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Fir for Christmas and Silvester: new year compositions in Berlin
In Berlin, 25 and 26 December are both public holidays, and New Year is seen in on the night of 31 December, with 1 January off too. That's why new year compositions in Berlin bought before Christmas still stand on the table through both holidays and Silvester. See Berlin's holiday dates for the full run of days off. What changes from one piece to the next is whether the fir stays on your own table or heads out the door to a host.
Fir that lives on the dining table through Silvester
A tabletop piece is built for a fixed spot: a dining table, a sideboard, the top of a chest of drawers.
A second option suits a room with no space for a stand: a tree built entirely from noble fir branches, with no pot.
The wreath itself began in Germany. In 1839, at the Rauhes Haus in Hamburg, the pastor Johann Hinrich Wichern set candles into the rim of an old cart wheel, and the custom spread first through Germany's Protestant churches; Catholic parishes in Germany took it up in the 1920s. Noble fir holds its needles better than most Christmas tree species, and its branches are stiff, which is why it is bent into wreaths. Indoors, the dry air of a heated flat works on the needles too.
Totensonntag, the Sunday before the first Advent, is when German cemeteries fill with wreaths and graveside arrangements. A piece made only of white can read as a funeral tribute to some Germans, and white chrysanthemums in particular are tied to the grave. That's reason enough to let colour into whatever fir piece is meant for someone else's table. Red winterberry holds its bright berries on bare branches right through the cold months, so a handful of sprigs does the job without a single flower.
Where small children or pets share the flat, a host will want the berries set higher than they can reach, since the berries and leaves cause nausea if swallowed.
What travels to a visit comes in a few shapes: a tied bouquet, a basket, a bag or a box. Whichever shape it takes, the wrapping paper and the plastic film come off before the fir changes hands; the decorative cuff around the stems stays on. That's a rule for whoever is giving the gift, not for the courier.
A cake for Silvester night and German chocolate beside the fir
A bento cake is built for one evening rather than the whole stretch of holidays: palm-sized, boxed in cardboard, with a short greeting piped in cream for whoever receives it. The fir piece beside it is what lasts through the weeks that follow; the cake is only for Silvester night itself.
Cream icing does not sit well at room temperature for more than two hours, so the cake goes somewhere cool as soon as it arrives rather than staying out beside the branches. German chocolate makes a steadier companion: Ritter Sport, Milka and merci can be added to the cart at checkout; see also New Year gifts.
One piece from the whole team, or one per desk
German offices already club together for a single gift when a colleague has a birthday, a wedding, a baby or a retirement, and a New Year fir piece fits the same pattern: one composition, paid for by the whole department, delivered once. New Year corporate gifts are a place to start.
The other route suits a team that wants something on every desk rather than one shared piece: several items go out in one order to different addresses, with delivery counted separately for each address. Companies ordering this way receive an invoice, and any paperwork a finance department needs is prepared on request to the account manager.
The florist photographs the finished piece before the courier sets off, most orders leave the same day they're placed, and a date and time slot can be booked for any zone; the exact window shows on the composition's own page. See delivery in Berlin for how it works.
Start with tabletop arrangements if the fir is staying on your own table through Silvester, or with New Year bouquets if it's heading out the door to a host.