Day 363 -- Christmas in Denmark

It's Christmas Eve (or Juleaften) and I thought I would blog about all the various Danish Christmas traditions we have experienced so far.  

1.  Advent Candles/Calendars.  These are all over the place in Denmark.  Some candles are sets of four, like we purchased and I have pictured below.  You light one each of the four Sundays before Christmas.  Another alternative is the single advent candle that is a tall pillar candle with 1-24 numbered down the side. On the Dec 1 you burn it until it reaches the 2, on the 2nd it burns until it reaches the 3 and so on.  Apparently this is a very popular one with kids.   Advent calendars are very common...they have the traditional ones you find in the US where you open a little door each day and get a present or something...Stores have these as well with each day offering a new deal.   Finally they have Advent shows on TV...24 episodes with one a day until Christmas.

2.  Christmas markets  (Julemarked).   We went to three Christmas markets, all very different from each other, yet all selling pretty much the same things.  Our first market was on the Strøget (the pedestrian shopping street downtown).  This was modeled after a German Christmas market and sold German sausages along with Danish gløgg (more on gløgg later), ornaments, winter hats, christmas trees and more.  The second market was the famous Christmas market in Christiania, the "free town" in Copenhagen that has been discussed earlier in this blog.    We got there right when it opened at noon.  It was fairly crowded, an indoor market with tons of booths selling various Christmas foods, ornaments, hats, and various handmade trinkets.   We left at 12:30 and the line to get in was wrapped all around Christiania.  The third market we went to was the also-famous Tivoli Christmas market.  Tivoli is the old amusement park in the middle of the city.  They open for a few weeks in December and the park is transformed with lights and animatronics and music and stands selling Christmas foods, ornaments, hats, etc.  (sound familiar?)  but this market includes stands from well known Danish stores like Georg Jensen and Illums Bolinghus.  They also have a few actual reindeer that live there in December.  The following pictures are from the Tivoli market (Christiania does not allow photographs)

real live reindeer

 

3.  Christmas "lunch" (Julefrokost).   We were invited to three julefrokosts but two occurred immediately after my surgery so we had to skip them.  So I only went to my work julefrokost and only have that one to discuss.  Julefrokosts are super-common Christmas dinners hosted by work colleagues or friends or family.  They are known as being lots of food, LOTS of drinking, and lots of fun.   Mine ended up being not very traditional as we had it at Favrholm (previously discussed in this blog) which is known for its creative and exciting food preparations...so the things we ate were twists on traditional foods...smoked salmon tartare appetizer, duck confit with brown potatoes (more on them later), and the very traditional ris alamande for dessert (more on that later as well).  There was no aquavit which is the common liquor at these events, but just lots of wine.  so nobody got as drunk as I was told would happen.  We had live music but that was it.  I heard these events get pretty crazy but my department tends to be pretty calm and lowkey (I'm certainly not complaining!)  Collin's department has a reputation for wildness but he didn't go to his so nothing to report there.

4.  Christmas foods.  There are a number of food items that show up in December and are served at julefrokosts or Christmas dinners.  I'm a big fan of Æbleskiver which is a kind of Danish pancake/donut.  They are traditionally served plain with a side of raspberry jam and powdered sugar.  Along with these you often have a glass of gløgg which is a warm mulled red wine.  very satisfying on a cold day.  Risalamande is a typical Danish dessert served on Christmas Eve.  It's kind of like a rice pudding with almonds.  A whole almond is mixed in, and whomever gets the almond wins a present.  I read that the person who gets it usually tries to hide that they did in order to keep others eating as much as they can in hopes of winning it themselves.  Brown potatoes (brunede kartofler) are small boiled potatoes that are then pan fried in browned butter and sugar.  Well-made ones are DELICIOUS.  not-well-made ones are oddly sweet and kind of not delicious.  one of the most common, and seemed to be well-liked, meats is flæskesteg, a type of roast pork with crackling around the edge.  I can't stand the crackling and can't understand how you eat it, it feels like crunching on rocks, but everyone here goes crazy when it's served.  For Christmas eve dinner most families serve duck with flaeskesteg on the side.  

5.  The three days of Christmas.   The official Danish Christmas in Dec 24, 25 and 26th.  Most people have off on these days and most stores, restaurants etc are closed on these days.  Danes typically celebrate Christmas on the 24th.  The whole family gets together for dinner followed by the lighting of the candles on the Christmas tree (yes, often REAL candles...although nowadays they often keep a bucket of water next to the tree just in case...) After dinner they join hands and walk around the tree singing Christmas carols.  Then AFTER that is all done (sometimes 9, 10:00 at night) the kids pass at all the gifts and they open them, usually one at a time.  This could take a long time.  Christmas day (the 25th) is a day of quiet recovery.  The 26th is often a day of family julefrokosts.  

6.  Julemand.  Translates to "Christmas Man"  This is what they call Santa Claus.  According to them he lives not at the North Pole but in Greenland.  He is sometimes accompanied by nisser which are little pixie/elf-like creatures that go around creating mischief.  You want to be good so the nisser aren't too mischievous with you.  

7.  Christmas decorations.  Danes aren't too much into color.  Most lights (except at Tivoli) are white, with maybe monochrome colored lights -- with blue being the most common.  Paper decorations are very common.  The julehjerter and julesterjner are handmade hearts and stars.  I bought some silver strips of paper to attempt to make my own.  The star directions were quite complicated.  The heart was a little easier.

This heart came from Novo (hence the two blues which are Novo's colors)

I apologize for the quality of pictures.  My phone is old and has no flash making night time pictures especially difficult.

Nyhavn (the port area)

Strøget:  the pedestrian shopping street

Magasin...the old department store

Hotel d'Angleterre :  Nutcracker decorations

animatronics at the mall

more animatronics

our own tiny tree purchased across the street

a little Danish pixie

8.  Pakkeleg:  This is a game played at Christmas time at julefrokosts or other get-togethers.  Everyone brings a wrapped present which goes in the middle of the table.  In the first round you take turns rolling a die.  If you get a 6, you get to pick a present from the middle of the table.  If not you pass it on to the right to the next person.  This continues until all presents are selected.  Round 2.  The presents are still unwrapped.  The second round lasts for a pre-determined amount of time (but no one knows the amount).  This time if you roll a 6 you get to pick ANY present you want from anyone.  If you roll a 1, you have to pass one of your presents to the left.  Sometimes people have other additional rules for other numbers but this is all we played with.  After round 2 the presents are all unwrapped and showed to everyone.  Round 3 is the same as round 2 except this time you know what the presents are.  After three rounds the game is over.  Some people end up with lots of presents, some get none.  It's a fun time.  

There are probably many more traditions that are Danish in nature but that is all I can come up with right now.  Here's a picture of the cookies I made this year.  The biggest comment they got "So much color, is that safe to eat?"

Glædelig Jul og Godt Nytår!!