2025 is already three days old by now and so far, things don’t look too bad, though I am apprehensive about the general election coming up in February.
Now I have to admit that I’ve never been a huge fan of New Year’s Eve celebrations. Part of the reason is that New Year’s Eve is just too close to Christmas and I’m usually all holidayed out from three days of Christmas celebrations, so I don’t really feel like having another celebration. Of course, I did the party thing and the “standing around on the market square in the cold, watching fireworks” thing, when I was younger. But in the past few years, I mostly celebrated with my parents at home and/or in a restaurant.
My parents are both gone now and most of favourite restaurants in reasonable distance have closed down, so I was at home all alone, which suits me just fine. I initially planned to make something special for New Year’s Eve dinner. However, while my parents had both an electric fondue pot and a raclette set, I couldn’t find either, so the New Year’s Eve stand-bys fondue and raclette were out. I considered making some kind of vegetarian hotpot, but in the end I just made myself a nice hot bowl of ramen noodles, albeit jazzed up with vegetables and an egg, because that’s both quick and tasty.
Come to think of it, I think I had a bowl of ramen last year for New Year’s Eve as well, so maybe that’s my new tradition now. Unless I find the fondue pot or raclette set after all or break down and buy a new set. In fact, I should probably replace the raclette set anyway, since my parents’ set isn’t electrical as far as I recall, but uses an alcohol burner. And I don’t want open fire in my home.
When I was a kid, my parents always spent New Year’s Eve with friends in the village of Teufelsmoor (literally Devil’s Moor), who went all out decorating their living room for New Year’s Eve with garlands, streamers, cardboard silhouettes of scantily clad women and good luck charms. The decorations were about the only thing I liked about New Year’s Eve in Teufelsmoor and I wish I could have saved the silhouettes and one of the good luck charms, which I suspect were lost when my parents’s friends (well, just the wife – the husband died quite suddenly) moved out of that isolated farmhouse in Teufelsmoor into a city apartment.
Meanwhile, my own New Year’s Eve decorations are limited to the dining table, though I think we have paper garlands somewhere.
I bought a pot of four-leaf clover and arranged my own collection of good luck charms – chimney sweepers, pigs and toadstools – around the pot. I also got out my New Year’s Eve candle holder. It was a gift from a friend, when I hosted a New Year’s Eve Party sometime in the 1990s. It’s handmade, plaster-cast and painted and almost thirty years old by now, but I still treasure it, even though I long lost contact with the friend who made it.
New Year’s Night in Germany is also time for fireworks. As I explained here and here, there have been complaints about money wasted on fireworks as far back as the 1980s and in recent years, there have been more and more calls – usually from Green adjacent folks – for a fireworks ban for private citizens and for private fireworks to be replaced with professional displays or drone shows, disregarding that this requires driving during New Year’s Night and that people in small towns and villages won’t get to enjoy any fireworks at all.
It’s a stupid debate. There certainly are improvements to be made, such as stricter noise limits, ban of plastic in fireworks, requirements to pick up your trash and maybe even banning thrown firecrackers that just make noise but don’t produce a pretty lightshow altogether, since those are the biggest issue, but a total ban isn’t the answer. Though it would really help, if we could harmonise fireworks regulations across the EU, since the biggest problems and also the majority of injuries are caused by illegal fireworks imported from Poland. The fact that Berlin is very close to the Polish border and has easy access to illegal fireworks is also part of the reason why certain neighbourhoods in the city regularly turn into war zones on New Year’s Eve. I why I suspect a lot of the problems with fireworks we’re currently seeing would vanish if Poland had stricter fireworks regulations or enforced them better.
The fireworks debate is something of an annual event or rather an annual annoyance by now. However, this year – or rather last year – it just didn’t happen for some reason. I suspect the fact that there is a general election coming up in February might have something to do with it. The Green Party, who is most fervently in favour of a fireworks ban, already has the reputation of a party who wants to ban everybody from having fun or just living their lives as they please. Not without reason, because the Greens really love to ban things they disapprove of, but then so does the conservative CDU/CSU, though they disapprove of different things. Nonetheless, the Greens probably preferred not to launch into a fireworks ban debate less than two months before an election.
Though we did get the annual fireworks ban discussion after New Year’s Eve, because there were several deaths – all from illegal or homemade fireworks – as well as significant property damage in Berlin, also due to illegal fireworks, which are already banned.
Meanwhile, it seems that the constant fireworks banning debates have also caused a defiant reaction among fans of fireworks, because buying a lot of fireworks and setting them off suddenly feels rebellious. The fact that many of the pro-ban people are also incredibly aggressive doesn’t help either. Last year some woman wished death upon me for pointing out that even though a majority of Germans is supposedly in favour of a fireworks ban, the sheer amount of fireworks bought and set off tells a different tale. And while some stores and chains have stopped selling fireworks altogether, others upped the ante. For example, the lowest category of fireworks, which aren’t subjects to as strict regulations, were advertised and sold in several grocery and discount stores well before Christmas. It is legal to sell the lowest category of fireworks at any time, but normally they wouldn’t explicitly advertise and offer them so early.
Meanwhile, higher category fireworks may only be sold for three days per year, between December 29 and 31. Of course, December 29 was a Sunday this year, which in previous years meant “tough luck – one day less of fireworks sales”. This year, however, the fireworks sales started on December 28. Not sure if the regulations changed or if they always allowed for this. At any rate, it meant one more day of dealing with fireworks randomly going off, even though you’re only allowed to set them off between six PM on New Year’s Eve and one AM on New Year’s Day, but no one really cares about that. Fireworks randomly going off is a problem for pets and their owners and wild animals. There’s also a risk of vandalism, since some idiots like throwing fireworks into mailboxes and newspaper tubes to blow them up. So I taped off the newspaper tube and blocked the mailbox with a heavy tool (some kind of chisel I found in Dad’s workshop) every single day, which is annoying. And of course, I had to unblock the mailbox again the next day to receive my mail.
On New Year’s Eve at half past five, my normally quiet suburban street turned into a warzone. Fireworks were going off seemingly right outside the house, so I opened the door to see if someone was setting off their fireworks directly in front of my house (some folks do that, so others have to deal with the trash). However, it turns out that one of my neighbours was setting off what looked like his entire stash early, so his two young kids aged four and two could enjoy the spectacle. Which I have some sympathy for, except that I’m not sure why you’d set off extremely loud firecrackers – they’re called cannonball crackers – near toddlers. After all, you want them to enjoy the fireworks, not be traumatised by noise.
The air outside was also smoky and appallingly bad, because we had a temperature inversion which traps gasses in the lower atmosphere. The air quality was already bad from regular exhaust fumes and fireworks made things worse. Ironically, this means that both holidays where you absolutely don’t want to have a temperature inversion – Easter, because of the traditional Easter bonfires, and New Year – did have one this year. It was pretty cold, so normally I would have used the AC in heating mode, since my battery was full, but that would have blown the bad air indoors, so I had to resort to a space heater and to keeping the central heating running through the night. As the night went on, we got a winter storm, which blew away the fireworks smoke, but caused other issues, because heavy wind tends to make fireworks fly where they’re not supposed to go.
Once the neighbour had shot his shot (or so it seemed), New Year’s Eve calmed down again towards the usual background noise of explosions going off in the distance. I had dinner and then went to my computer to finish up the 2024 eligibility post. At around quarter ten, there was another round of very noisy fireworks nearby, so I looked out of the door again and saw the neighbours on the other side setting off fireworks in their driveway with friends.
Now my neighbourhood is currently undergoing one of its periodic demographic shifts, as the original residents who moved there in the 1960s and 1970s gradually move out or die off and younger people move in, often families with kids. We had a similar demographic shift in the 1990s, when the residents who’d moved in in the 1950s or before moved out died off. The majority of the houses on my street date from the 1960s and 1970s, but some are older.
More younger people means more fireworks. In fact, the remaining older residents mostly barricaded themselves in and didn’t even come out onto the street at midnight to admire the fireworks, which is sad. The neighbourhood is also getting more diverse – there’s a Russian German family living behind me, a Turkish German couple living next door and a Lebanese family living a bit up the street and possibly others as well. Though there isn’t much of a difference in fireworks enthusiasm between Germans and people with an immigrant background, to use the politically correct expression. The traditions and celebrations might be different, but they all like fireworks and there are several people on my street and in the wider neighbourhood who set off a lot of them.
The Russian German family whose backyard borders on mine celebrated New Year’s Eve – and New Year’s Day – with a backyard barbecue, sauna and hot tub. This is how they celebrate pretty much everything – birthdays, Christmas, New Year – with barbecue, sauna and hot tub. At midnight, they briefly emerged from the sauna to set off fireworks and then retreated into the sauna again. The next day, there was more barbecue (their barbecue is really tasty BTW), more sauna and more hot tub.
At around twenty to midnight, the party next door spilled out into the driveway, as evidenced by Turkish dance music punctuated with fireworks. A little grumbly, I shut down my computer and went downstairs to get the champagne out of the fridge. Luckily I remembered to purchase a small piccolo sized champagne bottle, because a regular bottle would have been too much for one person.
I also got out one of my Mom’s vintage lead crystal champagne glasses. Mom had a full set of lead crystal glasses which date from the late 1950s or early 1960s. They were really expensive at the time and have almost no value these days, because no one collects fine china or glassware anymore and they’re not dishwasher proof either. I basically only use them for New Year’s Eve or when I have guests, though they are pretty.
Just before midnight, the fireworks started going into overdrive outside, though I waited until midnight to toast an empty room with champagne from a vintage crystal glass. Then I grabbed my coat and my boots and went outside the admire the fireworks and wish the neighbours a Happy New Year.
And there was a lot of firerwork to admire. Remember the neighbour with the two small kids who apparently had set off his entire stash at half past five? Well, turns out that he did not set off his entire stash after all, since he still had plenty left to set off at midnight. Even more amazingly, his four-year-old daughter was still (or again) awake and set in the doorway, watching adoringly as Dad indulged his fireworks habit. The Mom had apparently gone inside. I ventured over to wish them a Happy New Year and the little girl waved at me.
Meanwhile, the neighbours on the other side whose party had spilled out into the driveway at half past eleven, were eagerly setting off fireworks, while listening to music. I went over to wish them a Happy New Year and offer that one of their guests could park their car in my driveway rather than at the curb, since parking your car at the curb on New Year’s Night isn’t the best of ideas. This is also when I learned that some of the guests at the party had actually come over from Turkey, where private fireworks are not allowed on New Year’s Night, so the guests were really thrilled by this suburban fireworks display.
Someone at the party next door also had some kind of pistol – I think it was a gas pistol or probably a starter pistol – and the guests were taking turns posing, while firing into the air. They asked if I wanted to shoot as well, an offer I politely declined.
Meanwhile, a bit further down the street, some very fireworks-crazy people set off multiple of rockets all at once, which persuaded me to keep well away from them. Meanwhile, several cardboard boxes, which might have been the casings of fireworks batteries, were just left burning in the middle of the street. The entire thing had a distinctly post-apocalyptic ambience.
At around half-past twelve, the fireworks started to calm down a little and I ventured back inside. Though I kept hearing the occasional firecracker go off through the rest of the night.
The storm that had started to blow in on New Year’s Night fully hit us on New Year’s Day, accompanied by heavy rain, so I basically just stayed inside. Normally, I would have gone out to pick up any fireworks trash that ended up on my premises, but the weather was so bad that I didn’t. Besides, the storm might blow additional trash onto my premises, if I was unlucky, or blow trash away, if I was lucky.
For lunch I made a big pot of vegetarian red beans and rice, since it’s a suitable New Year’s Day meal and extremely tasty. Plus, I had leftovers for the two following days.
After the storm had blown through on New Year’s Day, the weather became much more pleasant and the sun actually came out. I did go out to take an important letter to the mailbox and picked up some fireworks trash in the yard. Thankfully, there wasn’t a whole lot of fireworks trash. I guess the storm really did blow it away.
On January 3, finally, I did venture outside to go grocery shopping and also to pick up some pre-orders for myself and a friend at the Smyths Toys superstore (Smyths is an Irish chain, which took over the European Toy R Us stores after the demise of the parent company and is actively expanding) in Posthausen.
As for why Posthausen, a village of not quite 2000 people, has a Smyths Toys superstore, well, Posthausen also happens to be home to North Germany’s biggest shopping mall and one of the two biggest malls in all of Germany and the Smyths Toys store is one of the tenants.
As for why a village of not quite 2000 people in the middle of nowhere became home to one of Germany’s biggest shopping malls, which attracts some five million shoppers every year, that’s due to a man called Hermann Dodenhof, who opened a small village store in 1910. In 1925, he moved to a larger building and also acquired a large plot of farmland along with the building. The original store from 1925 could still be seen into the 1980s and may well still be there today.
The store was successful at serving customers in this very rural, very isolated area on the moors north of Bremen, so in 1961, they built one of those new-fangled department stores. The customers kept flocking to the store, which by now was also no longer in the middle of nowhere, but in easy reach of the Autobahnen A1 and A27 (in 1989, the Autobahn A1 got an exit named Posthausen, which is basically the Dodenhof exit), so in 1975 the Dodenhof family built a furniture store, then the biggest in North Germany. The Dodenhof store – and it was initially just a single big box store – kept expanding, adding a café, a children’s play area, a gas station, a gorcery store and a large warehouse where you could pick up self-assembly furniture, an idea they borrowed from IKEA. By the 1980s, Dodenhof in Posthausen was one of several big furniture stores around Bremen and I remember being taken there several times when I was a kid.
However, my Dad didn’t like Dodenhof, because an employee treated him badly once – which is ironic, because Dodenhof are famous for their well-trained and polite employees, which is why people go there over cheaper options. In fact, I have known several people who worked at Dodenhof – either as student jobs or permanently – over the years and they only had praise for the company. So I guess we were just unlucky or Dad was being difficult, cause he could be a very difficult customer. Also, Dad really hated furniture shops in general, something I inherited. I was definitely there, when it Dad had his altercation with a Dodenhof employee, and I think it was about a lamp, though I don’t remember any details or even which lamp it was and if I still have it. What I do remember is going to the department store part afterwards – in the 1980s, people mainly went to Dodenhof for furniture – and being shocked at how messy the toy department was and how ugly the clothes on offer. That was it for us. I don’t think Dad ever set foot in the Dodenhof store again and neither did I.
Meanwhile, Dodenhof kept expanding and growing. They built a new multi-level fashion department, added a bridal saloon, which is where pretty everybody in the neighbourhood gets their bridal gowns, added an electronic department and a sports deaprtment and gradually turned the whole massive complex into a shopping mall, though I had no idea it was one of the two biggest malls in Germany until very recently. They also have lots of events like late night shopping, fashion shows, exhibitions, a Christmas market, etc… and they’re doing well. In fact, the one time I was at Dodenhof with my Dad after the affair of the lamp was when they hosted a motorbike show on their massive parking lot.
There are several photos on the official Dodenhof website about the history of the store and here’s a video about the history of the company and an interview with the current owner/manager. Yes, Dodenhof is still family-owned, which is extremely rare for both shopping malls and big box stores.
So on Friday morning, I got into my car and drove to Posthausen. The Smyths Toys store is on the edge of the gigantic Dodenhof premises, sandwiched between the gas station and an Aldi supermarket.

And here’s my haul from Smyths Toys on the kitchen table with two Turtles of Grayskull Leatherhead figures, two Turtles of Grayskull Stealth He-Men, a Masterverse New Eternia Fisto and a free audio drama on CD.
When I set out, the sun was shining. By the time I got to Posthausen – a trip that takes maybe 25 minutes – the sky was overcast. When I walked out of Smyths, there was dense snowfall outside. Initially, I had planned to go to the food court and grocery store area of Dodenhof afterwards, but because of the snow, I didn’t. Instead, I just took my purchases to the car and drove home.
By the time I reached Autobahn A1, the snowfall was so dense, plus the wind was blowing it directly against my windshield, that driving was unpleasant. So I left the Autobahn again at the next exit and headed for Autohof Oyten, which has a bakery café and an American style diner. I parked my car and checked the weather app on my phone to see how long the intense snowfall would last. Because if the snowfall would subside after half an hour or so, I would simply wait it out at the bakery café or the diner. However, the snowfall was projected to last for three hours and I did not want to spend three hours at Autohof Oyten, so I set off again.

This is what my street looked like when I came home from Posthausen. Note how heavy the snowfall is.
When I made it home, it was still snowing. To my dismay, I discovered that the mail person had been there, while I was out and had stuffed a large envelope with a calendar I ordered from Amazon into the mailbox in such a way that half the envelope stuck out. The envelope was already soaked through, but luckily the calendar is salvageable.
The temperature was slightly above freezing, so I assumed the snow would quickly melt away and initially that’s what happened. But in the evening, there was more snow and because the temperature was below freezing by now, the snow was frozen as well. There’s more snow forecast for today, so it seems the snow will stick around for the weekend.
So that was how I spent the first three days of 2025. There will hopefully be more blogging in 2025, more interviews (since I didn’t do any of those in 2024), more toy photo stories, more roadtrips and of course the remaining parts of my adventures at the Church of Eternia holiday con in Hanau.
A Healthy New Year to you and thanks for always sharing your adventures in such detail, so much about your past influences is similar to mine and so much is so different just by you growing up in the north of Germany, where I grew up in Bavaria (mostly).
My mum had those expensive coloured lead cut glasses, too, and the champagne flute could have been out of her glass collection.
First of all, a happy and healthy New Year to you as well.
Being of a similar age and both having grown up in West Germany, we obviously have a lot of influences in common. Besides, everybody’s Mom had a variation of those lead cut glasses. Though my Mom’s are mostly clear, she didn’t have a lot of coloured ones. I even have a lead crystal punchbowl with matching glasses. It’s very big and very heavy and I do use it on occasion, when making Bowle.
Of course, growing up on different ends of Germany also means we had different influences. For example, I doubt that you’ve ever been to Dodenhof, though there probably was a similarly messy everything store where you grew up. In fact, there were several of these furniture stores which eventually grew into shopping malls scattered around Bremen. Several of them are gone now or were taken by chains, but three still exist and are still family-owned, too. And two of these three were managed by women for a long time, which I applaud.