My gingerbread village for last night's "Christmas in July (but it is actually August)" feast. Christmas in July has become an annual long-table dinner that we host for our friends each year at our house.
This is gingerbread was a labour of love. And luckily I got a photo prior to the small fire!
It was the little candelabra on the left that was the culprit (combined with my idiocy… “let’s open a window for a fresh breeze”, not my best idea).
These two gorgeous wooden pieces are called Schwibbogen and they come from the Ore Mountains (Erzgebirge) region of Saxony, Germany.
The first metal Schwibbogen was made in 1740 in Johanngeorgenstadt. These very early candle arches always consisted of locally mined black ore. They were made out of one single forged piece and could be painted. The number of candles varies with the size of the arc.
Today they are mostly made of wood and are closely connected with the German town of Seiffen in Saxony, world renown for its production of Schwibbogen and hand carved and painted wooden toys and Christmas ornaments.
I purchased these on a trip to this little corner of the world of a few years ago. My Dad’s partner is German and since I was tiny I have been obsessed with her collection of wooden Christmas and Easter ornaments. Whilst my two three visits to Germany have never coincided with Christmas (although there was still lots of snow) it has long been on my list of Christmas trips I must have at some stage in my life. Meanwhile, thanks to the internet, my collection of German hand carved Christmas decorations has grown beyond these two...!