For anyone that is first generation German or still have grandparents who remember the "old country". 
What are some holidays and traditions celebrated in Germany? Beyond just Christmas. 
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I'm not sure if these traditions are throughout Germany or just my family, but here are some of ours:
- Christmas presents opened on Christmas Eve
- sing Christmas carols to be able to go in to see the tree
- putting the tree up on Christmas Eve day and then getting to see it for the first time when opening presents (we don't do it, but my dad did when he was little)
- candles on the tree
- a nativity scene under the tree
- Christmas cookies: spritzgeback, buttergeback, lebkuchen, linztertorte -
@Grace: thanks! Do you guys celebrate any other holidays besides Christmas, culturally?
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@locavore_mama: No, I don't think so. My family belongs to a German club and they do Octoberfest-like festivals, but all I can gather about them is they drink a lot of beer and eat sausages.
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My family is Bavarian, and May Day is a fun celebration each spring (May 1). The Maibaum (May pole) is hoisted and decorated with dancing and such. It's also the time for drinking maibock beers.
Another is fasching/karneval (Mardi Gras), which is celebrated everywhere, but Cologne is the New Orleans of Germany in terms of celebrating it. There are costumes, parades, and a giant festival.
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We have German in us, but it mostly came out in the foods we ate-lots of sauerkraut, a lentil soup recipe that my family swears by, etc...We also have lots of Croatian in us, so it's hard for me to know which traditions came from where. But I think an Advent calendar is also German!
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We are Schwobish, and we have a Kirchweih every year to celebrate the building of the church in the town where my grandparents are from. We wear traditional clothing and dance. There is also a Rosenball, where everyone dresses up really fancy and does choreographed dances. One girl is crowned the Rosenkönigin ( Rose Queen). Another tradition with our local club is Trachtenfest, where girls wear traditional clothing from their family's area, and one is called the winner.
The club has a German school and kindergruppe and jugendgruppe.
We never celebrated it, but there is also May Day.
We grew up eating food my Oma cooked.
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