My first Christmas card complete with typo, was – yes – actually sent out. Advent wreaths fascinated me. This one was a gift from Silke, who explained how the Sunday candle lighting was still very much a family ritual.

The gorgeous Neuschwanstein Castle in Bavaria featured on my second Christmas card. We had visited it the previous October and experienced a rare Autumn snowfall. How much more of a Grimm fairy tale feel could one ask for?

I loved these Lebkuchen (gingerbread) mix tins, which we bought as yuletide gifts. So much so, they featured as a second greeting card for the year.

This festive draught excluder was bought in Winter, but served us well throughout the cold weather, which amounted to about eight months in a year. It also came in useful for my third Christmas' greeting card.

In our fourth year in Berlin, we visited Hamburg before Christmas and enjoyed their Weihnachtsmärkte, including watching Santa Claus zip across the town square, and munching on herring snacks.

We chanced upon these Berlin Wall slabs in the Potsdamer Platz vicinity. Painted with the 'big heads' of celebrated Wall artist Thierry Noir, this is the most 'Berlin' of our cards, sent in our last Christmas in the city.