Lifestyle

The waste management office of the Kaiserslautern County Administration asks KMC residents to properly recycle their Christmas trees.

For planning purposes, the following is a list of German holidays in 2015: Jan. 1 – New Year’s Jan. 6 – Three Kings’ Day (official holiday in Bavaria, Sachsen and Baden-Württemberg only) Feb. 16 – Rose Monday (no legal holiday) Feb. 17 – Shrove Tuesday (Fasching – no legal holiday) […]

As a way to avoid accidents, each German community has rules regarding the removal of snow and ice on sidewalks. Residents living off base should check their rental contracts to find out about these obligations. The rental contract clearly states who must keep sidewalks free of ice and snow.

The Kaiserslautern Christmas market will end Tuesday, but for those who are not ready to let go of that special holiday atmosphere, the market will reopen Dec. 27 to 30 as a New Year’s market.

Mailing packages to the United States from Europe involves many prohibitions, restrictions and import duty rules. That’s why it’s important for members of the U.S. forces community to get the facts before sending parcels stateside, said the U.S. European Command Customs and Border Clearance Agency.

A Christmas market of a special kind will take place from 2 to 8 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday near the information center House of Sustainability (Johanniskreuzer Strasse 1, 67705 Trippstadt). It is known as “Romantic Christmas in the Forest.”

They like the crowds between vendors’ booths and act fast — pickpockets do their job at Christmas markets. The criminal statistics by German Polizei shows a total of 136,000 cases of pickpocketing in 2013 in Germany, which is a rise of 15 percent compared to 2012 (117,300 cases). These thieves cause a damage of about €39.4 million.