In the English-speaking world, Santa Claus comes on Christmas eve and sneaks into your house alone through the chimney. Although Santiglaus shares the red suit and gift-giving traits, he comes here on December 6th and is accompanied by a dour assistant called the Schmutzli. In the distant past, the Schmutzli was responsible for punishing those children who had been bad, but after a couple of centuries of failing to find a single bad child, he took over the job of handing out the presents to the good ones. The boys were excited to meet both of these reclusive characters at a special lunch at the Zoo.

After overcoming initial suspicions, they collected their presents, which turned out to be plastic figures of the Incredible Hulk riding motor-trikes (these were chosen by the event organisers, not the parents). Loxon later determined the best use for these ugly effigies, namely cracking peanuts open, and they were soon dubbed “the nutcrackers”. It seems that in Basel at least, having yielded his gift-giving role to the Schmutzli, Santiglaus has found other activities to occupy himself, including canoeing and water-skiing, as we discovered from our windows on the afternoon of December 6th.

Sabine, Edgar and Lea visited us on our second weekend in the new apartment to check out our views over the Rhine. The panorama is almost its own Wimmelbuch (a children’s picture book whose pages are filled with busy activity that can take hours to absorb, such as those by German artist Rotraut Susanne Berner; wimmeln means to teem or swarm). Freight barges and cruise boats ply the river, and must dodge the traversing ferries. On the far side, a helicopter lands on the roof of the hospital and a tram line intersects with the bus route that runs over the Johanniter Brücke. The bridge is also populated with ambulances from the hospital and local car, van and bike traffic. When the wind blows from the South, planes taking off from the airport rise into the sky beyond the cranes working on the new hospital building. And one of Basel’s two fire boats docks at a wharf on the opposite bank. Also on the river are police boats and solar ferries from the Drei-Länder-Eck (three country corner), and below our balcony people stroll or rollerblade along the promenade above the water’s edge. The procession is never-ending. Do come and visit some time to have a look for yourself.

As Mark’s father was staying with us in December, Marion and Mark took the chance to go out for some evening entertainment, getting tickets to one of Mark’s favourite shows of all time, The Blue Man Group. Seeing it translated into German only enhanced its brand of hyper-novelty, underscoring the incisive theme of information overload. If you get the chance to see it, go.