For this week’s Fun Monday, Humble Housewife asked us to share a holiday tradition. Christmas is coming up, so that’s what I chose. I’m really excited about this year because this is the first year that Thomas and I will celebrate the holiday as a married couple. We’re hosting my family, and I’m not sure what traditions we will incorporate yet.
This post also corresponds with a swap I’m participating in. If you’re interested in learning about holiday traditions, you might want to check out the Holiday Tradition Exchange – signups are open until November 11.
Now don’t get me wrong, I love the holidays with my family, but I’m having a hard time figuring out what special traditions we follow. We always eat, chat, and play cards, but that goes with any time we all get together. We do the usual traditions – Christmas tree, lights on the house, and Christmas dinner, but they’re pretty common. Instead, I’m going to describe some of Thomas’ family traditions. They live in Sweden, so some of the traditions were very new to me when I spent the holiday with them last year.
First, his family opens presents on Christmas Eve. Santa didn’t come while we were sleeping, but instead Tomte, the Christmas gnome, snuck in while we were out of the house. He has a Christmas Goat (julboken) rather than flying reindeer. He does pose in the mall for photos, however, just like Santa does. I think we’ll opt for presents on Christmas Day this year.
Decorations were a little different too. Thomas’ family had an American-style tree with lots of ornaments, but usually Swedish families have a very plain tree. They hang paper stars and have v-shaped candelabras in the windows. Many of the houses had Christmas-themed curtains too. We’ll probably display some of these decorations in our house.
A huge Swedish tradition is to watch the Kalle Anka’s (Swedish for Donald Duck) Christmas Special – always at 3PM on Christmas Eve. It’s supposedly the most watched show for the entire year. It was a little weird to see videos I recognized as American with Swedish subtitles and voice over. Here’s a clip of Thomas’ favorite scene (click the image to play the video in YouTube).
The foods we had were different too. There was salted ham, mashed potatoes, mashed parsnip, and rice pudding for dessert. We’ll probably be doing turkey, sweet potatoes, and pecan pie at our house this year. In Sweden, family friends stopped by for a smorgasboard dinner throughout the week after Christmas. I thought this was a lovely way to visit with friends after the holiday. I doubt we’ll try and incorporate it this year, but perhaps in future years. Instead, I expect my family will hit the after Christmas sales bright and early on the day after.
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The first year together as hubby and wife are the BEST time to start traditions as you add others in the future, upcoming holidays together.
Great post. I love hearing about other traditions! I went to an international school in Belgium growing up and one of my best friends is Swedish. I remember hearing about the Donald Duck thing before, but the rest is all new! Very cool!
Thank you for referring me to the Holiday Traditions swap, I will definitely sign up!
I really enjoyed reading your old posts. Your crafts are beautiful. I’ve subscribed to your feed and will be back for more! ;-)
The contrast is very interesting. My first Christmas as a married couple was very memorable. It was on Cape Cod in our little shingle house in the woods with army friends present during WWII. The only family connection was a telephone call from my daddy for which I had to walk a second time about a quarter of a mile in the snow to a neighbor’s house to receive.
This is very nice. :) Beautiful pics.
Don’t they do St. Lucia’s day, too? I thought that was Sweden. It’s funny that Donald is the most watched show!
Thanx for sharing some Swedish traditions. Interesting. :) We always open gifts on Christmas eve too.
I kept getting distracted by your photos on the sidebar, sorry my attention was divided. :)
I love rice pudding. My mom always made it without raisins. To get it that way now, I’ll have to make it myself!
Very intriguing traditions – and I have never heard of mashed parsnip!
I love the idea of a Christmas gnome with a goat to help him deliver presents!
It’s so nice to combine family traditions and create new ones.
It’s always a challenge to mesh holidays and create your own traditions together.
Yikes, Tomte the dwarf sounds a little creepy! Well, I guess no more creepy then a big jolly fat man coming down your chimney!!!
Thanks for visiting my site which focused on Scandinavian traditions also. I didn’t know about the gnome and his goat, that’s cute!
I’m always amazed by how many different Christmas traditions there are throughout Europe. It will be nice for you to make traditions of your own, as a married couple. Off to look at the holiday swap now!
I love to hear about traditions in other parts of the world thanks for sharing!
Love hearing about your traditions…
pretty pictures btw
I had fun reading about the Swedish traditions. I rather like that idea of a plain tree with paper stars. Sometimes we tend to get carried away with decorating; simple might be better.
Wow, interesting post. Tomte the Christmas gnome with his flying goats sounds quite bizzare!
Thank you for sharing the traditions, it is always interesting to hear how others celebrate the holidays. I signed up for the holiday traditions exchange. It looks like a lot of fun (: