A Strohstern Merry Christmas

There is a simple ornamental star, made out of straw, that is known as a “Strohstern” here in Germany. It has special meaning and is used widely by German’s to decorate their trees for 2 reasons:

{1} Straw was found nearly everywhere making it cheap to get, and could easily be made into a star.

AND

{2} Before we tell you the second reason, we have to explain something else. We have been to multiple Christmas markets and have been looking for, amongst other things, an ornament to remind us of Germany. There are beautiful hand painted Christmas balls and intricately carved wooden ornaments. Nonetheless, we could not quite settle on one.

A month ago, at Sabrina’s Relief Society Christmas dinner, the German sister in charge of the activity gave all the ladies a Strohstern with an explanation of what it means. It wasn’t until we bought our family a Strohstern for their Christmas gift, that we decided to make it our “special Germany ornament”. It’s not intricately carved or hand painted. It’s quite simple and one looking at a tree with Strohstern stars on it may not think much of it. They might even think less of the tree for the lack of bright colors and lights. Which leads us into reason #2.

It has great symbolic significance. It links the manger of Jesus to the star of Bethlehem. It reminds us of how sweet and simple Christ’s birth was. When looking upon the lowly stable in all its meekness, some back then and today may not have thought much of it. In fact, they may have thought less of that birth. But to those who knew the true meaning of that beautiful night, it was an incredibly significant birth, in an incredibly significant straw manger, followed by an incredibly, amazing star!

Christ was not born in a beautiful, ornately decorated castle with hand carved, intricate furniture. He was laid in all His glory, in a sweet, simple, straw-filled manger, with a bright star above to adorn Him.

It is the sweet and simple things in life that are most important. One of them being the gospel of Jesus Christ and we are ever grateful to Heavenly Father for the birth of His son and this wonderful time of year.

We love you and hope you will always remember us and that night, in a lowly stable, when you look at the Strohstern.

Love,

The Atwood’s

Jake, Sabrina, Gage, Molli, & Daxlee