Christmas in Sweden
By Wilhelmina Schedin
Adventstake
Photo: Wilhelmina Schedin
Christmas in Sweden is filled with tradition, including delicious food and lovely decorations.
On the last Sunday in November, shops celebrate "Skyltsondag", which means, "Shop Window Sunday", the start of the Christmas sale season. The shops are open on this Sunday and they display nicely decorated store windows with several kinds of arrangements.
Eh ....... in the beginning of November they are already selling Christmas decoration in the shops! They will start earlier every year. Oh , poor Santa! ; - )
On Advent Sunday we begin decorating. In homes, we light electric candles called "Adventstake" which have seven lamps. We also have Advent stars in the windows with little electric lights. We have red poinsettias and hyacinths as Advent and Christmas flowers.
We don’t put up all of our Christmas decorations on the Advent. Homes are decorated some days before Christmas, but shops and businesses put up all of their decorations. On Advent Sunday many people go to church, where they light a lot of candles.
Christmas Tree
Photo: Wilhelmina Schedin
In Sweden, we have Christmas trees with electric lights both indoors and outdoors. The indoor trees are decorated close to Christmas. The outdoor trees mostly have white lights; coloured lights are less common. There are both artificial and real Christmas trees, although real trees are more popular. The tree is placed in a Christmas tree stand that must be filled with water. Then you can keep the tree in your house until after the Twelfth Day.
Lucia Day is on December 13. A woman or a little girl is dressed as Lucia. She wears a white dress and a red silk ribbon around her waist, and a crown with candle lights on her hair. She has to walk very slowly because of the lights, and in accordance with the tradition, Lucia must advance slowly. Lucia must also wear something underneath the crown to prevent the wax from dripping in her hair. There are also Lucia crowns with electric candles (with batteries) This is safer and better if a child is Lucia. Lucia does not come alone, but in a Lucia procession with maidens with her. These girls are also dressed in white and they have tinsel in their hair. There are also boys who are dressed in white with high pointed white hats with stars on them. These hats are called "strut" in Swedish, meaning "cone". These boys are called "star boys." The star boys carry a star on a pin in their hands. In the Lucia procession there are also people dressed as Santa Claus and as gingerbread cookies. In homes, Lucia and her attendants come to the people with a tray with coffee and cakes on it. There are gingerbread cookies in the form of a heart, and cakes with raisin and that are called "lussekatter". Lucia and her attendants sing a song called, "Santa Lucia". It is common to have a Lucia procession in schools, hospitals and workplaces.
Christmas is very ceremonious and filled with traditions. On December 24, 25 and 26 we are free from our work.
On December 24 we celebrate "julafton" then we begin to celebrate our Christmas. We begin in the afternoon by watching Walt Disney films with Donald Duck. This was at first only for children, but it became a tradition, and now adults also watch it. They show these movies every year, and they are very popular. The hour that Donald Duck is on TV nobody is out and it is quiet in town. In the north of Sweden it is dark at 3 o’ clock in the afternoon when Donald Duck begins. It is nice and cozy with the candles lit and the movies on TV.
Christmas Dinner
Photo: Wilhelmina Schedin
After watching TV, we eat our Christmas dinner, which has many dishes. The ham is the most important part of the meal. It is boiled in a big saucepan, or cooked in the oven in aluminum foil. I used to do it in the oven. From the pan, gravy is made for the ham. We used to save the gravy to dip bread in. A bread flavoured with wort is often used for dipping, but in Norrland we have "tunnbrörd" instead of wort bread. Turkey is not a Swedish tradition
Other dishes include liver paste, smoked reindeer meat, a salad of red beets, several kinds of pickled herring, sugar-salted salmon, veal brawn, hard boiled eggs cut in 2 pieces with a shrimp on the egg and dried smoked sheep. The ham is eaten with a little applesauce and a little mustard on each slice. These are the cold dishes.
The warm dishes include small meatballs, small sausages, and "Janssons Frestelse", which is potatoes cut in very thin sticks, with cream, onion and Swedish anchovy. This is cooked in the oven. "Lutfisk", which is dried stockfish treated in lye is also served. It is soaked and boiled and served with a white sauce containing black pepper. The fish itself does not have any taste; it is the sauce that gives the dish its flavor. I never had stockfish on my Christmas table, and you don’t need to have all the dishes on your table.
Christmas Presents
Photo: Wilhelmina Schedin
After dinner we give each other the Christmas presents. The parcels are under the Christmas tree and sometimes Santa Claus comes. But mostly it is one in the family who takes one parcel and reads the label and gives it to the person whose name is on the label.
After we get our presents we watch TV or read our new gift books and drink coffee with ginger cookies. Christmas eve is celebrated at home and nobody is outside and there are not many buses going.
On Christmas day you can go to the church to a service that in Swedish is called "Julotta" This Christmas service is very early in the morning.
On Christmas Eve you can dance around the Christmas tree and then sing Christmas songs with the children. We never do that home. But in older times they had very big family Christmas celebrations on the farms and they danced around the Christmas tree. Nowadays it is mostly done in children’s playhouses or in public town celebrations. On Christmas day and the day after Christmas we take it easy. We enjoy our presents and eat more of the Christmas food. Many people celebrate Christmas with relatives.
After Christmas there are a lot of people in the shops, mostly to exchange the presents that not fit or presents they got in several copies. :- )
Wilhelmina Schedin is a computer tech who lives in Northern Sweden. Her interests include nature, computers, cooking and writing and photography.