Danish Christmas Traditions
In this lens I will have a look at danish christmas tree decoration, danish christmas food, danish christmas songs and then all the quirky little things that makes christmas, christmas for me and many other danish people.
Please keep in mind that Christmas traditions are often very different from family to family. I will share danish christmas traditions from my point of view.
I hope you will enjoy! :)
When is Christmas in Denmark?
Calender Candle
Counting the days to Christmas
A Calender Candle is something almost everyone in Denmark purchases when Christmas draws near. It is basically a candle decorated with numbers from 1-24. The candles are most often red, white or green and many features christmas motives like elves, snowmen, gifts orchristmas trees.
The candle is often placed in a decoration made from clay and pine branches, bows, mushrooms, golden acorns and other christmas related items.
The idea is to burn a number every day starting from 1 and ending on with 24 on the day of christmas.
Some families will sing christmas songs while the number of the day melts away.
The Christmas Candle is such a simple thing, but one of the traditions I miss the most after moving to Ireland.
You can actually buy these on Amazone.
For EU:
Red Advent Countdown Candle Pyramid
Christmas Advent candle
Christmas Advent Candle
Amazon Price: $6.95 (as of 05/30/2012)
Help counting down the days to Christmas with and advent candle. Nothing is more cozy than sitting inside with candles lit when it is cold and dark outside.
If you have children they will love making the decoration for the candle.
Lego Christmas Countdown candle
LEGO Build Your Own Holiday Countdown Candle
Amazon Price: $93.54 (as of 05/30/2012)
If your child is too young to burn candles alone, but would still like to have a Calendar Candle in their room, you can get this awesome Lego version.
A very christmassy base and a flame on top makes the framework for the inbetween numbered blocks. Every day your child can remove a block themselves while counting down to the big day. This is certain to be an instant hit and building the candle at the last day of november could become a returning christmas tradition.
"Advent Calendar" on television and in real life.
The danish Julekalender
Common for most of these shows is that they contain some level of singing, songs from the shows sometimes sticks around and becomes part of the Christmas song tradition for many families. An example of this would be the song "Det er Risengrød" (trans.: "It is rice pudding") from "Nissebanden i Grønland" (trans.: "Santas little helpers in Greenland)
The Julekalenders used to be mostly for children, however in recent times more satirical ones has been produced for a grown up audience and watching these is a very big part of the christmas month for many adults. The most famous of these is "The Julekalender" (yes that is the name) made by the danish comedy group "De Nattergale" (trans.: the nightingales). Read more about the Julekalender here
Some of the characters from the shows become wildly popular and results in a lot of merchandise like clothing, cd's and dvd's.
All in all Julekalenders are a huge part of december and something most people in Denmark associate with Christmas.
The songs from "The Julekalender" by de Nattergale
Christmas Angel Chime
Scandinavian Christmas Angel Chimes
Amazon Price: $7.95 (as of 05/30/2012)
My grandparents have one of these Angel Chimes. On Christmas day the 24th of December we decorate the tree, however before anyone touches any ornaments, the christmas angel chime is put together. Then accompagnied by the delightful chiming we decorate the Christmas tree.
It is a great little tradition. The combination of the lights, the gold colour and the crisp little chimes makes it almost magical.
Christmas 2012 is up next
Countdown to Christmas
Are Christmas Traditions important?
For many Christmas is all about traditions, but what is your opinion?
Yes, all the traditions is what makes Christmas so special!
Lovelifelaughter says:
Yes, to a degree the traditions are important. But it is more important that we enjoy the season than to get too hung up on tradition, so that those years when we are unable to do our normal traditions we don't let it spoil the season
fullofshoes says:
for me it is about family... :)
swright0 says:
I have a good friend from Denmark. Thanks so much for sharing. I feel closer to him now. lol!
Tipi says:
Traditions make the season all the brighter because of the things we hide in our hearts all year long.
WriterJanis says:
I really enjoy some of our family traditions.
No, traditions are boring. I try something new each year.
Christmas tree traditions
decorating and dancing
Christmas Tree decorations are traditionally glass baubles, heart baskets, round baskets, small figures(including drums and trumpets), tinsel, stars, candles and sometimes flags. Yes flags! In some danish families thread with small danish flags will be circled around the tree.
On the picture you can see examples of both hand made heart baskets and handmade stars. Both are very traditional and something that wil feature on most danish Christmas Trees. (I haven't seen either over here in Ireland, so I will see if I can't make a small guide or video on how to make them. It is really easy and fun, just need the right type of paper. :))
In the top of the tree most danes traditionally have a big star, it is not as in the UK and US common to have an angel as the Christmas tree topper. Our Christmas tree has sported a Georg Jensen designed star for some years now, which is quite beautiful.
Gifts are placed beneath the tree, but before they can be opened the entire family needs to get together and dance around the tree while singing. People will form a chain by joining hands. If there are enough people the chain will close a circle around the tree. Then while walking around in a ring the danes will sing the Christmas songs. The number of songs is dependant on the family, in mine everyone picks a song and only after all songs has been sung the dancing stops and the gifts can be unwrapped.
Straw Ornaments Assortment in Basket
Traditional danish christmas tree decorations
Straw Ornaments Assortment in Basket - 24 Pk.
Amazon Price: $9.99 (as of 05/30/2012)
These straw ornaments are a traditional part of the danish christmas tree decoration. The box comes with 6 hearts, 6 stars, 6 angels and 6 snowflakes. Straw ornaments like these are very common on the danish christmas trees and you will also often see straw decorations in the shape of a goat decorating danish homes. See below
Christmas Straw Goat
Traditional danish christmas decorations
In the Christian world goats are of course associated with satan, however that is not the intended symbol of the Christmas Goat, so don't be confused or worried if you see one on a danish christmas tree.
Danish Christmas Decorations
Heart baskets and clove filled oranges
Woven paper hearts is as mentioned above a very traditional type of danish christmas decorations. Every year children and adults alike will get together an make heart baskets for the christmas tree. You can find my step by step guide on how to make woven paper hearts here. Traditionally the hearts were filled with raisins, small cookies or candy.The heart baskets can have many different motives and range from very easy to quite tricky.
Crafting woven paper hearts is a great way to make the christmas day pass faster for your child and it is something that is really nice to do together while having the advent calender candle lit.
Another thing that is a danish christmas decoration must is Oranges with cloves. They are easy to make, they look wonderfully christmassy. Additionally they will make your entire house smell lovely. Georg Jensen Christmas Ornaments
Add design to your Christmas
Georg Jensen Christmas Decorations and Ornaments
On Ebay
Christmas lunches and Christmas Beer
the "Julefrokost"
The tradition is carried out throughout the entirety of December and involves big quantities of christmas food and almost always also big quantities of alcohol, particularly Schnapps. The lunches are shared with colleagues, friends or family. It is not uncommon that people have their weekends booked up with these christmas lunches throughout december.
Pickled Herring is a "must" for these lunches and it is consumed on ryebread, for some danes it is tradition to take a shot of schnapps every time they take a bit of herring. This maybe explains why the police are always applying extra alcohol checks throughout december.
Another alcohol related tradition is the release of the Christmas beer. The date has been named "J-dag" (=Julebrygs dag trans. Christmas Beer day). J-day is very popular in Denmark, especially among young people and students in particular. In all its simplicity, the day is celebrating the release of another years Christmas beer (and in extension Christmas) by drinking a lot of the newly released beers. Christmas beers are
The release of the Christmas beer is always on the 1. friday of november (this year it was november the 4th). It was originally a wednesday, however it was moved as it was having an impact on attendance in especially the highschools.
The day is so big now that the Tuborg commercial for Christmas beer for many danes has become equivalent with the Christmas month (much like the Coca Cola Christmas commercial seems to be for some people.
Danish Christmas food
Traditonal Christmas food and the small traditions that follows.
There are a few different opinions on what a traditional danish Christmas dinnner entails. Some will argue that it is Roasted Pork, some that it is duck and in my family it has always been chicken or pot roast, however once the fight over the main course has ceased most danes will unite and agree that the only true Christmas dessert is Rice "pudding" or Rice a la mande. Rice pudding is eaten with a bit of butter added to the middle of the portion and then covered with cinamon and sugar, while Rice a la mande is usually consumed with warm cherry sauce. Both share one very important thing though.Before the bowl is put on the table a whole almond (with out skin) is stirred in. The person that finds the almond wins wins the "almond present". Back in the days, the present was the almond itself as it was quite a luxury, however now a days it is usually a real present, a box of chocolate or something similar.
All the way until I was 20 my grandmother used to sneakily add whole almonds to all the plates of her grandchildren to ensure we all won a present. :)
Another thing that is very traditional food for december is æbleskiver (trans. Ableslices) the name is a bit deceiving as it is small ball-like pancakes. (see the picture) Traditionally a slice of apple was added to the center, hence the name. Some people still do this and some add prune jam, however most people just eat them as it. They are consumed by dipping them in Jam (strawberry, raspeberry etc.) and icing sugar.
Recipe for Aebleskiver
(Æbleskiver in danish)
- Serves: 4
- Prep Time: 15 min
- Total Time: 60 min
This recipe was originally my grandmothers, however I have made a few changes over the years to make it a little less fattening. The Aebleskiver still tastes delicious and comes out beautifully crisp and golden.
Aebleskiver is a traditional danish Christmas cake and dessert.
Ingredients
- 250 g Plain White Flour
- 11 Eggs
- 2 and a half dl Buttermilk
- 100 g Margarine
- The seeds from 4 pods of Cardamom or half a teaspoon of ground Cardamom
- 2 Spoons of Sugar
- A quater of a teaspoon Baking Powder
Instructions
Divide the eggwhites from the yolk.
Add the sugar to the yolk and whip it until it becomes light yellow.
Melt the margarine over low heat so it doesn't burn and become black.
Mix the buttermilk with the margarine and add the Cardamom. Now add it all to the sugar and yolks.
Stir in the Baking Powder and the Flour.
Finally whip the eggwhites so they are completely stiff (ideally you should be able to turn the bowl upside down without the whites falling.)
Gently add the eggwhites to the rest of the ingredients by folding them in.
You should now have a very nice and fluffy dough.
Heat up the Aebleskive pan. I use the heat level 4 on my stove, but it might be different for you depending on the pan and your stove. Experiment a bit. The main thing to look out for is that you don't want the crust to get black and you don't want the dough to become firm before the aebleskive is ready to turn as then you wont get the nice round shape.
For the first batch of dough you might want to add margarine to each hole so they are easier to turn.
Fill each hole to just below the edge and let the aebleskive cook long enough for the outside to get golden. Turn it using a fork or ideally a knitting needle (creates a less visible hole).
Now let it fry until it is golden on the other side as well.
Serve piping hot fresh of the pan with sugar and jam. (Icing sugar is extremely yummy with Aebleskiver, but normal casting sugar is great too).
Aebleskiver can be re-heated both in normal oven and in microwave and still tastes great.
You get between 35 and 40 Aebleskiver from this recipe
Æbleskive pan and Recipes
If the picture made you want to taste.
Danish Christmas Songs
The songs of Christmas
It is so hard to pick a favourite, however I guess "Juletræet med sin pynt"(Mogens Lorentzen 1939) is the highest ranking for me. Directly translated it means "The Christmas Tree with its decoration". The song is about the tree bringing hope of lighter days and warmer weather.
Below is a list of what I believe are the most well known danish christmas songs. I might have left someting obvious out, if you can see I have, be sure to leave me a message. :)
Danish Christmas Songs
What is you favourite Christmas tradition?
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DonD
Jan 19, 2012 @ 4:10 am | delete
- Wow that was a great Christmas tradition in Denmark then. So cool tradition at the same time the lense is great.
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Lovelifelaughter
Jan 10, 2012 @ 2:25 pm | delete
- This is a most interesting lens.
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smithlights
Dec 30, 2011 @ 2:12 am | delete
- Thanks for sharing! This is very cool.
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smithlights
Dec 30, 2011 @ 2:12 am | delete
- Thanks for sharing! This is very cool.
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mismatch
Dec 29, 2011 @ 11:25 am | delete
- We also have the goat in my home country to go to the houses, with a group and the goat dances and one must put a coin into its clapping big mouth -- it's not associated with Satan but with the ancient Romans -- I never understood why -- and there is a song that goes with the goat that says it is coming from Africa. So, yes, that's about the goat in my tradition -- now I am living in Africa but didn't see the animal around.
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Danish Christmas Ornaments on Ebay
Some of my other lenses
This Happy Snowman page written by
Mistel
I am 29 and christmas is still my favourite time of the year. I simple love everything about the season. From the gift shopping to the christmas dinne... more »
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Danish Butter Cookies
Royal Dansk Danish Butter Cookies 4 Pound Tin
Amazon Price: $15.28 (as of 05/30/2012)
Get a little taste of danish Christmas with these traditional butter cookies directly from Denmark. The beautiful tin cookie jar can be put directly on the table and as this is a 4 pound tin there should be danish butter cookies enough for everyone.
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