by Claudia Dalton

My mother grew up in Germany, and every Christmas she would receive packages of Lebkuchen from friends and family back home. From the start I loved these big round cookies—to me this was the taste of Christmastime. You first bite through the hard sugar glaze of either vanilla or dark chocolate.

Then you were at the soft spicy heart of the cookie, where you also encountered a slight crunch from finely chopped nuts. At the base of the cookie was a thin white wafer made from egg whites and sugar. This bottom wafer (called an Oblaten) was not particularly tasty but I was interested to learn that the medieval monks who first made Lebkuchen used communion wafers to keep the cookie dough from sticking to their baking sheets. The cookie I ate as a child in the 1960s was essentially the same as those made in the 1200s.

Another appeal of the Lebkuchen was that it came in decorative boxes and tins with ornate medieval scenes:knights and ladies, knights on horseback, Christmas markets In the town center, and cathedrals and castles. Every Christmas we would have about a dozen cookies of various sizes and shapes (round, rectangles, hearts, and stars).

The colorful images on the boxes have remained the same year after year so are now like old friends. For as long as I can remember, my godmother Liselotte (Lottie), my mother’s best friend from childhood, has been sending us Lebkuchen. It is shipped directly from a well-known bakery, Schmidt’s in Nuremberg, and arrives like clockwork during the first week of December in a large tin box bearing their distinctive red logo: a heart (a popular shape for Lebkuchen) containing their name in white lettering.  On top of the heart is a outline of a medieval castle.

My mother always split the contents of the box with me, and it has become a family tradition for my children as well.  After my mother’s passing in 2013, I began receiving the box. Lottie always calls me to let me know she has ordered it and to expect It.  When it arrives I call her, and then text the kids to let them know it’s here.

This year Lottie, who is now ninety, left me a voicemail to say that she heard that Schmidt’s was closed due to the Covid pandemic and that she had ordered our Lebkuchen from a bakery in Aachen instead.  Then, a few days later, she called to say that Schmidt’s is open after all and that we would be getting a box from there as well.

How welcome a piece of good news is, especially during this time. So I’m on the lookout for two boxes to arrive on our doorstep in about two weeks’ time.

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