SWEDISH
CHRISTMAS
&
LINKS
In Sweden we do our celebration on Christmas Eve.
In the morning, in our family, we always get one little
gift. Breakfast is immediately followed by the creating
of the Christmas table. Some cook, some set the the
table, some do the dishes, some watch the kids, some
decorate the Christmas tree if it wasn´t done the
day before.
The kids are anxious and keep looking at the stack of
gifts.
In the middle of the day we eat from the Christmas table,
for a long time! The food is laid out like a smorgasbord.
First you eat the cold food, like herring and red beet
salad, then the hot,
like ham, sausages, potatoes and lots more. Each home
has their own
special traditions on what to eat.
We usually eat dessert while watching TV in the afternoon.
Then we watch the Donald Duck Christmas show, it has
been a tradition for decades
for so many Swedish families! After that it´s usually
time
for Santa to arrive and the exchanging of gifts - the
highlight for the kids of course!
The rest of the evening is spent with some TV, more eating,
a walk or snowball fight if there´s snow and then
often a
game of Trivial Persuit (or any game) until very late.
The day after Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, could begin
with a trip to
church very early in the morning for a Christmas mass.
For us, the rest of the day has no real traditions -
we eat left-overs, and
usually turkey or ribs for lunch. Spending time with
the family
has always been no 1 for us (and eating, I guess...my
mother is
a top chef!).
In our family we believe in the following:
A man´s three stages:
1. He believes in Santa Claus
2. He does not believe in Santa Claus
3. He is Santa Claus.
Below, some links for more about Swedish Christmas celebrations,
and further down, some general nice Christmas links.
Swedish links
Traditions
around Christmas
Text only
Anne´s
& Johan´s Website
Good page, a little bit of everything
Christmas
with Virtual Finland
Yes, Finnish, I know, but a very good site
Yule in Iceland
Yes, Icelandic, but also a really nice site
Swedish Kitchen
Excellent recipe site with recipes for all Swedish holidays.
Santesson
Recipe Collection
Lots of Swedish recipes here, including several that
you will find on the Christmas smorgasbord.
Ulla-Janes
Jul-hörna
Nice and lots of info, but all in Swedish!
My Christmas
Page
Nice cute site with lots of pages, both in
Swedish and English.
Have
a Swedish Christmas
Info about traditional celebrating during December.
Min
Jul!
Cute with recipes, lyrics and links, but only in Swedish.
Supposed to come in English though.
Jul.Hemma.Net
Only in Swedish, but lots of good tips here.
Lenas Julsida
Beautiful site with lots of info, personal thoughts, recipes
and more, all in Swedish.
AnnMaris Julstuga
In Swedish and English.
Other Christmas links
Holiday
Crafts
Projects, gift ideas, decorating tips, recipes.
Christmas! Christmas!
Christmas!
Nice site.
Donna´s
Christmas Page
Lots of links.
All
About Christmas
Plenty of links here
Merry Christmas
in 120 languages
This is fun!
Christmas Software
Check this one out for great screensavers
Christmas Graphics
Lots of links for graphics here.
Swedish Christmas
Advent & Lucia
Glögg recipe
Cookie recipe
Candy recipe
Mustard recipe
Snow globes
Updated 2005-05-06
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