A Nordic Christmas
Ulrike's Swedish Christmas
During Advent, it is a Swedish tradition to prepare sweets with the family: marzipan figures, knäck, Christmas cookies, gingerbread biscuits, and much more. In the evenings, we love to have one or two glasses of glögg, which is a spiced red wine. The smell of the spices in this wine is to me the smell of Christmas.
Two days before Christmas Eve we have what we call a ‘stay up late evening’. This is when we wrap the presents and spend time writing rhymes and riddles for each person to whom we will give a gift. The rhymes are about the contents of the parcel, and they are read out before the presents are opened. Then we have to guess what’s inside. This is such a big thing that in Sweden there are even television and radio phone-in shows so that people can ask for help in creating the right kind of rhyme. Popular personalities and celebrities go on the shows to help with the rhyming.
The tree is bought just a few days before Christmas and put up on the 23rd December, which we call ‘little Christmas Eve’. The presents are put beneath the tree and left there until they are distributed. It is an old tradition to dance around the Christmas tree singing special ‘dance around the Christmas tree songs’ some time before or after the presents are opened.
Unlike in Malta, the most important day in Sweden is not Christmas Day but Christmas Eve – just as it is in the other Nordic countries, including Germany. Nordic children wake up excited on Christmas Eve rather than on Christmas Day, because that is when they get their presents and when the big family meal is served. The problem is that the presents are given out in the evening before dinner, and not in the morning, so there is terrible suspense all day. When I was growing up, my parents would give us a small ‘starter’ present in the morning, probably to calm us down a bit.
On the morning of Christmas Eve, my mother used to prepare a special smörgåsbord – a traditional Swedish buffet of various cold and warm dishes, like meatballs, brown or red cabbage, different types of pickled herring, smoked salmon and eel, homemade liver pâté and of course the Christmas ham and spare ribs. In some Swedish homes even today they keep to another tradition, which is to eat stockfish for lunch on Christmas Eve. According to the tradition, the stockfish has to be put in water to soak on 9th December, where it stays until Christmas Eve. It is eaten with a special mustard sauce. By mid-afternoon we were already raiding the smörgåsbord, unable to contain ourselves. The strictly traditional drinks to go with it are beer and schnäpps, mainly Aquavit and Brännvin, a kind of clear brandy - for adults only, of course. Every time the glass is raised, we sing.
Our Father Christmas is called Tomten. He arrives on Christmas Eve when the children are still awake, and he doesn’t come down the chimney. A willing male relative dresses up as Tomten and brings the presents in a large sack. He asks “Are there any well behaved children here?” and they all cheer, “Yes!” He gives them their presents and disappears.
When the presents have been opened, the smörgåsbord has been eaten, and calm has been restored more or less, dessert is served. This has to be rice pudding with red-currant sauce. My mother used to drop one almond into the pudding much as the English used to hide a silver sixpence in the plum pudding. The one who got it received a small gift but was obliged to make a little speech, which deflected from the pleasure somewhat. A bowl of rice pudding is put out on the doorstep for Tomten. Here in Malta, we prepare a lot rice pudding so that we have enough left over for Christmas Day, when we make a dish which is called ris á la Malta. We do this by mixing the rice pudding with whipped cream. The origin of the name lies in the fact that, many years ago, it used to be mixed with juice from Maltese oranges, shipped to Sweden.
We don’t go to midnight mass. Instead, on Christmas Day we have what we call ‘early morning mass’, and for this we have to wake up very, very early because it starts at around 7am. At that time in Sweden in December it is still dark, so there are many candles and fire-torches outside the church and with luck, a lot of snow. This is how everybody, everywhere imagines the ideal Christmas atmosphere to be, and in Sweden it is really so.
Christmas Day is one of the rare occasions when the church is packed with people and there is a very good atmosphere. Afterwards we go home to have a huge breakfast, including some of the leftovers from the buffet. The rest of Christmas Day is spent with the family, or visiting relatives. It is a day of recovery, much as Boxing Day is to those who have their main celebration on Christmas Day.
Gitte Borg Grech's Danish Christmas
In Denmark, Christmas is a huge celebration. Homes are decorated on 1st December, but the tree does not go up until a couple of days before Christmas Day. The Advent wreath was always made by my mother and one candle is lit every Sunday of Advent. The calendar candle is lit every day so that we can count down the days left until Christmas Day. As children we used to get an Advent calendar, with a little gift for every day until 25th December. On Danish television there is a Christmas calendar show for children, usually about pixies. The story starts on 1st December and ends on Christmas Eve. Children all over Denmark watch it every day, and they can buy Advent calendars relating to the show. In my family we always go out together to pick the Christmas tree, which is decorated in the evening on the 23rd. While the tree is being decorated my father finds a bowl and fills it with different sweets, bought specifically for Christmas. During Advent, there is usually a day or more dedicated to baking sweets and cookies. The smell that fills the house when these cookies are baking just embodies Christmas for me. My sister and I used to sit at the kitchen table and help our mother bake them and lots of other Christmas delights besides. We used to choose a specific day and dedicate it to the making of cookies, usually listening to Christmas music meanwhile.
Our big celebration is on Christmas Eve, when we put all the presents under the tree in the afternoon. At around 6pm we sit at a decorated table for dinner: roast duck, roast pork and a special kind of sausage, caramelised potatoes, boiled potatoes, red cabbage, gravy and ris a l’amande to follow. In my family there is no Christmas without rice pudding. It is an essential tradition. There is always a battle going on to find the whole almond, because the one who finds it will receive a gift. The trick in my family is to hide the fact that you have found the almond, so the others will continue eating, thinking that it has not been found yet. Everybody then eats too much, and the finder tries to think of creative ways to conceal it: in a napkin, in a glass of red wine, and so on. Hiding it in your mouth does not work, because you are under constant observation for any signs that you have the almond. My mother always boils the rice pudding “in her bed.” Bring the rice, sugar and milk to a boil. Take the pot off the heat, place the lid on and wrap the pot up in newspapers. Wrap a blanket around the newspapers, and put it in your bed wrapped up in your quilt – it will finish on its own. Leave it for four or five hours, then unwrap it, heat it up again gently, and if mixture is too thick, add a bit of milk. Cooking it this way, you save energy, never burn your rice pudding – and I remember when I was a child that it used to be so nice to snuggle up in the warm bed afterwards, especially because it was very cold outside.
When the table is cleared, we dance around the Christmas tree singing Christmas carols and then open the presents. Even though I now live in Malta, I try to continue observing the traditions with which I grew up. Since my children were born, we began to spend every Christmas in Denmark, because the atmosphere there is really amazing at that time of the year, especially if we are lucky enough to have snow. My children love these Christmas traditions already - and I am sure that they will grow up to continue with them just as I did, no matter where they might be living.