Christmas 2013 . . . December 2

Christmas and nutcrackers go hand in hand.   This large German nutcracker stands guard next to my microwave year round.  He's an old one and made pre-1900 in the Erzgebirge region of Germany.  They were originally made in Thuringia, Germany, out of papier-mache, but because of the fragile nature of papier-mache the Erzgebirge region began carving them out of wood, and those are the ones the world knows today.    The figures are chararcatures of kings, soldiers, policemen, people of authority, etc., and are fantastic pieces of German folk art.