Do you do more or less the same as danish? God Jul!
2006-12-07 22:05:14 · 6 answers · asked by Lassie 2 in Society & Culture ➔ Holidays ➔ Other - Holidays
Get naked?
2006-12-07 22:14:52 · answer #1 · answered by Campbell M 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Honest answer: We'll probably show up at the father-in-law's place, mid morning on the 24th, where he will proceed to fill the children with chocolate and julmust (christmas cola!) until they are bouncing off the ceilings. Mother in law will spend the entire time in the kitchen, from which I am banished (how else could she complain all year that nobody in the family ever helps her with the big holiday meals?)
Then around 1 we'll eat lunch, everyone will try to make me eat more sill (herring) than I really want, and wonder why I'm not drinking (at least one person will insist I am not being very swedish, I'm never sure if it's over the lack of herring or the lack of booze.)
About 2-30 or so, the kids will be back on the candy, and we'll all be sitting around trying to stay awake until 3, when the all important Kalle-Anka comes on. Why this is a Swedish christmas tradition, I really don't know, but it is, and very vital too. Someone will come on tv, light a single candle, and play a selection of old disney clips - always the same ones every year, we all know every word and image by heart. I'm rather fond of the Ferdinand the bull clip myself. About half way through most of the adults will be snoring on the sofa, because the heat has been turned way up by some well meaning auntie, and we just ate way too much carbs.
Around 4, the Kalle-Anka will be over, and the kids will wake us all up, and it's present time! If they're little, the neighbours take turns dressing up as Tomte in a brown sack (often with an incongruosly modern red santa hat to top it off) and deliver the present sack to each other, so that the 'dad' can be in the room when tomte comes, and the kids don't catch on that it's not really tomte.
Then everyone opens their gifts (which usually means everyone opens theirs all at once, so you never get to see what everyone got.)
Sometime about 6 or 7, just when the kids have finished off the rest of the candy (including the new lot they got in their presents), and someone's desparately wanted present has been broken beyond repair (usually resulting in someone pulling someone elses hair), we pile them all in the car, along with a whole hamper of food (because mother-in-law always cooks enough to feed 437 people, even though there's usually only 10 or 12 of us. I swear, 3 hams she cooked last christmas, for 12 people.)
On the 25th, the pubs are open again, so you can guess where most of the Swedes are.
Yeah, from what I hear, that's not a million miles away from the Danish.
2006-12-08 08:55:20 · answer #2 · answered by Gullefjun 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Wikipedia: "Swedish Christmas celebrations begin with the first of Advent. Saint Lucy Day (locally known as Luciadagen) is the first major Christmas celebration before Christmas itself. As in many other countries in northern Europe, Jultomten (a version of Santa Claus mixed with old folklore, see Yule and Tomte) brings the presents on Christmas Eve, the day generally thought of as Christmas.
Christmas is as everywhere a holiday of food, almost all Swedish families celebrate Christmas on December 24 with a Christmas smörgåsbord (julbord). The common part of almost all julbord is the julskinka (baked ham), but there are also other common dishes such as meatballs, pickled herring, square ribs, lutfisk, pork sausage, Janssons frestelse (grated potatoes, onion, anchovy and cream), and rice pudding. The Christmas julbord is served with beer or julmust (somewhat similar to root beer) and snaps, the dishes of the julbord may vary throughout Sweden. Businesses traditionally invite their employees to a julbord dinner or lunch the weeks before Christmas, and people go out privately to restaurants offering julbord during December, as well.
Examples of candies and treats associated with Christmas are toffee, knäck (quite similar to butterscotch), fruit, nuts, figs, chocolate, dates and marzipan. Another Scandinavian speciality is the glögg (mulled and spiced wine with almonds and raisins), which is served hot in small cups.
Television also plays a big role in most families, the Disney Christmas special and Karl Bertil Jonssons julafton (animated short) are regarded by many to be the most important highlights of the Christmas television programming.
After the julbord on Christmas Eve, the presents are distributed, either by Jultomten or a family member, and usually from a sack or from under the Christmas tree where they have been laying all day or for several days. In older days a yule goat was an alternative to Jultomten, nowadays it is used as an ornament, ranging from sizes of 10 cm to huge constructions like the Gävle goat, famous for being vandalized almost every Christmas.
If one has two families to celebrate Christmas with, it is common that one of the families move their celebrations to Christmas Day or the first Saturday before Christmas Eve (commonly referred to as little Christmas Eve).
After Christmas Eve, the Christmas celebrations have more or less come to an end. Some people attend the julottan, an early morning church service on Christmas Day. Christmas Day and Boxing Day are of no big significance to Swedish celebrations.
On January 13 (locally known as knutdagen), 20 days after Christmas, the Christmas celebrations come to an end and all Christmas decorations are removed."
There are also some pretty weird Yule songs. "The fox hurries over the ice, the fox hurries over the ice. And may I, and may I sing the song of Crybaby?" "Little froggies, little froggies are so fun to see. No ears, no ears, no tails they have. Koack koack, koack koack, koack koack koack". Et cetera.
God Jul och Gott Nytt Ar!
2006-12-08 08:30:28 · answer #3 · answered by AskAsk 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It's all in here baby:
http://www.ehow.com/how_11732_celebrate-swedish-christmas.html
2006-12-08 06:57:53 · answer #4 · answered by stevedukenew 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Probably the same has us only naked.
2006-12-09 08:48:43 · answer #5 · answered by Ollie 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
drive their volvos to a sauna
2006-12-08 06:12:48 · answer #6 · answered by grinny 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋