Last Updated on October 9, 2023
“What are you going? Wichteln? What is Wichteln?” – This question often comes up in November, when foreign mothers receive the letter from school. It can also come from the kindergarden (rather unlikely), sports club or even from work.
What is it meant? Wichtel is a gnome who secretly does good. In the modern version, gifts for Christmas are supposed. The specialty of this way of giving gifts is secrecy or accident.
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What is Besen?
When it comes to children, the price of a gift is usually limited in advance – 3-4 euros, secondary school 4-7 euros. There are very few options for this amount, but some mothers still manage to find something non-standard.
Usually, children exchange gifts by making a random pair (for example, pulling pieces of paper with names from a bag) or pulling from a common heap folded in a bag.
If we are talking about adults, then the type of gift and methods of receiving are also discussed in advance.
Originality is important to Wichteln, which makes searches very difficult. There may be such a condition – to give an unnecessary original thing (not the one that is already falling apart or spoiled, but the one that is not used for some reason). Giver – donee pairs are compiled (sometimes in advance) randomly, or a gift is chosen from a heap at random.
Online stores offer different gifts for such an occasion, just google or amazone “Wichtelgeschenke“* .
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