Exchange student Kat Weinhold has lived in a number of countries, and this year will be her first Christmas in Canada.
She is in Weyburn for this school year through the Rotary Club’s student exchange program, and currently is living with her host family, Doug and Cathie Loden.
The 15-year-old is well-travelled, as her family moved to a few different locations during her life, and one result is Kat can speak seven languages, five fluently (German, Swiss, Norwegian, Swedish and English) and two she is learning (Latin and French).
She shared her family’s tradition for celebrating Christmas, and talked about some of the differences she has found from Sweden to being in Canada.
For her family, Christmas is celebrated on December 24th, and they start the day at a church service, and back at home later, the family goes for a long walk together.
Kat has been part of the church play in past years, including playing Martin Luther’s wife, and the part of Mary from the Nativity story.
After the service, there is a Christmas market set up in front of the church outside, which the family checks out before they head home.
“We go for a long walk around our neighbourhood. They have many beautiful decorations and lights. It’s a pretty long walk, and later when we come home, we have our dinner,” said Kat, adding she helps her parents with making the Christmas meal while her three younger brothers are outside playing in the snow.
“When dinner’s almost ready, we go up to our rooms until we hear a bell that my mom rings, when we all come downstairs and we go through the door. My mom stands at the door, and gives each of us a hug and tells us ‘Merry Christmas’,” she added, noting that the children are allowed to open one present each before they eat.
Her parents watch the children from the table as they open one present, then they all gather for the meal, which usually features veal. They hold hands around the table and say grace before digging in.
“We have a lot of candles everywhere, and while we are eating, we have Christmas music from Germany and Sweden playing. Sweden has beautiful Christmas music,” said Kat, adding that afterward the family sings carols as they open their presents, and then they spend the day together, watching Christmas movies or enjoying their presents.
The next day, December 25th, is just a normal day for them as they relax together, she added.
One of the traditions they have is to build a house with a dark biscuit called pepparkakår, which is very similar to gingerbread houses in Canada, using icing to put the walls together and decorated with candies. Another traditional Christmas food is a bread called lussekatter.
Kat was born in Germany and lived there until she was two years old, and counts this as her family’s home country. Her family moved to Switzerland for five years before living in Norway for four years, and then four years ago they moved to Stockholm.
Her parents are father Hans-Christian, and mother Denia, and Kat is the oldest of four children. Her brothers are Jonathan, 13; Frederik, 11, and Leonard, nine.
“I really love my brothers, they’re everything I have,” said Kat, adding she misses her family, but she’s doing well here in Canada, aside from a little homesickness.
Kat attends a German school in the centre of Stockholm, which for her entails a 30-minute train ride from her home. The public school is small, as Kat noted the Grade 10 class has less than 50 students, divided into two classrooms.
Unlike her school experience at the Weyburn Comp, the teachers of the various subjects come to her home room to teach, and they have about 14 classes in each semester.
“We have long school days, starting at 8 and going until 4:30 p.m. You have to get up at 5:30 to catch the train at 6:45,” said Kat, adding they eat at the school, and there is no cost for the food.
Due to the way the classes are structured, Kat had been one year ahead of her classmates, but when she goes back to school after her year in Canada, she will then be the same age as her classmates in Grade 10, with school going up to Grade 13.
One tradition at her school is on the first weekend in December, the students can bring things from home and sell them at a sort of bazaar, as a fundraiser for the school, with every grade in the school doing something for Christmas. The money raised by each class will help pay for field trips or activities during the school year.
Kat has noticed one difference here from Sweden is “a lot of fast food”, and a lot of eating of meat. At home, she eats a lot of fish, but very little red meat.
Another difference is many of her classmates can get their learner’s permit for driving, and their licence at 16, while at home she can’t get a licence until she’s 18.
“I really want to drive. I can’t, and I’m so young, and everybody here is already driving,” she said.
