These are not a bunch of free-ranging hippies, on the contrary: the World Wide Fund for Nature organized the event in Grugapark in Essen with a very clear goal in mind – to publicize the need to protect our forests as wildlife habitat. What better excuse do 848 people need to hug a tree? Viel Spaß!

World No Smoking Day: Everybody knows that smoking isn’t healthy. Some enjoy it and do it with conviction, others want to quit. But it’s not at all that easy! Today could possibly be a good day to stop! „Copyright DPA”

The German NGO Welthungerhilfe presents a campaign at a train station in Berlin to mark the 2011 global hunger index.

Wine is much more than an alcoholic beverage. For connoisseurs, wine can also be an investment, since some wines can become more valuable with time. The wines are in good hands in Germany's only Winebank! Copyright: Deutsche Presse Agentur [The German Press Agency]

Diane and her little helpers, Ivana, Sabine and Alina, get into the Christmas spirit and bake cookies...

Watch this second segment of Diane and her three little helpers baking Christmas cookies. Enjoy!

Come and join Eva at the Christmas market on Berlin's Gendarmenmarkt! She samples some of the seasonal delicacies, as well as the ever-popular mulled wine.

Diane interviews passersby at the Christmas market in Karlsruhe to learn about their Christmas traditions.

Yabla reporter Cettina asks the people from Linkenheim how they are going to spend Christmas. How does this compare to how you celebrate Christmas? Enjoy watching!

Paula interviews people at Karlsruhe's Christmas market. She wants to know what presents they have bought and how they like the market.

A German Christmas is also about the food and the sweets! Eva shows us what she likes to eat for a traditional dinner on Christmas Eve as well as her favorite Christmas pastry...

Alina recites a magical Christmas poem by Joseph von Eichendorff, one of the most important poets of German Romanticism.

How do people celebrate Christmas in Germany? Paula and Alina compare their family traditions.

This Epiphany⁠—or Three Kings Day, Alina recites a poem by Heinrich Heine, a great German author from the 19th century.

"I'm dreaming of a wet Christmas?" I'll bet it's the first time you've heard that one! Diving instructor Werner Lambert has placed an entire life-sized Christmas diorama underwater in the Moselle town of Bernkastel-Kues. Here's to a very wet Christmas! Copyright: Deutsche Presse Agentur [The German Press Agency]