CHRISTMAS IN DENMARK

DECEMBER 24:

Christmas in Denmark    -  The most important traditions in a nutshell

A very good thing about Christmas is that you do not get fat from the food and drinks you have between Christmas and New Year!  It’s the period between New Year and Christmas, which is dangerous!

But let’s look at the most typical Danish traditions for this time of the year.

Advent   is celebrated from the fourth Sunday before Christmas – normally very late November or very early December. Almost every home has an Advent Wreath with four white candles. The first Sunday one candle is lit. The second Sunday two candles are in use. And so on. There are no special festivities related to advent – apart  from the church services, which mark the start of the new church year. 

December 24 is by far the most important day in the Danish Christmas. The day of Christmas Eve.  The special Christmas church service is in the afternoon. Almost everybody goes to church on that day – not only the very religious persons. It’s normally the only time each year, when I go to church.  You have to come early, if you want a seat in the church, especially in the small churches in the countryside.  The church service that afternoon is normally very festive and the room nicely decorated. And the priest will make an effort to make a sermon, which will interest everybody there, not least the children.

Back home after the church service the kids will watch inciting special Christmas programmes on TV. And the “food engineers” will perform in the kitchen.  Young kids will often get their first presents in the afternoon – to keep them somewhat quiet and a bit “out of the way”!

The main living room will have a nice Christmas tree. A green fir tree, which has been bought some days earlier.  In families with children the tree will often be nicely decorated during the afternoon – but without the kids seeing it. The tree will have many white candles, decorations of all sorts and not least a big silver or golden star in the top – symbolising the star over Bethlehem.  The Christmas presents (everybody gets presents on Christmas eve) will be put under the decorated tree. All a very nice sight!

 

Christmas dinner   will be served around 1800.  The main course will be roast pork  withcrispy skin. Or duck. Or goose.  All with the traditional sweet and sour red cabbage.

This is followed by the very traditional and very rich dessert called riz à l’amande.

And VERY important: the boss in the kitchen has put a whole almond in the riz à l’amande. The person who then gets that in her or his portion has won a special present – the “almond present”!  Attention: If the family has young kids, the mother often cheats and gives each of them an almond too. If not, hell will break loose!  The drinks for the dinner will either be beer or – more often nowadays – wine.

Now the next big moment comes:  Somebody will go to the next room and light all the candles on the Christmas tree.  The door opens – and the kids (and adults alike) will see the impressive tree “in all its might”. With all the presents underneath.

No, no – no presents handed out yet! 

First, everybody has to dance around the tree. In a circle – holding each other’s hands. And singing a number of Christmas hymns and songs.  Starting dancing in one direction and soon turning around and doing it the other way around.  The children can hardly wait for the presents – but they (normally) do. Everybody trying to guess what is in the different nicely wrapped packages.  Not least the big ones!

When this is done one of the kids will distribute the presents. One after one. Everybody opens her or his gift right away and kisses “thank you” to the happy “donor”. Next present… With many family members, not least children, this “present operation” can take hours. But normally good fun.  The very small kids are – before they are put to bed – normally more interested in the used wrapping paper than in their gifts. But as long as everybody is happy Christmas is a jolly good one.

All along the un-packing of presents all sorts of homemade cookies and different chocolates are at disposal. 

It will be very late, before everybody will be in his or her beds. So next morning is a very late morning. Except for the children who wake up early to play with their new toys!

And except in my home, where my mother had her birthday on December 25. But this is a different story.