Christmas in Denmark – How my family celebrates Christmas Eve

In Denmark we celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve. The evening is the culmination of weeks of festivities and preparations, and it is by far the biggest holiday in Denmark. It varies a lot how people in Denmark celebrate Christmas Eve both in terms of what people eat, when they dance around the Christmas tree, and when the presents are opened. I have asked 5 of my friends, and it turns out we all celebrate Christmas in different ways, so in order not to make it too confusing, I will only share how Christmas Eve is celebrated in my family:

Some people bring in the Christmas tree early December, while others wait until the Sunday just before Christmas. In my family the tree isn’t brought in until December 23rd, but that would be considered very late. After the tree is brought in, we decorate the tree with old decorations and ornaments (most of them dating back to when my sister and I were kids) and place the parcels under the tree. On December 24 we relax and eat konfekt (Christmas candy made from marzipan), æbleskiver (Danish pancake balls – recipe here) and cookies, while watching tv and waiting for the time to pass. Late in the afternoon, we go to church to attend the Christmas service, more out of tradition than out of religious faith. Most Danes aren’t very religious, and for my family, Christmas is the time only time of the year we go to church.

When we are back from church, it is time for the Christmas dinner. In my family we eat roast goose or duck with brunede kartofler (caramelized potatoes) and a thick, brown gravy. The goose is stuffed with diced apple and orange, and sometimes, we also have apples with red currant jelly on the side.

My mom also makes Waldorf salad using my late grandma’s recipe. It’s been a part of my family’s Christmas dinners for so many years that I only recently learned it’s not actually from Denmark but from the United States. The salad is named after the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City, where it was first created in 1896.

For dessert we eat risalamande (Christmas rice pudding – recipe here), which is a rice pudding dessert with whipped cream, chopped almonds and vanilla, served with warm cherry sauce. One whole almond is added, and the person who gets the almond, gets the mandelgave (almond gift).

When my granddad was still alive, he would show up after dinner, dressed as Santa, with a sack full of presents, and while the rest of us is working on recovering from food coma, my dad lights the candles on the Christmas tree. We only have real candles on the tree for Christmas Eve, the rest of the time, we are using electric lights for safety reasons.

Then it is time to dance around the tree. In my family, we sing 3-5 Christmas carols, and change the direction of the dance after each carol, so we don’t get dizzy after all that around-and-around walking. When we are done with the dancing, we open the presents, send Merry Christmas texts to our friends and eat a little more konfekt, before going to bed.

Read my blog post about Christmas traditions in Denmark >>