A luxury “Jul”: Learn about a real Danish Christmas!
Christmas is the most important holiday for the Danes. To make sure that this is a holiday full of peace and quiet people have to placate the mischievous Julenisse elves. And what about having some “Julebryg” afterwards? It seems that the Danes have their own name for everything.
The masterpiece called “Julebryg” – the entrée to the Christmas period
The First Important Day, the First Friday in November, traditionally belongs to “Julebryg”, a deluxe Christmas beer. Every larger brewery makes its own version of this Christmas brew, which all have good quality and a higher alcohol content in common.
Would you like a bedtime story with a trace of Christmas?
Another nice tradition is called “julekalender”. You could say that it is similar to the Czech bedtime stories on TV, but with the difference that it is on a beautiful Christmas theme. How can we describe it? This is a 24-part television series, which culminates with the last part broadcast on Christmas Eve. A negative supernatural character or power tries to destroy Christmas. But good wins!
Some people have Santa, others have Father Frost, the Danes have “Julemand”
They call him “Julemand”, the Christmas man who is very similar to the well-known Santa Claus. He also drives a sleigh pulled by reindeer and he lives in the North Pole. The main difference is that his family also lives with him. “Julemor” is the mother and “julebørn” are their children.
A typical Danish Christmas Eve – whoever finds the almond becomes the almond victor
Christmas Eve culminates at around 6 p.m. Everyone is home from various visits and walks, and they can start enjoying a luxury meal. “Stegte landand” is served as the main meal and is a duck with stuffing, potatoes in melted sugar sauce and red cabbage or sauce. Smoked sausages, turkey, meat patties or traditional Danish steak called “julebørn flæskesteg” may also make an appearance.
“Ris à la mandel“, which an abbreviation of rice and almonds, is a traditional dessert. This is a sort of rice pudding with cream, with plenty of broken almonds and only one whole almond. It is amazing that the whole almond is usually found by the children, even though it is absolutely impossible to determine where exactly it is in the rice pudding. Then there is another deluxe Scandinavian tradition – “dancing” round the tree and singing Christmas carols. And the youngest family members look forward to the next tradition – which is unwrapping gifts. Would you like to experience a Danish Christmas?
