'TIS THE SEASON…

This time of year is all about parties and both Bauhaus professors and their students loved partying together, reflecting the spirit of the Roaring Twenties. They even had their own twist on the holiday season, celebrating the winter solstice with what they called "Julklapp". In this Scandinavian-inspired festival, they asserted that gnomes delivered the gifts! For weeks ahead of the party, teachers and students worked on special costumes, often using new-fangled materials such as plastic and foil to create weird and wonderful creatures and robot-like figures. It was all part of Walter Gropius's 1919 Manifesto encouraging the “cultivation of friendly interactions between masters and students” outside the classroom, with theater, lectures, poetry, music, costume parties. Many of these parties prompted Oskar Schlemmer's experimental dance and theatre productions, backed by the modern sounds of jazz, played by the Bauhaus Band. 

LOOKING FOR THAT PERFECT GIFT?

The new Bauhaus Museum Weimar, recently given an International Tourism Award by the British Guild of Travel Writers, is a must-see, with its outstanding collection of Bauhaus memorabilia. And the museum store is perfect for those unusual seasonal gifts. The minimalist Christmas crib, for example, includes just plain wooden blocks labelled Joseph, Mary, sheep and donkey, standing around a plain wooden oblong, marked Jesus. At the Bauhaus.Atelier, the Bauhaus University Weimar store, buy boxes of pastel crayons with links to Bauhaus teachers, such as Klee and Kandinsky. Try on unique Dada Data Knit scarves, designed by computer; take home funky T-shirts and leather belts, all designed by students, alumni and professors. Contrast this with Weimar's traditional Christmas market, with stalls selling hand-carved tree decorations and giant gingerbread hearts, outdoor ice rink and towering Christmas tree, on the spot where the world's first Outdoor Christmas tree was erected 200 years ago. 

DECK THE HALLS

Equally intriguing is the Bauhaus Museum Dessau, the new home for the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation's 49,000-strong collection of objects. And their designshop has an array of gifts for that Christmas list: hip Wagenfeld stainless steel egg cups; wraps and tote bags with Gunta Stölzl designs; Josef Albers' ingenious nest of four tables. Celebrate a good day out at the Kornhaus Dessau, a Bauhaus-designed restaurant overlooking the River Elbe; order the pumpkin cream soup, followed by venison steak, garnished with a cherry sauce. But for that authentic German Christmas market feel, nowhere betters Quedlinburg, with its market square, backdrop of half-timbered houses and the ever-present scent of mulled wine, roasted nuts and apples. Synonymous with sweet treats for 200 years is Halle (Saale). Here, Halloren, Germany's oldest chocolate makers, create the perfect holiday treat: Halloren-Kugeln chocolate balls. 

Did you know???

LAUSCHA: the town that brings joy to the world 

Long before the Bauhaus, there was a history of innovation in the region. Look in any store window across the USA; look at the tree in your living room. Those hand-blown glass Christmas tree ornaments were invented in the small forest town of Lauscha, 200 years ago. FW Woolworth saw them and imported them to the USA in the late 19th century!

MONEY & TIME SAVING TIPS

The BauhausCard (EUR11/about $12.50), the entrance ticket to the Bauhaus Museum, also includes FREE admission to 70 other attractions in Thuringia on both the day of your visit AND the following day. Use it to see museums, castles and palaces and for public guided town tours. 

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