her family and the family in the story (yes, Christine and her loved ones from the first three books) are totally intentional.

This is how Dora Heldt celebrates Christmas

Dora Heldt

rituals "We always celebrate on Sylt, where my parents, my aunt and my uncle, cousins and siblings live." Christmas Eve all meet at noon with "Gosch" in Liszt, always at the same table, always with champagne and salmon sandwiches - and with My mother and my aunt are wearing Santa hats, that's just the way things are and they do not even comment anymore, after "Gosch" the families split up, on the first day of Christmas there is a coffee, on the second one the other. Of course, the whole time is just eaten, it starts on Christmas Eve at 12 o'clock and lasts until you leave - and then you still get leftovers. "

The Christmas dinner "Christmas Eve there is either pickled beef or roulades or rabbits, something that you do not have to cook big anymore, if you come from 'Gosch' and have one in the boat.My mother cooks traditionally, she's such a guy who does it all herself If she wants to help, she says: "No, come, the kitchen is so small, what do you want in there? Take a glass of red wine and sit down. "Covering and clearing the table, we have to do that, but when cooking, the queen likes to keep track of it, it's not about whether she can do it better, just her has always done. "

The mood "We all like to party together again and again, according to the same rituals, we seldom see each other during the year, we all have a lot of time-consuming jobs, and then Christmas is the time to get up to date My sister and I see each other too often to quarrel My parents are not in the mood for altercation A few years ago, my dad used to go to the kitchen demonstratively a few years ago because my mom and I got a laugh for something My dad loves a certain dignity, he does not like jokes at Christmas His favorite sentence Christmas Eve at five o'clock in the afternoon: "Man, yes, now Christmas is over again." Then one must not laugh, but must look concerned and say how beautiful everything is. "

This is how Dora Heldt celebrates Christmas

Christmas disasters "There were already days when we spent a lot of time with" Gosch "and the tree was decorated a bit more creative, because we did not manage to do it that well with the distance between the spheres.Once we had a tree from Denmark that was on offer, And I thought he smelled funny, my mother said it was utter nonsense, just because it came from somewhere else ... In the course of the evening we got all the pimples, my mother the worst, the tree was so sprayed with some chemistry that he gave us rash and irritated cough, and that year we did not have a tree on Boxing Day. "

Gifts "Of course, gifts are not really important anymore, we're just giving away little things, it's about the joke, I'm pretty sure I'll get road traffic rights from anyone this year, because I had to hand in my driving license in October because of distance measurement. Or I get the driving exam in ten questions. "

church "Actually, we always say, we all go to church, from 22 o'clock we call our aunt and cousin:" Are you going now? It's so cold outside and we already have the jogging clothes on. "Most of the time we force ourselves, so a few of us always go, because otherwise one has a guilty conscience.It's also nice, you meet a lot of acquaintances in the church and can tell you what you got. "

The Christmas tree "The tree is always decorated in the same style - in red and gold with lots of loops.There's another wooden snowman that my sister dropped years ago. Since then he has only one arm, but still his permanent place on the tree. "

Dress code "Of course you have to dress properly.When you come down the stairs, the question is sometimes asked:" Are you done? "And then you go back up and change your face My sister once said:" Why, upstairs is but nice. It is photographed only at the table. "But that does not work out with my father, you have to dress according to the occasion."

The day after "When my sister and I come back to Hamburg after the holidays, we drive straight to the central station and buy tulips for Christmas to come to an end, and it's good to have the party over, even though it's always nice. I'm torn there. "