defestival1-3, Exercise 3: How a borrowed custom becomes local

Model answer, using Dinner for One (check the details):

Source: a British music-hall sketch by Lauri Wylie, performed by Freddie Frinton and May Warden.

Step 1, adoption: a German producer or director saw it in Britain and invited the performers to record it for NDR in Hamburg in 1963.

Step 2, repetition: broadcasters showed it again, and from the early 1970s it was placed on New Year's Eve.

Step 3, framing: a short German introduction was added, and the lines stayed in English, so the catchphrase became a shared quotation.

Step 4, habit: families built an evening around it, and press and radio talked about it each year, so watching it became a ritual that people felt was always there.

What it shows: a custom becomes local through repetition, a fixed slot and a shared phrase, rather than through age. The same pattern applies to Edinburgh's German-style Christmas market: the stalls and the drink were borrowed, and the repeat each year, plus the venue, makes it a local habit.