I was watching Germany TV and they were comparing the length of the winterpause of the football seasons between different nations. The piece was in German, so I probably didn't understand it too well. But what I though they claimed was that in Germany they stop playing football for a month over the Christmas period.
This is of course very different from the Premier league in the UK, when there is no football on Christmas day, but games start up on boxing day. Some people think this is one of the reasons that Germany does better at international football then England, but still I can't help feeling that it is a little bit like cheating.