SWEDISH CHRISTMAS TRADITIONS

Christmas in Sweden, as in many countries, is a mixture of the old and the new, religious and secular, native and foreign.

ADVENT

You could say that Christmas in Sweden begins as early as the 1st of Advent, four Sundays before Christmas Eve. The religious tradition of Advent is still important in Sweden. In most homes you can see a special “Advent Candle Holder” with four candles to light. You light the first candle four Sundays before Christmas Eve, the following Sunday you light two candles and so on. When all four candles are burning you know it’s Christmas! The children also get a special “Advent Calendar” with 24 doors to open. Just to count down for Christmas!

For the 1st of Advent Swedes also decorate with their electric “Advent Candle Holders” that are placed on the windowsill. These Advent Candleholders have 7 candles. The Advent candle Holder with 7 candles can be traced back to the “Menorah”, the Candle Holder in the Bible.
Instead of the electric Advent Candleholders you can have an electric Advent Star hanging in your window. Many people also get a special Advent (Christmas) Tree. This tree is placed outside and decorated with electric candles.

This time of the year the sun barely rises over the horizon, in the northern part Sweden the sun doesn’t rise at all. All these lights from Advent Candleholders, Advent Stars and Advent Trees all look wonderful in the darkness!

At the 1st of Advent you can also find Swedish Food that is special for this time of the year and Christmas. Swedes drink “Glögg”, a special Christmas Drink that is based on red wine and special spices, you drink the “Glögg” hot, in tiny cups. You can also find the first “Peppar Kakor” (Gingerbread Cookies) of the year. “Lusse katter” is an other Swedish delicatessen you can find in the month of December! They are a Special Lucia Bread made with Saffron and come in all kinds of shapes.

SAINT LUCIA

On December 13, Sweden celebrates Saint Lucia. Even though Sweden is a Protestant country, and most people are not religious. The Lucia Day is an important holiday in Sweden.

Before dawn on the morning of 13 December, the Lucia, one of the daughters in the family puts on a white robe with a red ribbon sash. She, the Lucia wears a crown of evergreens with tall-lighted candles attached to it. The other children accompany the Lucia. The other girls are also dressed in white robes holding lighted candles, but with out the red sash. The “Star Boys” are also dressed in white; they wear pointed hats, and carry star wands. Lucia and her helpers all sing special Lucia songs. The Lucia wakes her parents, and serves them coffee and Lucia buns..

The custom goes back to Saint Lucia, a Christian virgin martyred for her beliefs in Syracuse, Italy in the fourth century. The Saint Lucia ceremony is fairly recent, but it represents the traditional thanksgiving for the return of the sun.

Lucia is celebrated all over Sweden in schools, workplaces, daycare centers, hospitals and each city in Sweden usually elects the Lucia of the year.

The most spectacular takes place in Stockholm where the city's Lucia is crowned by the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature

A SWEDISH JUL – CHRISTMAS

SWEDISH CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS

In the days before Christmas, Swedes decorate their homes with Christmas ornaments: candlesticks, tapestries, stars, goats made of straw, and "Tomtar". The "Tomte" is the Swedish name for Santa Claus and originates from a dwarfish guardian of the farm. It was when the artist Jenny Nyström in the 1880s painted the Tomte as a combination of the little goblin and Father Christmas that it became the most important symbol of Christmas in Sweden.

THE JULBOCK – CHRISTMAS GOAT

The straw Julbock is a popular figure that Swedes like to place under their Christmas trees. It's believed that these small Christmas Goats, were once made from the last shafts of the harvest crop and symbolized the power of rejuvenation and fertility. The Julbock, or Christmas Ram, preceded St. Nicholas as a Christmas figure in Sweden. You can also find Straw Ornaments hanging from the Christmas tree.

JULGRANEN - THE CHRISTMAS TREE

The Swedish Christmas tree is usually brought in a day or two before Christmas Eve. The Christmas tree decorations of today are similar to the one found in American Christmas trees. In the old days people used to make their own Christmas tree decorations, but nowadays many families don’t have the time to keep up this Christmas tradition. The Christmas Tree is kept watered and many families keep their tree until the very end of the holiday, which falls on the twentieth day after Christmas, Knuts day in the Swedish calendar.

SWEDISH JUL AFTON - CHRISTMAS EVE

SWEDISH CHRISTMAS FOOD

In Sweden Christmas in celebrated on Christmas Eve. One other central element of Swedish Christmas is the special Christmas Food. The typical Christmas Eve meal starts with a smögåsbord(this is where the word “smorgasbord” originates!) of various kinds of pickled herring, liver pâté, smoked sausages, oven-roasted pork ribs, cabbage, meatballs, "Jansson's Temptation" (a potato gratin with anchovies) and the much longed-for Christmas Ham - often followed by "lutfisk" (dried cod previously soaked in lye) and rounded off with a special creamy Christmas Porridge (rice pudding) served with sugar and cinnamon. A single almond is hidden in the Christmas Porridge, according to tradition, whoever finds the almond in his/her portion will be wed during the coming year. In Sweden the Christmas Ham is eaten cold, usually onSwedish crisp bread.

The Christmas feast also includes a tradition called "dipping in the kettle" (dopp i grytan), in which the assembled family and guests dip bits of bread in the broth left over after boiling the ham. Both lutfisk and "dipping in the kettle" are actually a poor mans fare from olden days, but they live on thanks to their role in holiday festivities.

LUTFISK – LYE FISH

Lutfisk is an old Swedish tradition, people ate Lutfisk as early as during medieval times when Sweden was still a Catholic country. Dishes prepared from Lutfisk as well as other kinds of dried fish were eaten during Advent (four weeks before Christmas) when meat was strictly forbidden. Salt was too expensive to use for curing fish, instead Scandinavians preserved fish by air-drying. Dried fish was a basic food staple for Scandinavians.

You can translate Lutfisk to mean "Lye Fish". Lutfisk was invented when someone discovered that dried fish became white and plump again when soaked in a bath of lye. Lutfisk is prepared by first soaking dried fish in a lye bath, and then rinsing off the lye in subsequent baths of water. This process can take more than two weeks.

Get one of our Swedish cookbooks to find recipes for the traditional Swedish Christmas dishes!

JUL KLAPPAR - CHRISTMAS PRESENTS

After Christmas Eve dinner, a friend or family member dresses up as the Jul Tomte(Santa Claus). The make-believe Swedish Jul Tomte, wearing a white beard and dressed in red robes, distributes gifts from his sack. According to an old Swedish Christmas Tradition you are supposed to write witty rhymes on the Christmas Presents you give to others. The rhymes are supposed to hint at the contents for the Christmas presents you are giving to your family.

On Christmas Eve a dish of Christmas porridge is put out for the “Hus Tomte” - the House Gnome. According to legend, each farm had its own tomte, usually portrayed as a tiny man with a white beard and red stocking cap, who lived with his family in the barn or under the house. If treated properly, the tomte would help the farmer with the animals, but if neglected, he could cause trouble.

SWEDISH JULDAGEN – CHRISTMAS DAY

Christmas Day morning is the time for "Julottan", the early morning church service, a relic of the nocturnal devotions of the Middle Ages. In many churches this early morning service starts at 6 o’clock. On Christmas morning, churches are lit up entirely by candles for the Christmas service.

Christmas in Sweden is a 3 day long holiday when schools and most workplaces are closed. The most important day in Sweden is Christmas Eve, that is the day when the special Christmas food is served and the Christmas gifts are given.

On Christmas Day many people visit the Julotta. But Christmas Day is not the special day it is in many other countries.

We are now happy to present even more Christmas decorations for your Swedish Christmas!
Now you can fill your Christmas Tree with Dala Horses! See our cute Dala Horse Ornaments that will be a nice addition to your Christmas tree!
The Swedish Brass Tree Top Star is truly beautiful when it shines down one the tree. Along with our Straw Ornaments, Straw Stars & Straw Hearts it will complete your Swedish Christmas Tree!
The Swedish Tomtes and Straw Goats will look good anywhere in your home during the Holidays.