A Tradition of German Gifts

Like many cultures, the German one has been forged by the land in which it grew. Forests and mountains mingle with castles and narrow street villages. You can believe it to be a land of fairy tales and gingerbread—-and ingenuity.

And to the East we walk, out of the Bavarian forests and up the mountains of Erzgebirge, where miners once toiled below earth and their families kept lit candles in the windows to help guide their way home.

By the 1880s, the ore had been emptied and the people of the region looked to other ways to create their lives.
Luckily the Ore Mountains were/ are also a region of plentiful timber and skilled artisans. By the last quarter of the nineteenth century, families had turned to the creation of wooden toys and gifts, many of them in miniature.
Never forgetting their past, many of these creations feature the figures of miners and the use of candles in arches and in pyramids.

These amazing creations use the gentle heat of lit candles to propel small fans that spin around the often tiered tableaus. Melding perfectly with the candle lighting traditions of Advent, these keepsakes are most used during the Christmas season.

It is no surprise that genius is borne from necessity and that creativity is a reflection of who we are as a people, so we are proud to carry some of these Erzgebirge marvels to you.