A Food Lover's guide to A Swedish Christmas Feast

After 17 years on earth, I can now say I’ve celebrated Christmas in two countries. I’m quite experienced with December 25th in the US, but now I’ve spent one in Sweden as well. Despite being on the other side of the world, many of the traditions that I’ve grown up knowing were almost the same. They all just had a Scandinavian twist put on them. The biggest, most Scandinavian twist of them all was unquestionably the food. Christmas isn't the only holiday that is celebrated during December that has its own signature foods; one holiday leading up to Christmas is Santa Lucia ,which is on December 13th. It’s considered part of the Christmas festivities while still being a holiday of its own. During Lucia, Swedes enjoy foods made specially for that holiday. Before I explain the food, I should explain the holiday itself. Santa Lucia was a saint who according to legend, put candles on her head to free her hands so she could carry as much food as possible to Christians hiding in the catacombs. The celebration once coincided with the Winter Solstice because she brought light on the darkest day of the year. Every year Sweden celebrates Lucia by electing a Lucia to sing in the National choir on TV. Most choirs, schools, and any singing group no matter how small can perform Lucia. At my school, because we don’t have a choir, the teachers performed Lucia. I even was invited to a Lucia party held in a barn where a group of sisters came in on horses and ponies accompanied by sleigh bells while singing the songs. The typical choir will have their Lucia, the girl with the candle wreath on her head and her maidens. The maidens wear the same long white robe as Lucia but instead of a candle wreath on their heads, they carry their candles. Behind them stand the stärngossar (star boys). Boys with large cone shape hats that carry stars on sticks. At the end of the procession are the gingerbread men, wearing brown gingerbread costumes. They sing a number of Lucia songs that most Swedes can recite from memory and at the end walk away, led by their Lucia. The food eaten at Lucia is typically Lussekatter (saffron buns) dotted with two raisins each. Swedes love to use saffron during the holidays. Along with the saffron buns is pepparkaka (ginger bread) and Julmust, which I will get more into later.

In the US, we all know the standard Christmas dinner feast. It’s similar to that of the typical Thanksgiving meal with potatoes, gravy, stuffing, pie, and a few more things. One of the only difference that I’ve noticed is that usually Christmas dinner comes with a ham instead of a Thanksgiving turkey. Swedish Christmas food contrasts greatly with what I’ve grown up with in Alaska. In Sweden it’s called a Julbord, kind of like a Christmas buffet. Over the month of December, I was able to eat a Julbord on a few separate occasions. My school served one for lunch one day and at my Rotary Christmas party, they had one. My favorite Julbord that I ate at though was the one we had on Christmas eve where all the relatives in my host family came together for the evening. The whole meal was three courses with about half an hour in between to give everyone time to digest. Before anyone even started thinking about food, everyone was offered glögg to drink while socializing. Glögg is Swedish for mulled wine but at this party, it was alcohol free. Along with the drink, a small bowl of raising and another full of thinly sliced almonds were passed around to be mixed in with the sweet drink. Another very common drink around the holidays is called Julmust. It looks like Coca-Cola but everyone makes sure you know that it is nothing like it when first trying Julmust. Swedes love it so much that the sales of Coca Cola drop as much as 75% every December while Swedes switch out Coke for Julmust. Julmust can be found on most dinner tables and is considered an important part of the Christmas meal.

Another food item eaten before dinner, along with glögg, was pepparkakor (gingerbread).I had never heard of this or even tried it like this before but my host family was very adamant to show me how to eat them with thick slices of blue cheese. It took a little bit of time to get used to because I’m not a very big fan of blue cheese but after eating it at multiple events, I can now say I am comfortable eating it.

When dinner was served, we all gathered around a small table containing the first course, which was the cold foods. It typically includes a variety of fish and eel. You will always be able to find sill (pickled herring) among other pickled items. It also has boiled egg halves, bread, and sliced meats like skinka (ham), and turkey. After that, the second course was introduced with the hot foods. This is my favorite part of dinner because it always has the famously delicious Swedish meatballs. Furthermore it has baby sausages, boiled potatoes, and sometimes a potato casserole dish loaded with cream and herring. After the second course, I couldn’t even think about eating anything else, but then the dessert was brought out. A sweet, cinnamon rice porridge accompanied with strawberry sauce. All previous notions of being full were quickly pushed out of my head as I loaded my bowl with the Christmas dessert.

A few hours later, at the end of the night, we all sat down one more time for coffee and small cakes. When we left after a long night of eating, laughing, and enjoying ourselves, I was informed that there would be lots of leftovers for the coming days. After a whole month of Christmas foods, I’m a little tired of the fish and eggs, but I’m definitely looking forward to doing it all over again when Easter rolls around. Like the US, many of the staple foods eaten during Christmas, are also eaten during the other major holidays and I couldn’t be more excited!

Words of the Week-

Pepparkakor- Gingerbread

Lussekatt- Saffronbun

Sill- Herring

Glögg- Mulled Wine

Köttbullar- Meatballs

#Christmas #Food