Berliner Brot: traditions

This is the second thing I made for my mom's little box-o-treats, and it's a traditional Christmas cake or bar from Germany (or maybe just from Berlin; it's unclear whether this is a local tradition or a regional or national one) - Berliner Brot.  Actually, I'm relying on the recipe's source to say that it's anyone's tradition anywhere at all; I've never been to Germany and wouldn't know.  But it's plausible - it's not too sweet (European tastes in desserts are rather less sweetened than their American counterparts), studded with nuts, and it has booze in it.  That's right!  There's a tablespoon of rum in it.  How much rum there is in the baker is, of course, a matter of personal preference.

One German blogger, Baltic Maid (she currently lives in the US, so her recipes call for ingredients you could easily find in an American grocery store - give her a read!), says that German cooking is focused on the more savory end of the scale the rest of the year, not too much in the way of cookies and such, except at Christmas when various seasonal treats are baked.  While that isn't the case here - we, by which I specifically mean me, eat cookies year-round - we do have that Christmas-cookie tradition in some parts of the country and by a certain segment of the population (aunts, mainly) where the holiday season turns into an orgy of baking and platters of varied cookies are on the table after the big family feastathon.

What about you and your family?  What food traditions do you keep?  Have you imported some from other countries, or created new ones (or both)?  Would you like to inject a little bit of Berlin into your traditions?  Because if so, Berliner Brot would like to be your new friend.  Heck, shake up tradition - make it for a non-Christmas occasion, why not?  Otherwise you'd have to wait nearly a year to have it, and that would just be cruel.