When we went out to the Salzkammergut and Tyrol regions of Austria we noticed a LOT of baby announcements. It was really cute – they usually included a wooden stork of some kind, the baby’s name, items of clothing hanging, diapers hanging and other fun party decorations. A lot of the signs had signatures of friends and family sending their congratulations.
These stork poles are called Kindsbaum which translates to child tree. They announce the arrival of babies in Austria.
Here is one we say in Weyregg am Attersee. It says “Herzlich Willkommen Julian” with a heart shape instead of “herz” and a lot of people signed the banner (this translates to Warm Welcome Julian).
Then we saw this one in Schwendau. It says “Hurra Hurra Simon ist Da!” (this translates to Hurray Hurray Simon is here).
Here is something funny about this tradition. It actually starts when a couple gets married. They put a wedding tree up in the yard. The wedding tree has a stork at the top (but no baby), hearts and names of the bride and groom, wedding rings and sometimes baby clothes. Then there is a little note painted and it basically translates to – the stork is lonely and you have up to one year to hear baby cries in your home or else you have to throw a party for all of your friends and family. Here is one I found online:
