What are some Scandinavian Christmas traditions?
Winter in Scandinavia is extremely dark. "Jul" or Yule was celebrated before Scandinavia transformed into Christianity and it was an observation of winter solstice – and then the days become longer and darkness will eventually leave.
"Jul" means the change of the feast of feasts. It was believed that it would ensure prosperity for the next year. It was also associated with supernatural powers when animals had voices.
Christmas Eve was the high point of the Scandinavian winter holidays. There was traditionally a dinner on Christmas Eve and then church on Christmas morning.
One of the most obvious Scandinavian traditions is putting whole cloves into tangerines. Also, you want a nice warm stew with an assortment of meats, cheeses, and breads.
Although I grew up in North America, we knew that we were Norwegian (and there was a communities of us…not just Norwegians, but other Scandinavians) and certain traditions were most important around Christmas. Norwegians traditionally open gifts on Christmas eve. It is not uncommon to circle the Christmas tree singing Christmas carols. Christmas morning we wake while it is still dark and go go to church. The church is lit with many candles and again there is singing of Christmas carols. This is followed by a breakfast smorgasbord. We traditionally had things like lefse, fresh baked breads, cheeses, cold cuts or lox, Scandinavian cookies, sometimes little quiches (not sure that the last one is traditional though). There were always many cookies in the house at Christmas time, in fact tradition says that there should be at least seven different types. Christmas day we traditionally only had the Christmas breakfast and then an early Christmas dinner (late afternoon or early evening). Th
