A Merry Christmas To One and To All

My first Christmas away from home was a lovely one indeed.

The month of December is both a dreaded and celebrated time in Sweden.  Dreaded because by now, there is no denying the cold in the air and the frost on the ground.  Days are dark - with the sun rising around 9 and setting around 3 p.m..  Although this season has been unusually warm, there are bad days where you can't understand why it's barely one degree below freezing and the rain just will not make way for at least some more appropriate snow.  But December is also Christmas, or Jul (pronounced yool), and that is a sight to behold.  This is the time when for once, the natural beauty of Sweden doesn't quite make it, so we make the country beautiful ourselves.  Every house and building is lit up with a cheery warm light throughout the overcast days and especially the chilly nights.  There is a buzz about the people as they talk about Jul and their plans, presents and family.  There exists a twinkle in their eye as some teenagers for once, would rather spend their time with their families than go out with their friends.  

The countless shops and malls have picked up on the Christmas spirit first; setting up strings of lights and "God Jul!" in every window.  A walk through Nordstan, the biggest and most popular shopping center, brings about a feeling of content that Jul is starting.  Then you think of the superficial, commercial motivations of these shops and you feel a little bitter but regardless, the pretty lights still draw your eyes and that's still where you will end up buying all your Christmas presents.  This is an important season to Swedes and they make it special.  The city placed lights and decorations on every surface (while still being simple, modest and Scandinavian) and had Christmas music playing.  Huge Christmas trees on some squares, charity organizations stationed on the streets, talk of the white Christmas we wish we could have, well, white.

At school, the semester is drawing to a close and the teachers decide it's a good time to make group assignments in virtually every class.  People are getting to know their classmate's Jullov (Christmas break) plans and their hopes for Christmas.  Friends are accompanying each other on quick lunch excursions to the countless shops around town to find a good present for their mom that they will have their dad buy in their name.  And everywhere Swedes are getting excited about the seasonal and traditional foods that put the taste of Christmas in their mouths.  There is communal humming among groups - those Christmas songs are painfully catchy.  A few of my classmates earned quite a bit of money for Musikhjälpen by randomly bursting out in Christmas pop singing.  Christmas playlists are popping up on Spotify and classmates are studying to the bittersweet Last Christmas, I gave you my heart but... Many of my classmates can be compared to breathing jukeboxes; drop a line or a known tune and they will all pick up the song before you can remember it's name.  Most of them know America's top 100 popular songs, 5 years running, better than I do.  Singing is a commonplace in the classroom and especially out and about.  They can turn anything into a song.  That's something I appreciate; that we have this music in common.  

There are layers and layers of Swedish traditions surrounding this time of year; some that make sense and some that I have to say I haven't figured out yet.  Regardless, Jul in Sweden is such a solid holiday with a stable structure that has supported the hopes and joy of the people of this country for more generations than the age of the U.S.A.  It's a time when Swedes will eagerly come to you asking what you think of their Christmas thus far, because they want to share it with foreigners and they want to be assured that their Jul traditions are as special as they think.  I want to try to give my friends and family a good idea of the importance and the unique experience that is Jul starting with the food. 

Food:

If you thought America had a lot of traditional Christmas foods, just wait until it is as old as Sweden is and maybe count up how many have accumulated.  I can't begin to tell you all the traditional Christmas foods, mostly because I couldn't possibly try them all in one celebration.  During dinner, my host mom was kind enough to tell me all the other cuisine that I may have missed at other times of the year if it wasn't on the table now.  This year, my family was wise to split the usual heaping Christmas meal into three consecutive nights.  As the dinner went on, my host mom would tell me how I'm supposed to eat each component and after a pause, add "if you want to.  That's just how it's usually done."  Perhaps I lost her trust after stirring the porridge earlier in the year... :) There was pickled fish, which is infinitely better than the fermented surströmming, and meat spreads that are typically eaten with bread.  For our family there were a few Norwegian foods mixed in as well.  We had Christmas ham, meatballs and my personal favorite, smoked salmon.  Swedes are fond of macka, which is basically any type of sandwich - get creative.  Our definition of sandwich is different from theirs - if there is bread involved it's a macka   We started with a basket containing a variety of breads and passed it around a table with quite a variety of  spreads meant to go on top of a slice.  Inevitably, there were potatoes.  One must eat potatoes, usually boiled, about 4 or 5 times a week.  They seem to "go with everything" and add a little more substance to the meal.  The potatoes have no real taste, so I suppose they are just there to add another layer to a carefully crafted forkfull.  

Those were a few other things we ate on the actual few days of our Jul feasts, but I would be remiss to exclude Julmust and pepparkakor.  Julmust is a carbonated drink unique to Sweden.  It's hard to describe the taste, but I would suppose it is Sweden's version of Root Beer, but less sweet and with more of a kick.  I thought it, like root beer, tasted rather like medicine the first time I tried it, but I gave it another chance and we're friends now.  It's pretty delicious - sweet but spicy in a savory way - perfect for washing down your pepparkakor.  These are basically Swedish gingerbread, but more important.  They are almost always store bought in big round tubs of varying, competing brands, or bought as dough for the purpose of cutting out your own shapes.  It's thinner than gingerbread, crunchier and has a better taste, in my opinion.  You would never dream of putting frosting or any sort of decorations on your pepparkakor (silly Americans) so they are plain and brown, but cut into sweet shapes.  They're also addicting, so there is no feeling of dismay the likes of the sensation of slightly greasy fingers fumbling around a round, plastic tub that is all too empty.  It's disheartening, but your fingers can still grab onto a springy pink and white santa marshmallow.  These three components, as well as clementines, are a typical Christmas fika, mass produced for gatherings and kids.  This combination is standard and well accepted.  

Also, started a little earlier than the pepparkakor craze are lussekatter.  These are little buns made with saffron that give them a distinct yellow color.  Often they are decorated into coils with a couple of raisins for garnish.  When I first tasted them, I didn't think they were too good.  Not bad, but very plain and nothing at all special to me.  However to Swedes, it means Christmas is just around the corner and lussekatter becomes the most popular companion in fikas for a few weeks.  After making them myself and trying them warm from the oven, I was corrected in my thinking and am seriously in love.  When these lussekatter are warm and soft, they are so delicious and suddenly brilliant in their simplicity.  

For the first couple of days before Christmas Eve, my host sister, Mette, and I did a LOT of Christmas baking.  We share an interest in baking and it was plain to see that when combined, the house would rain in candy and treats.  Swedes don't bake cookies and cakes on Christmas, but rather candies like caramel and toffee and truffles.  At first, I suggested to make sugar cookies to add a little American culture but then I realized I don't even like sugar cookies so I embraced the Swedish ways.  For a solid day and a half, we made two types of caramel, a rocky road type of chocolate bark, caramel popcorn (it took some convincing, but the family is now sold on the concept), and nougat covered in marzipan and dipped in chocolate.  My favorite thing to add were the chocolate covered candied almonds that I consider traditional to the Putnams.  Although not always annually, my mother would make these almonds and put them in pretty decorated jars for me to give to my teachers before Christmas break in elementary school.  As I got older, I started to help out in making these almonds and discovered a passion.  My mother and I would stay up late making these almonds, well I would do the work and she would keep me company.  I didn't let her help because she lost my trust the year she dumped the almonds in the chocolate and poured the combination out on a cookie sheet to cool.  Unacceptable.  It's utterly painstaking because each almond, after being roasted and caramelized in cinnamon sugar, must be dipped in chocolate and laid out on a baking sheet to set.  You have to fish each one out individually with two forks and carefully set them down without touching each other.  I usually do this for hours and hours.  It sounds crazy, but it's one of my favorite things.  I have a system and I am more than a little picky about how these almonds are made.  None of my family members helped me because I wouldn't let them and they were afraid of what I would do if they did it wrong.  When I put effort into something, it has to be perfect, so I make sure each individual almond was perfectly coated and loved.  Making them this year did made me miss my mom though!

Decorations:

Like in the States, most households in Sweden will have a Christmas tree decorated much the same way.  Either real or fake, it doesn't really matter.  Swedes go a little more easy on the ornaments, though.  My family had a very pretty tree that I was excited about, because it smelled good and it was very short and squat and big.  It stood between the eating area and the living room and it was pretty to see it lit up.  More importantly, however, Sweden is lit up from the inside out in neighborhoods as every house hangs star lamps in the windows and/or fake candles in the shape of an upside down V.  Upon arriving from Denmark on December 1st, my birthday, my host sister who has just moved back home, had gone to work on the house and all of our windows were lit up and cheery.  I don't exaggerate as I say that every house and office window has a soft light that rises as the sun goes down.  All through the night, they provide the Jul light and keep up our spirits as we nurse the rejection the sun has shown to us.  You won't see tacky decorations on the outside of houses save a few lights on trees, but whole neighborhoods are aglow with soft yellow light.  

My host family, it turns out, has boxes and boxes of accumulated Christmas ornaments and decorations to go around the house.  I was taken aback since it is the polar opposite of what I am used to.  My mother doesn't do decorations very much, particularly seasonal decorations, so our house changed very little as Christmas came and went.  In this house, every room has several decorations placed everywhere in every corner.  I really like it actually, because it feels good to see the house look a little different in honor of Jul.  It makes it feel more like a home - my second home.  

Christmas morning (which is actually Christmas Eve):

A distinguishing Swedish vs. America difference is that Sweden celebrates just about all of Christmas on Christmas Eve, the 24th.  That's when gifts are exchanged and family comes over for visits.  There's charm to waking up early on Christmas morning and racing downstairs to examine the parcels Santa has left under the tree.  There's no anticipation like that of laying out the plate of cookies, milk, carrots (for the reindeer) and a note to Santa by the fireplace before heading to a cold bed that makes you shiver with anticipation until it's warm and you fall asleep with a smile on your face.  However, as I am now older and no longer feel the need to wake up early to be the first one to see the presents in the morning, I appreciate the more mature time change preferred by the Swedes.  I sympathize for my older brother, I finally understand why he set a time at which I was not allowed to wake him prior to.  I never understood why he didn't want to get up to see the stockings and the presents under the glow of the Christmas tree lights, so I usually took it upon myself to do some investigating and come back to his bed side to try to persuade him to come down by giving him some hints as to what I found in his stocking.  Oh, the memories.  Oh the reluctant wakings and bleary eyes of the old people in the house stumbling down the stairs while I waited patiently on the couch.  

This Christmas Eve, I woke up to a stocking in my room, placed by my host parents, that contained three things; a coke, a box of chocolate, and a Psychology Today magazine, which I was so excited to receive.  We started the morning with a traditional rice porridge for breakfast.  In one of the bowls, an almond is hidden and whoever finds it gets a chocolate Santa figure.  Vegard has never won in all his years, so he was determined this year and made calculated observations to choose the one bowl he thought was the winner.  As we started eating, he fished around and triumphantly produced the almond within the first minute.  You can't blame him, he's only 15 :) 

After this, Mette and I put on our pretty Christmas dresses and packaged some of the Christmas candy we made and set out to deliver some happiness.  Earlier that day, we had brought one such package to a couple of neighbors.  They were elderly and one was very suspicious and disbelieving of us.  After accepting it, one old man said "this isn't...normal.  Why are you doing this?" in the end, he was grateful, if not somewhat bewildered.  This sort of neighborly friendliness doesn't exist in Sweden like it does in America.  People don't just knock on each other's doors to give food and candy.  Still, we felt good doing it and even braved a pretty nasty storm to get some of these packages to their recipients.  

Upon returning home, Eva's son and his girlfriend arrived with two mini greyhound dogs they were babysitting, and Eva's youngest daughter arrived as well.  We started with the strangest Jul tradition in my opinion.  At 3 o'clock sharp every Christmas Eve, almost everyone in the country tunes in on their TV to watch Donald Duck.  It's a cartoon that is a collection of a few excerpts from other Disney movies.  It's the exact same program every year, for an hour.  We, as a family, were only going to watch for a little while, but we were all enjoying ourselves so the hour flew by.  We then drank glögg, non alcoholic, which is a brewed sort of cider with cinnamon and nutmeg and more spices that come together to make a delicious warm elixir that you drink in small little mini mugs.  

Next came a present game.  Eva had bought about 15 or 20 presents, all wrapped and placed in the center of the table.  This is a Christmas tradition of theirs lasting from the time they got married.  The kids all sit around the table and go around rolling one dice.  If it is a six or a one, they take a present and place it in front of themselves.  After all presents are handed out, we take turns opening them and revealing to the rest what we had received.  Then, Eva goes into the kitchen and sets the timer to an amount of time unknown to us.  That signals the start of "war".  We go around the table again as many times as the timer allows for the dice to roll.  If it's a six or a one, we get to steal something from someone.  This is virtually unlimited and presents were swapped right and left.  It ended with everyone getting some presents and a good natured game in our systems.  

Next was dinner, which was delicious as I mentioned before.  Then, we handed out presents.  Everyone got several great presents and it was a lovely event.  I was so overwhelmed at the generosity of my host family.  I received slippers, body scrub, jewelry, and my personal favorites: a six month subscription to Psychology Today and a fuzzy blanket with an American flag on the back that I haven't parted with since we met.  We then played a board game and took some pictures, had some dessert, took it easy and said goodnight.  

I had a wonderful Jul experience that was equal parts fun, memorable and different.  I never really felt bad about not spending Christmas with my family, but as you start thinking of the family traditions you hold, you can't help but miss them a bit.  That's when you are the most grateful for the incredible family that took you in and made you welcome into their home, traditions, and country.  I couldn't have asked for a better host family, let alone find one that could actually accept some of my craziness.  And yet, the stars aligned and I couldn't be happier to be a part of this household.  I'm happy that they are making my exchange year possible.  I'm thankful for their patience and humor and guidance.  I'm thankful that they were so kind to add me to their numbers and teach me their customs, culture, and language.  It's what this year was all about, all that it was meant to be.  I couldn't have had a better Christmas and there isn't anyone else on this side of the ocean that I would rather be with.  

An adorable pepparkakor my dear friend Sofia made for me

A sunset over the city at 3 p.m.

Baking Lussekatter

A creative lussekat 

On our way back from gym class with Johanna and Sofia

Last fika of 2013 with Johanna and Sofia at one of my favorite cafe/tea shop 

At the end of year party at school with my friend Jonas from another class

My almonds! They turned out so well

Delicious caramel popcorn

Just some sister-Vegard lovin'

Christmas Eve morning

Eva's son, Anders and his girlfriend Evalina and dog 

Everyone watching Donald Duck

Mette and Lars

Beautiful Mette

Beautiful Ida, Eva's youngest daughter

The present game

An advent tradition, a candle is lit on each Sunday of December till Christmas

After Christmas Eve