What do you love most about Christmas? Advent calendars? Gingerbread houses? Carols? Trees decked in lights and ornaments?

No matter your choice, thank the Germans who brought these traditions with them when they settled in America.

President Eisenhower made the advent calendar popular when he was photographed opening one with his grandchildren, but German children knew them as early as the ninth century.

We owe the gingerbread house to the Brothers Grimm who published a book of fairy tales including “Hansel and Gretel.” Enterprising German bakers shaped the already- popular gingerbread into house shapes and decorated them fancily. German settlers brought their beloved lebkuchenhaeusle (gingerbread house) tradition with them. Here they became even larger and more elaborate.

Although carols date from the Middle Ages and were originally in Latin, they were popularized across Europe after the Protestant Reformation. When we sing “O Christmas Tree” and “Silent Night,” we’re singing translations of carols from the German “O Tannenbaum” and “Stille Nacht.”

Germans had for centuries decorated their homes with fresh greens, often placing small tree on a table. When they immigrated to the US, they found large trees in abundance, so cut trees large enough to reach the ceiling.. At first, they decorated these trees with homemade items such as paper ribbons and fruit like apples. When F.W. Woolworth imported elegant glass and wax ornaments from German factories, they became popular here, too.

In 1877 Missouri recognized December 25 as a state holiday; three years later, on June 28, 1880 so did the United States. Today Christmas is both a state and federal holiday, the perfect time to sing carols, smash the gingerbread house, and admire the ornaments on the tree.