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Old 12-15-2010, 11:01 PM
 
599 posts, read 5,730,739 times
Reputation: 1273

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Some photos from a Swedish Christmas (for more info see my previous post):

Making of the gingerbread house
http://lh4.ggpht.com/_9zdSUO5UnvU/R3KT2L4JR3I/AAAAAAAADLA/F1ihhtabJ1g/s288/07_029uppesittarjul-Hjuvik.jpg (broken link)

http://lh3.ggpht.com/_9zdSUO5UnvU/R3KWp74JSYI/AAAAAAAADPQ/SniQkS_cb8g/s288/07jul-Hjuvik%20025.jpg (broken link)

Rhyme by the fire
http://lh5.ggpht.com/_9zdSUO5UnvU/R3KUwb4JSBI/AAAAAAAADMU/c1U75vpDeyc/s288/07_044uppesittarjul-Hjuvik.jpg (broken link)

Kalle Ankas Jul (and my mom)
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_9zdSUO5UnvU/R3KVgr4JSKI/AAAAAAAADNc/8CW_5jr4Noc/s288/07jul-Hjuvik%20007.jpg (broken link)

My mom serving Glögg at Christmas eve
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_9zdSUO5UnvU/R3KVqr4JSMI/AAAAAAAADNs/M5QeWHkzFxc/s288/07jul-Hjuvik%20010.jpg (broken link)

Excitement at the gift game
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_9zdSUO5UnvU/R3KWHr4JSSI/AAAAAAAADOg/ikvY_JnMKcU/s288/07jul-Hjuvik%20018.jpg (broken link)

Christmas dinner
http://lh5.ggpht.com/_9zdSUO5UnvU/R3KW0b4JSaI/AAAAAAAADPg/0pf4ePF1OU0/s288/07jul-Hjuvik%20027.jpg (broken link)

http://lh6.ggpht.com/_9zdSUO5UnvU/R3KXBr4JSdI/AAAAAAAADP4/5hmdPbnHeqQ/s288/07jul-Hjuvik%20031.jpg (broken link)

http://lh6.ggpht.com/_9zdSUO5UnvU/R3KXGr4JSeI/AAAAAAAADQA/BQ2VKBhx9dk/s288/07jul-Hjuvik%20032.jpg (broken link)

Dad's Pickled herring
http://lh4.ggpht.com/_9zdSUO5UnvU/R3KXLL4JSfI/AAAAAAAADQI/YANmxiIsRoQ/s288/07jul-Hjuvik%20033.jpg (broken link)

Keeping the fire going
http://lh5.ggpht.com/_9zdSUO5UnvU/R3KXOb4JSgI/AAAAAAAADQQ/0zUFIzp2EZo/s288/07jul-Hjuvik%20038.jpg (broken link)
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Old 12-15-2010, 11:47 PM
 
Location: Wayward Pines,ID
2,054 posts, read 4,275,974 times
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THAT is s serious gingerbread house
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Old 12-16-2010, 08:33 AM
 
Location: Lakeside
5,266 posts, read 8,744,831 times
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Wonderful pictures, Joox! Is there a Santa Lucia cake too?
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Old 12-16-2010, 08:38 AM
 
Location: Lakeside
5,266 posts, read 8,744,831 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by joox View Post
CCF: I think I'm up to the challenge.

Every family has their own special take on the Christmas traditions so I will describe how my family celebrates Christmas.

In my family December 23rd is as important as Christmas eve, is not more important. That day we decorate the Christmas tree, make knäck (toffee), and a ginger bread house. My mom will make the Christmas ham - the centerpiece for the dinner on Christmas eve. The evening the 23rd is almost magical. After wrapping the Christmas gifts, we spend the evening coming up with rhymes for each gift. According to my dad a good rhyme has at least 4 lines and will be abstract enough to hint what gift is but without giving it away. While we come up with the rhymes we sit by the fireplace, drinking glögg, eating pepparkakor (ginger thins) with blue cheese - yes, it is really tasty! - and eating way too much candy.

Around midnight the ham is ready and it is time to taste it. One year my mom decided that it was not only the ham that we need to pre-taste before Christmas eve. Since then we have had a miniature version of the Christmas dinner the night before. We taste all the different kinds of sill (pickled herring) that my dad have made - red onion, muster, bell pepper, etc. We taste the ham, the meat balls, the sausages, the hard bread, the vörtbröd (CCF can you help me translate this), all the different kinds of cheeses, the red beat salad, etc. Not a small meal, but much smaller than the real Christmas dinner.

I usually go to bed after have nodded off in the sofa a couple of times. During the night my parents (my mom) prepare the stockings (yes, we still get Christmas stockings even now when my brother and I are grownups). When we wake up on Christmas morning (Dec 24th) there is a stocking hanging on the bedroom door nob. In the stockings there will be a magazine, a small gift, and a lot of candy. The candy in the stocking usually lasted a couple of days after Christmas eve. We have a slow morning where we recoup from the all-day rhyming and eating the day before. At lunch my parents usually freak out as they Christmas stress catch up with them as they prepare for the guests to come.

After years of comparing traditions with my friends I have understood that my family start the Christmas celebrations on Christmas eve quite late. It seems as most people start around lunch or so. In Sweden we have sort of odd tradition on Christmas eve which is to watch a TV show for an hour at 3pm. The show is almost the same every year. It goes under the name Kalle Anka's jul (Donald Duck's Christmas) and is basically short movies from Disney. The main part is the same every year, but in the end of the show they show clips from new Disney movies. In many Swedish homes they have already eaten Christmas dinner before 3pm and before the TV show. In my family, the guests has not yet arrived. My mom - which you might already have guessed - is a firm believer of Christmas traditions. She takes time to watch Donald Duck every year. Since many years back, she is sitting by the TV alone while the rest of the family frantically tried to get things before the guests arrives.

The guest are my gandmother (mormor), my cousins, and my mother's sister and her husband. The family that celebrates Christmas together has become smaller over the years. My other grandparents are dead, my favorite cousin moved abroad, and so on. This year I'm in Idaho... They guests usually arrives at 5pm.

When they arrives they put the gifts they brought with them under the Christmas tree. Then we drink glögg, eat ginger thins, and relax by the fireplace. Not to long after we start getting the "smorgasbord" ready. A traditional Swedish Christmas dinner is like a buffé. It has everything from a variety of pickled herring, sharp cheeses, homemade hard bread, vörtbröd (dark soft bread), smoked sausages, meat balls, small sausages (prinskorvar), etc. As mentioned above the ham is the centerpiece. It usually has a mustard/bread crums crust. We eat slices of ham with sweat & strong mustard on a slice of bread. In my family we also have "dopp i grytan" which is the broth from cooking the ham which has been spiced with herbs. The broth is kept warm and we dip slices of bread in it. It's an old tradition that I think many Swedish families has abandoned. In Sweden cabbage is a Christmas tradition. The kind of cabbage and how it is prepared differs depending in what part of Sweden you live. In my family we eat red cabbage that is cooked with sugar, spices and vinegar. It is sweat and tangy.

To the meal we (adults) drink beer and snaps, and the kids drink julmust (Christmas must) which is a soft drink that sort of looks like Coke, but taste better. No, I'm not biased at all Since we drink snaps, we also sing snaps songs. You are supposed to sing a little song before you drink it - for every sip - and of course we all sing together. It surly sounds "lovely"...

When we have eaten way too much it is time for the dessert - Ris ala Malta. Rice porridge mixed with whipped cream. In my family we put an almond in the Ris ala Malta bowl. I remember fearing that I would find the almond on my plate. The person that finds the almond is supposed to come up with a little rhyme on the fly. I don't mind rhyme, but I'm not good at doing it on the fly.

As a kid I remember the period following the dinner as the longest hour on Christmas eve. All the grownups were talking and talking and talking and drinking coffee. As a kid waiting for the gift opening, the grownups coffee craving was close to torture.

Now when we are all grownups we have introduced a little game while drinking coffee. Everyone is require to bring two small gifts for $7 or such. The game is simple. All gifts are placed in the middle of the table. Every one take turns and toss a dice. If getting number 6 you are allowed to take a gift of your choice and place it in front of you. When all the gifts are gone from the middle of the table we set an alarm for 15 minutes (and hide the alarm clock so that no one can keep track of the time). Then we take turns to toss the dice again. If getting the number 6 you are allowed to take a gift from someone else. Since there has been some concerns that it would be unfair if someone ended up without a gift you are not allowed to take a gift from a person that only has one gift in front of them. When the alarm rings the game ends and the gifts in front of you are yours. The game is usually more fun than the gifts themselves. Which is sort of the whole point. After the game and coffee we move to the living room and start to hand out the "real" gifts.

The gift opening is a process in it self in my family. One of us is the designated Tomtenisse (Santa's little helper). One gift is picked up underneath the Christmas tree and the tomtenisse reads the rhyme on it. The person whom is receiving the gift gets to guess what it is before opening the gift. Everyone watch as the gift is unwrapped and then adores the gift for a while. Then we move on to the next gift. While handing out the gifts one by one we also eat more candy, ginger thins, and drink glögg. At this time the hard liquor is brought out. In my family Scotch is a big hit (not only at Christmas).

The gift opening process is more of an social event than a frantic ripping of wrapping paper. Therefore it has a habit of taking a couple of hours. When done it is usually quite late and it is time for people to head home.

On Christmas day (Dec 25th) we don't do much else than eat candy from the stockings, watch TV, go for a walk, and just hang out at home. On the second day after Christmas we usually have dinner at my grandmother's where the whole family get together again.

Hmm....this ended up being a little longer than I anticipated. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that I'm a bit homesick during the holiday season.

I LOVED reading this. Sounds wonderful. And I remember pepperkakor from the Pippi Longstocking books.
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Old 12-16-2010, 12:47 PM
 
Location: Sandpoint, ID
3,109 posts, read 10,839,717 times
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Thanks Joox,

Your post brought back many memories of my childhood with Christmas eve at my grandparents place. (They came from Göteborg).

Over the years my grandparents and parents changed the preparation day into a "Swedish baking/cookie day" about two weeks before Christmas. Our whole extended family gathers for about a 12 hour day of baking (including turning out hundreds of spritz of course!) and then all the families split the cookies into tins to take home, to eat or give as small gifts to friends and neighbors. But barring watching Donald Duck, our Christmas eve, even after my grandparents had been here since their childhood, sounds about the same...some traditions never die.

I will say that the worst thing about a Swedish Christmas eve was the 18 hour wait (OK, maybe an hour) between the conclusion of smorgasbord dinner and the opening of presents. Torture for kids. I recall that my mother and grandmother couldn't sit down and enjoy opening presents until ALL dishes were done and put away.
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Old 12-16-2010, 09:06 PM
 
599 posts, read 5,730,739 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by elousv View Post
THAT is s serious gingerbread house
Thank you elousv! The last few years I have made two gingerbread houses - one for myself and one for my parents. I don't really know how that came to be since my mom usually made her own gingerbread house. I think she sort of outsourced it to me. It feel a bit strange not to make a gingerbread house this year, but since I'm going to New York for Christmas I decided not to engage in my usual Christmas traditions. I'm starting to regret it now though.


Quote:
Originally Posted by mistyriverranch View Post
Wonderful pictures, Joox! Is there a Santa Lucia cake too?
We usually eat pepparkakor and lussebullar (saffron buns) at Lucia. No specific Lucia cake.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Sage of Sagle View Post
Thanks Joox,

Your post brought back many memories of my childhood with Christmas eve at my grandparents place. (They came from Göteborg).
Did you know that I'm from Göteborg? Beautiful city. I miss it a lot.

Last winter


Close to where I used to live:
http://lh5.ggpht.com/_zX1THZQCxzc/TEfRwBdxnSI/AAAAAAAAD78/AEcXeRy2DdA/s288/P7090070.JPG (broken link)

http://lh6.ggpht.com/_zX1THZQCxzc/TEfSut78daI/AAAAAAAAD-k/nvINhfqdiFw/s288/P7090141.JPG (broken link)

Sorry for turning this thread into a Swedish one. I hope you don't mind too munch
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Old 12-16-2010, 10:29 PM
 
Location: Wayward Pines,ID
2,054 posts, read 4,275,974 times
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Nonsense, this is a PORCH, a virtual porch, but a porch nonetheless. Just imagine you came over to my porch and we started talking and drinking Glogg. And no I have no idea how to make the two special dots on top of the 'o'.
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Old 12-16-2010, 10:57 PM
 
7,380 posts, read 12,670,445 times
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Just dropped in, and what do I see? The Porch all decorated in Swedish style, and full of good cheer, gingerbread fragrance, and stories! That's wonderful. Thanks so much for sharing your traditional Christmas with us, Joox!

I recognize some of the traditions, having Scandinavian roots myself. The endless wait on Christmas Eve was something we shared, too, and all the dishes had to be done, and coffee served, before we could get to the gifts. Really hard for little kids...
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Old 12-16-2010, 11:21 PM
 
Location: Sandpoint, ID
3,109 posts, read 10,839,717 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by elousv View Post
Nonsense, this is a PORCH, a virtual porch, but a porch nonetheless. Just imagine you came over to my porch and we started talking and drinking Glogg. And no I have no idea how to make the two special dots on top of the 'o'.
If you copy/paste one that you see in a post, and put it into a new post, the CDF board software will display it correctly. Myself, I have a text clipping with all special characters which makes it easier for me.
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Old 12-17-2010, 02:41 PM
 
420 posts, read 1,193,870 times
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God jul och gott nytt år :

Those are some great posts and photos folks. I especially like the custom of opening the presents over a 2 hour period. It is much better than ripping everything open and having it done in minutes.
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