And is this “existing socialist state” with us in the room right now?

Was considering putting that here myself.

For such a tiny gimmick it is surprising how much it improved my phone experience!

Silence Unknown Callers and Filter Unknown Sender

Sounds nice, but half the time the unknown callers are the most important ones.

Like someone from kids’ school or daycare trying to urgently reach me, or a doctor, or health insurance verifying my banking details to send me a huge amount of money (actually happened the previous week…).

I don’t especially like it, but by now realized that it typically is in my highest interest to answer those unknown callers…

Return of nicotine addiction of the youth.

Latest trend besides the god damned vapes: nicotine-infused toothpicks the kids in 7th grade are casually twirling around their mouths during class.

No contradiction here, a large chunk of former Prussia is now part of Poland.

When someone goes “I am x% (insert European country here)”
it’s actually convincing proof that he is 100% American.

Sounds pretty similar to the German traditions surrounding it that I know of.
Except of the colours and the center candle, which sounds like a nice extra touch!

In our family we usually wait until Sunday evening in the dark to light it, while singing some Christmas songs.
I am also not very religious, but still love it, same with the advent calendars!

No.
I specifically wanted a Reddit-like thing.

Mastodon is more a Twitter-replacement, isn’t it?

And never heard of Sharkey before…

Image search for that expression shows me triangular stair candle holders. Is that it?

What does it count? Most I saw had 7 candles.

They are 16 and 18 but insist on tge tradition to be kept.

Well… I am in my 50s and still insist on having an advent calendar… :-)

Five candles… Last one lit on Christmas day, I suppose?

There is a well-known Advent rhyme in Germany with an addtitional line that makes a little fun of the Advent Wreath tradition:

Und wenn die fünfte Kerze brennt, dann hast du Weihnachten verpennt.

Meaning:

And if the fifth cancle is burning, you have slept through Christmas

taller candles in the advent candelabra (so it becomes obvious that the earlier ones have been burning down for longer)

Yes, that is a major drawback of that design.
But the elks throw cool shadows on the wall… :-)

Did you also have some ritual around lighting the cancles?
Where I come from, the family typically gathers together in the evening, lights the candles in the dark and sings a few traditional Christmas songs.

They have become a thing here too.
Not sure if we imported this tradition from you (or the Americans…)

Funny thing: we are currently having not a traditional Advent Wreath at home, but a straight line of elks.
And NO, it is not from Ikea, but hand-made by a local charity employing hadicapped people…
But might perhaps have gotten its inspiration from you guys up there?

You gave us Lego Advent Calendars, so I am grateful you also have very similar traditions. ;-)

Christkind is a special one.

Invented by the protestants to spite the catholics and the cult they were following around their saints (including St. Nikolaus, which became the blueprint for Santa Claus), it later was somehow adopted by the catholics.

Surprisingly, Wikipedia tells me that it is also a thing outside of Germany:

The Christkind (German for ‘Christ-child’; pronounced [ˈkʁɪstˌkɪnt] ⓘ), also called Christkindl, is the traditional Christmas gift-bringer in Austria, Switzerland, Slovenia, Southern Germany and Western Germany, the Czech Republic, Croatia, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, the eastern part of Belgium, Portugal, Slovakia, Hungary, parts of northeastern France, Upper Silesia in Poland, parts of Latin America, in certain areas of southern Brazil, and in the Acadiana region of Louisiana.

Makes sense, given that Lithuania directly borders Kaliningrad, which has been part of Germany as East Prussia until the end of WWII.
I guess that there has been a lot of cultural exchange going on until then.

We do have the christmas calendars

Interesting, did expect that to be a primarily local tradition here.

Do you only have the chocolate-filled ones for children or is it more widespread?

That’s actually quite intersting, given that it started as a protestant tradition.

But catholics are also doing it here, so maybe completly disconnected from its origins by now…