Oh, how I love this time of the year… Except for the fact that Christmas falls right into my exam period or the preparation on the exam period. Anyway, I love what kind of atmosphere Christmas brings: eating good food, being together with your family and loved ones, Christmas trees and decoration and Christmas markets. It is really the most cozy time of the year!
First I celebrated Christmas Eve with my own family in Belgium. It was a very cosy evening. I really love how movies like Home alone always come back on that day. Also the typical and traditional filled turkey is really my thing.
Celebrating Christmas Eve in Belgium first. I was wearing a dress that I absolutely love! I bought it online at elle-voudrait.nl! (sorry for bad quality of the pictures)
After that cosy evening, Christmas day 1 started but that mainly contained about eating a small Christmas cake and travelling to Denmark. Yes, I took the plane to Denmark to celebrate second Chrismas day there with the family of my boyfriend.
But how does celebrating Christmas in Denmark differ from celebrating Christmas in Belgium? I don’t know if I can really generalize since every family in Belgium will celebrate differently and probably the same way in Denmark, but what we are not used to eat for Christmas is the typical Danish smørrebrød. For people that don’t know what smørrebrød is, it is generally a type of Danish bread called Rugbrød with all kinds of toppings. You can’t compare our typical breadmeals in Belgium with that. A few kinds of examples of the toppings is different kinds of harings (red harings, harings in curry, white harings,…), frikadeller (some sort of meatballs) with pickles red cabbage, scrambled eggs in combination with smoked salmon, fiskefillet (deep fried fishfilet with ramoulade, typical Danish sauce, tasted a little the same as the Dutch Bicky sauce), medister (a sort of sausauge that is eaten with stewed kale with a mix of cinnamon and sugar on top and caramalized patatoes) … All the food is served with a lot of alcoholic drinks and they toast to a Merry Christmas. It is very cozy!
The typical Danish dish that is also been eaten at Christmas day.
Let me tell you one thing, there are a lot of different toppings served after each other and you tend to get quite full. As a sort of eating break, it is also a tradition in Denmark to play the game called Pakkeleg. What is that? Well, every person that is invited into the Christmas party buys a lot of small gifts but they don’t know who will receive it. So we start out with a lot of small presents that are put on the table. Then every person gets the chance to roll the dice and when the dice says number 6, that person is allowed to take a present for themselves. The game goes on like that until all presents are taken. After that round, there is also a round where every person when the dice says 6, can steal a present from someone else but in a limited time frame. At the end, every person is left with a certain amount of gifts and then it is time to unwrap. Such a nice and traditional game!
Pakkeleg game: rollling the dice in hope to get a ‘6’. If you get the 6, you are allowed to take a present that is laying on the table.
Another tradition that is different than how we celebrate Christmas in Belgium is the dancing around the Christmas tree. The family members walk/dance around the Christmas tree while they sing special Christmas songs. Some songs are songs that are played in the Church in Denmark.
So I think I had a good Christmas this year, what about you guys?
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Interesting details about the difference between Belgian and Danish Christmas.