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Swedish Christmas celebrations begin with the first of Advent. Saint Lucy´s Day (locally known as Luciadagen) is the first major Christmas celebration before Christmas itself. As in many other countries in northern Europe, Jultomten (a version of Santa Claus mixed with old folklore, see Yule and Tomte) brings the presents on Christmas Eve, the day generally thought of as Christmas.
Christmas is, as everywhere, a holiday of food. Almost all Swedish families celebrate Christmas on December 24 with a Christmas smörgåsbord (julbord). The common part of almost all julbord is the julskinka (baked ham), but there are also other common dishes such as meatballs, pickled herring, square ribs, lutfisk, pork sausage, Janssons frestelse (grated potatoes, onion, anchovy and cream), and rice pudding. The Christmas julbord is served with beer or julmust and snaps, the dishes of the julbord may vary throughout Sweden. Businesses traditionally invite their employees to a julbord dinner or lunch the weeks before Christmas, and people go out privately to restaurants offering julbord during December, as well.
Examples of candies and treats associated with Christmas are toffee, knäck (quite similar to butterscotch), fruit, nuts, figs, chocolate, dates and marzipan. Another Scandinavian speciality is the glögg (mulled and spiced wine with almonds and raisins), which is served hot in small cups.
Television also plays a big role in most families, the Disney Christmas special and Karl Bertil Jonssons julafton (animated short) are regarded by many to be the most important highlights of the Christmas television programming.
After the julbord on Christmas Eve, the presents are distributed, either by Jultomten or a family member, and usually from a sack or from under the Christmas tree where they have been laying all day or for several days. In older days a yule goat was an alternative to Jultomten, nowadays it is used as an ornament, ranging from sizes of 10 cm to huge constructions like the Gävle goat, famous for being vandalized almost every Christmas.
If one has two families to celebrate Christmas with, it is common that one of the families move their celebrations to Christmas Day or the first Saturday before Christmas Eve (commonly referred to as little Christmas Eve).
After Christmas Eve, the Christmas celebrations have more or less come to an end. Some people attend the julottan, an early morning church service on Christmas Day. Christmas Day and Boxing Day are of no big significance to Swedish celebrations. On January 13 (locally known as knutdagen), 20 days after Christmas, the Christmas celebrations come to an end and all Christmas decorations are removed.
So tomorrow is Christmas in Sweden and I hope you like reading about The Swedish Christmas celebration whee heart
