Glædelig Jul! Merry Christmas!

Before you experience a Christmas in another culture you don't really think too much about the differences that there can be. I am so glad that I have had the opportunity to experience a completely different type of Christmas this year in Denmark. 

My host family picked out the Christmas tree on the Friday afternoon, 20th December. Then on the 23rd, we brought it into the house, put it up and decorated it. The decorations are similar to the ones we use in Australia, glass balls, small santas, stars and other Christmas figures. But they don't use tinsel, beads or electric lights. The tree is also decorated with real candles, which are only lit on Christmas night.

  

In Denmark Christmas is considered the 24th December, so on this day we wished each other 'Glædelig Jul' (Happy Christmas) and 'God Jul' (Good Christmas). During the day we didn't do anything in particular, but after lunch the food preparation began ready for our Christmas dinner. We had Christmas dinner together with just my host parents and host siblings. For dinner we had: roast duck, caramelised potatoes, boiled potatoes, red cabbage and brown gravy.

Then for dessert we had the traditional Danish Christmas dessert, Ris a La Mande (like a cold rice pudding made with almonds). As a Christmas tradition, one whole almond was hidden in the bowl for a lucky person to find. I ended up finding the almond and won a prize, which was 6 flødeboller- one for each of us to eat.

  

After dinner we went into the lounge room and did another Danish tradition, walking around the Christmas tree, holding hands while singing Christmas songs. This was a very different thing to me, because in Australia we have nothing like it and to most Australians it would sound like quite a strange thing to do. It was great to get to try such a different tradition, I thought that singing the songs on Christmas night together was a nice thing, although walking around the tree whilst doing it was something that I think would take some getting used to.

After this which was around 9pm, it was time to open presents! The presents all stayed in another room then were brought out one by one to be opened; while one person opened their present everyone else watched on. The present opening lasted until around 10.45pm, when everyone had opened all of their presents. I was very lucky to receive some excellent presents (a lot of really Danish things!) from my host families and other people. 

 

After we were finished opening the presents we all just went to bed. I skyped my family in Australia who had just opened their presents on Christmas morning. It was nice being able to see the presents that they got for Christmas and be a part of Christmas morning. A lot of exchange students say that they feel quite homesick at Christmas but I didn't really experience this, I found it great to experience a different type of Christmas and did only have 3 weeks left until I would see my family again anyway.

   

On the morning of the 25th I woke up and was happy and excited because it was Christmas. Then I remembered that Christmas has already happened the night before on the 24th, but in my head it was still Christmas, I had to stop myself from wishing my host family a Merry Christmas because that had been the day before! We just had a normal breakfast, then for the rest of the day my host family all just did their own relaxing things like reading new books and watching tv series that they had gotten as Christmas presents the day before. It felt a bit strange for me to not be doing anything Christmassy, because in Australia our Christmas celebrations start when we wake up in the morning (on the 25th) and last until we go to sleep that night, sometimes even continuing for days. So I decided to listen to watch some Christmas movies, of course including The Grinch.

  

That night (25th) I went to have a Christmas dinner with my 3rd host family, at Jesper's parents' house. It was so nice to see them all again and get to celebrate Christmas with them. After dinner we all played Just Dance on the Wii (that the boys had gotten for Christmas), not just Villads, Malthe and me, but also Heidi and Jesper, even the grandparents had a go. Then we had a darts tournament, which was a lot of fun. I had taken Tim Tams for them to try and they absolutely loved them. They gave me new Pandora charms for my bracelet (that they had previously given me), a snowman- because I love the snow in Denmark, a swan- the national bird of Denmark and a kangaroo- very Australian. It was such a hyggelig night.

 

On Friday the 27th, I had a Christmas lunch with both Alice and her family, another member of my Rotary Club Peter (who was involved in the exchange student department of the club) and his wife, my 2nd host family and also my 4th host family. Alice had kindly offered to host it at her place and we all shared the task of making the food. It was an interpretation of Australian Christmas food, so we had: roast turkey with stuffing and cranberry sauce, glazed ham with apple sauce, vegetables, pasta salad, damper, trifle, Bailey's balls, jam drops, pavlova and punch. The food ended up being delicious and everyone really enjoyed it.

  

 

I am so grateful to all of the people that let me into their homes and families to be a part of the Danish Christmas, it was truly a special experience that I will never forget.