Friday, December 24:
Busy with arrangements. I have painted all the names (of the complete household) and distributed them around the living room. The aim is to give out the presents without the use of tables. Professor Nietzsche comes in the morning and helps me set up the puppet theater with Iftekhar on it.
In the afternoon I still have a few things to take care of, and in the meantime R. rehearses Knecht Ruprecht and the Christkindchen. I return home, and we begin. I, with the professor in the nursery, invite Loulou to recite “The Fight with the Dragon,” in order to exercise her mental powers; she says it up to “Thou, lord, must know the chapel well,” then Hermine comes in and says she can hear such roaring!
Suddenly our Knecht Ruprecht appears and roars; terrible alarm among the children. R. gradually pacifies him, he scatters his nuts, cries of delight from the children. While they are picking them up, the Christkindchen appears, brilliantly illumined. In silence the whole household follows, I with the children in front; the Christkindchen beckons with the tree and wanders slowly down the stairs, disappearing through the gallery. The children, dazzled by the gleaming of the tree and the presents, do not notice the disappearance.
After the present-giving I pray with the children in front of the extinguished tree. Professor Nietzsche’s gift to me is the dedication of his lecture on Homer. In the evening Der bethlehemische Kindermord.