Welcome, once again, to my Danish Christmas Advent Calendar! Every day I’ll be giving you a little peak into how our family celebrates Christmas here in Copenhagen.Do the Danes love Christmas? Um, yes – they even use the word Christmas as a verb… Vi juler! (We are ‘christmasing’!)
So get comfy, put your feet up, grab a cup of something warm, and prepare for an avalanche of hygge!
23 December 2015
One sleep to go, woop woop! Today is Lille Juleaften – 23 December – which is “Little Christmas Eve” here in Denmark. The last day of school for kids and the last shopping day (tomorrow all the shops in our village will be closed – though, in a pinch, you might be able to find a petrol station/minimarket open). I’ll be putting the rice on to cook for the traditional ris à l’amande dessert so that we are half-prepped for the Big Day tomorrow.
I was late in feeling the Christmas spirit this year. (My Dad died at the end of September, so it is going to be a very different Christmas for us.) But we had friends over for dinner the other night (always fun watching our kids play hide and seek together!) and it meant we could pretend it was Christmas Eve, exchange some gifts and…
eat more of all that lovely konfekt that we made!
This weekend we also had some very yummy julefrokoster (lunches)…rugbrød (ryebread) with all the different toppings. Here are a few of the things you’ll typically come across:
- marinerede sild (marinated herring with egg mayo), karry sild (curried herring) and tomat sild (tomato herring)
- fiskefileter med remoulade (hot crumbed fish fillets with remoulade sauce)
- rejer (prawns) and gravad laks (smoked salmon with dill)
- varmt leverpostej med champignon og bacon (hot liverpâté with mushrooms and bacon)
- rullepølse med løgringe og sennep (rolled pork with ‘italian salad’ which is basically peas and carrot pieces mixed with mayo)
- sylte med sennep (potted meat with mustard)
- tarteletter med hønsekød og asparges (warm tart cases filled with chicken and asparagus)
- flæskesteg med rødkål (roast pork with red cabbage)
- medister med rødkål og sennep (a ’round’ pork sausage with red cabbage and mustard
- frikadeller (Danish meatballs)
- ost (cheese)
.
Phew, I need a brisk walk after all that. Or perhaps a nap! 😉
One sleep to go. See you tomorrow, when I’ll be opening the door for the last time this Christmas!
Diane 