Last week, a friend said, “You’re German; would you like these? I found them at an estate sale,”… and then she handed me these cardboard plates/bowls printed with Christmassy images. She had found paper plates for “Bunter Teller!” I was so excited to receive something from my childhood. But What is a Bunter Teller? These special plates come out every Christmas. They act as a sort of “extra” gift. Each family member or child receives a plate of treats as a gift for them alone. A Bunter Teller might also be used as a communal plate for the whole family in the center of the table. Either way, the Bunter Teller works to share the best Christmas Cookies and Chocolates. It’s colorful and filled with delicious treats! Let me share a wonderful little tradition with you…
What is a Bunter Teller?
Bunter Teller translates as “colorful Plate,” but it’s much more than that. It is a plate of colorful goodies like cookies, fruit, candy, and chocolates given at Christmas. When I was a child, we didn’t get many gifts, but there was always a plate under the tree, a special cardboard plate decorated with pretty Christmas images, and loaded up with our favorite cookies and other special treats. My plate always had a bar of Nougat (my favorite)… my sister got Marzipan (her favorite). These were ours to eat and not have to share. My mother also set out a BIG Bunter Teller on the table LOADED with cookies, candies, and other treats… and spent the whole season replenishing it daily. Domino Steine, Spekulatius, Lebkuchen, Chocolate Glocken, Eiskonfekt, Schokoladen Plätzchen, and MORE.
After the season, my mom would clean up the wax-coated paper plates and put them away for next year.
Where does the tradition of the Bunter Teller come from?
The Bunter Teller is mentioned in a song from the 19th century, “Lasst Uns Froh und Munter Sein” (see below for lyrics in German and English, as well as a video). While we usually associate putting out shoes for St. Nicholas, somewhere along the line, a plate was added to collect goodies. (Maybe because some shoes were a bit stinky inside?)
One theory goes like this…
Originally, Christmas trees were decorated with nuts, fruits, and cookies. At the end of the Holiday Season, kids could “plunder” the tree for these special seasonal treats. Then, glass ornaments and aLmetta started showing up on trees. More and more families began using the made ornaments, and the treats were crowded off the tree in favor of these beautiful and reusable decorations. But the kids still wanted treats (glass balls are lovely, but you can’t eat them), so a plate was set by the tree, loaded with the cookies that used to hang from it. In a sense, the treats moved from shoes to tree to plate. Today, kids get treats in shoes on St Nicholas Tag and on plates for Christmas.
German Paper Cookie Plates
The cookies and treats on the plate are special, but the plates have a story, too. Paper plates were invented around 150 years ago by a retired museum director, who was a master Bookbinder, in the Brandenburg town of Luckenwalde. He had read an article about how unhygienic it was to put food on old newspapers, so he experimented with pulp made from sawdust. In 1867, he got his first patent; before you know it, paper plates were in use. Picture plates came soon after this, and by the 1880s, special Christmas plates for Christmas confections were offered. Colorful plates with pictures of Children playing, the Weihnachtsmann, and the Bethlehem stable. Interestingly, the images in the advertisements for the plates held mostly cookies and sweets instead of the traditional fruit and nuts. People loved the look… and started filling their plates with more calorie-bomb sweets and fewer apples, oranges, dates, and almonds.
Vintage German paper plates
Today, most German households have a Bunter Teller on the table at Christmas, filled with family favorites. Some even bring them out during the Advent Season (Especially on Advent Sundays.) Whether you use vintage paper plates or regular serving plates, this will become a favorite tradition in your home, too.
Bunter Teller for New Year
Another time to have Bunter Teller is New Year’s Eve. The bounty of sweets on the plate represents the best of the past year and is a hope for a plentiful New Year!
Make your Own Bunter Teller
It’s super easy! Take a Christmassy plate, load it up with cookies, chocolates, chocolate Santas, nuts, and even some dried fruits or Tangerines, and put it out for Christmas! You can even give everyone in the family their own!
Where to buy German Bunter Teller
Vintage Paper Bunter Teller Plates
You can find the Vintage Paper Bunter Teller Plates here. It’s amazing to me that the paper plates lasted since the 50s and 60s! Definitely a testament to the quality of the paper… and the care people take with their things.
Vintage Christmas Bowl West Germany Cardboard Candy Dish Angel Pair Mid CenturyChristmas plate cardboard
Vintage German Christmas Lightweight Cardboard Cookie-Treat Tray, Hansel and Gretel Theme, Fairy Tales, Paper Container for Cookies, 1940’s
Vintage Cardboard Christmas Bowl~ West Germany Mid Century~ Christmas Scene~ Candy Bowl~ Card Bowl~ Display Bowl~ Vintage Christmas Display
Vintage West German Bunter Teller Christmas Cookie Plates Pressed Paper with Vintage Graphics Collectible ArtVintage Paper Bowl Germany Christmas Cookie Server Fluted Ruffled Edge Charming Nostalgia Madonna And Baby Jesus
Vintage Paper Bowl Germany Christmas Cookie Server Fluted Ruffled Edge Charming Nostalgia Singing CarolersWest German Paper Christmas Platter with Elves in Bakery, Vintage Paper Cookie Tray with Santa’s Elves in a Bakery, Fairy Tale Cookie Plate
Paper bowls made in Germany
Old Antique Fairy Tale Paper Plates Cookie Plates Vintage Plates Christmas Plates Decoration Christmas Ornaments Christmas Shabby 7 Pieces Red1 ( one ) Vintage German Christmas Pappe Plate~Very Old Christmas plate~
Beautiful Tin Plates for Bunter Teller
Tin plates with Christmas images have longer staying power… and you can clean them easier…
Vintage. Serving plate cake plate biscuits plate serving bowl plate cookie plate HP tin bowl Germany
German Porcelain Bunter Teller
These porcelain Cookie plates will last for Generations. Plates like these always turned up on the coffee table at home. Mom would refill them daily during the Advent and Christmas Season.
Villeroy & Boch Toy’s Delight Breakfast Plate, Red
Villeroy & Boch 14-8332-3635 Pastry Plate, Porcelain, RedVilleroy & Boch 14-8332-2241 Toy’s Fantasy Pastry Plate, Porcelain, White/Coloured
Villeroy & Boch 2022 Toy’s Fantasy Bowl, Large, 9.75
Vintage German Porcelain Plates for Bunter Teller
Kranich Nurnberg Bavaria Germany Christmas PlateGermany Christmas Plate – Enchanting!
1992 Bjorn Wiinblad & Rosenthal Weihnachten Christmas Carols Porcelain Plate
Set of 4, Western Germany, Christmas themed, Decorative Plates
Tirschenreuth Bavaria Tannenbaum Christmas Tree Plate Baronesse 10.25″ Germany
Waechtersbach Germany Christmas Tree Plate | 8″ Round Salad Plate | Festive Christmas Tree P
Lasst Uns Froh und Munter Sein
Lasst Uns Froh Und Munter Sein
Lasst uns froh und munter sein,
und uns recht von Herzen freu’n!
Lustig, lustig, traleralera!
Bald ist Nikolaus Abend da, bald ist Nikolaus Abend da!
Dann stell ich den Teller auf,
Nik’laus legt gewiss was drauf.
Lustig, lustig, traleralera!
Bald ist Nikolaus Abend da, bald ist Nikolaus Abend da!
Wenn ich schlaf, dann träume ich,
jetzt bringt Nik’laus was für mich.
Lustig, lustig, traleralera!
Bald ist Nikolaus Abend da, bald ist Nikolaus Abend da!
Wenn ich aufgestanden bin,
lauf ich schnell zu dem Teller hin.
Lustig, lustig, traleralera!
Bald ist Nikolaus Abend da, bald ist Nikolaus Abend da!
Let Us Be Happy and Cheerful
Let us be happy and cheerful,
And rejoice in our hearts!
Fun, fun, traleralera!
Soon Nicholas’s evening is here, soon Nicholas’ s evening is here!
Then I set the plate out,
Nik’laus certainly puts something on it.
Fun, fun, traleralera!
Soon Nicholas ‘s evening is here, soon Nicholas’ s evening is here!
When I sleep, I dream,
Now Nik’laus brings something for me.
Fun, fun, traleralera!
Soon Nicholas ‘s evening is here, soon Nicholas’ s evening is here!
When I get up,
I run quickly to the plate.
Fun, fun, traleralera!
Soon Nicholas ‘s evening is here, soon Nicholas’ s evening is here!
Here is the Sing-Along version (note, they’ve added an extra verse)
Fill Your Bunter Teller with DELICIOUS Cookies and Chocolates
Favorite German Christmas Chocolates
Favorite German Christmas Cookies

Thank you for this article! i started pinning some ‘Bunte Teller’ I have for sale, and wanted to show people how they are traditionally used. Your article did that – and so much more! Re-pinned…
Frohe Weihnachten, Claudia
(another German in America)
Hi Claudia…
Send me an email at [email protected]… I’d love to share your Bunte Teller with everyone
ich erinnere mich,nice
We still share our “bunte Teller” on Christmas. I even make some for my american family members.
My kids would be disappointed if there were none. And they are grown ups now.
Another german in Ami-land. lol
Danke fuer die Erinnerungen… I just wrote a blog post about Christmas memories and the Bunter Teller was one of them so I linked to your post. My grandfather’s birthday was on Nikolaus so we always sang that song!
Thank you!
(sent you an email..)
Hello! I’ve just come upon your website and am thoroughly enjoying seeing so many things from long ago when I was a child growing up in my Bavarian grandmother’s home. Could you possibly help me? I am trying to find the right name (and spelling) for a filled raspberry hard German candy my grandmother had in our candy dish every Christmas. When she said their name, it sounded like she was say “Himburrs.” They looked like a raspberry, had a thin hard candy outside shell and delicious raspberry jelly inside. They were one of my favorite candies when I was a child. I’ve found some that look similar on the internet, but they are not made in Germany and the German name is not listed. Your help would be greatly appreciated.
I think you are remembering Himbeer bonons…. like these–>http://amzn.to/2DPaRZt
or are they these–>http://amzn.to/2Fn0I3z
I have been looking for these for so long. My mum was German and i remember these from my chikdhood. So many happy memories
aren’t they wonderful?!
Love the “Bunter Teller” article. Brings back so many memories.
Especially from 1945!
My father ad returned from Russia, (prisoner if war), we didn’t have much that Christmas, but my Mother had the plates, We had some nuts on them, my Mother had made Gingerbread, the almonds were substituted by pumpkin seeds, and we were happy, because as my Mother said: we were all together again in one piece!
Thank you so much for sharing your story. Christmas isn’t about the things, it’s about being together, and enjoying what you have.