Readers share their favorite Christmas memories

Father-daughter Christmas in Austria and Bavaria is ‘best ever’

By Stephen Scull (Special to The Criterion)

When my daughter, Anna-Christine Scull, graduated from Cornell University in Cornell, N.Y., in May of 2011, she decided to teach English in Hungary for one year before deciding for certain whether to enter law school.

Her Thanksgiving holiday there was a very lonely experience without her friends and family.

As a retired German teacher, I had always wanted to experience a Christmas in the Alps of Austria.

I asked Anna if she would like to meet me in Salzburg, Austria, a few days before Christmas then spend time together in Austria and Bavaria until Dec. 29.

Of course, she was excited. I arranged for hotel rooms just to the north and east of Salzburg because in the village of Oberndorf bei Salzburg the carol “Stille Nacht” (“Silent Night”) was composed on Christmas Eve in 1818.

I found out that the original church of St. Nicholas was destroyed by fire in 1849, but a chapel was built on its site in commemoration of “Silent Night.” An outdoor celebration takes place there at 5 p.m. every year on Christmas Eve.

I flew into Munich, Germany, on Dec. 22 and drove a rental car to meet Anna at our hotel in the forest just outside of Acharting, Austria.

We spent Dec. 23 shopping at the Christkindlmarkt in Salzburg, where we found simple but beautiful things.

I had already prepared a stocking for Anna with the American products that she missed most in Hungary—peanut butter, maple syrup and Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups.

At our hotel, we had made friends with Frau Lückinger, who is the breakfast cook at a nearby farm.

We were the only guests in the hotel over Christmas. When we came to breakfast on Dec. 24, there was a beautiful candle on a wrought iron candlestick with a branch of fir beneath it on our table.

The light of the candle is brought every Advent from the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem to Austria by a child from Upper Austria sponsored by the television network ORF. The candle is brought to Vienna and presented to His Emminence Christoph Cardinal Schönborn, primate of Austria.

From that candle, other candles are lighted and spread throughout the country with the help of scouts, firefighters and other civic organizations.

Frau Lückinger had brought this Friedenslicht (peace light) especially for us.

Anna and I expressed our appreciation by singing “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” for her.

Oberndorf on Heiliga Abend—Christmas Eve in Austrian-German dialect—was the most special time.

Anna commented that she had never seen a crowd of people so polite and quiet as the thousand or so faithful who had gathered to hear “Stille Nacht” played on a guitar the same way it was sung for the first time 193 years earlier. It is indescribable.

Afterward, we drove back to our hotel and listened to German carols that I knew and could sing along with on the radio.

Then we had our Bescherung (gift giving). I was blessed to receive the biggest coffee mug I have ever seen from the Ceramic of Sarospatak, Hungary.

Anna opened her stocking with the American treats and a few things from the Christkindlmarkt.

A beautiful Midnight Mass accompanied by clarinettes at the Church of the Assumption of Mary in Anthering was the perfect ending.

On Father’s Day, Anna wrote to me that this was “the best Christmas ever!”
 

(Stephen Scull is a member of Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary Parish in Indianapolis.) †