For Christmas break this year I went to visit my cousin in Denmark. I stayed with her and her boyfriend (who is Danish) and his family. So I was able to participate in all the Danish Christmas traditions. They have many traditions and are very fond of Christmas.
The Danish word for Christmas is "Jul" (pronounced the same as "Yule"). Christmas is celebrated mainly on Christmas Eve ("Juleaften"), but December 23 is also celebrated as "Little Christmas Eve" ("Lille Juleaften"). December 25 and 26 are days for having Christmas lunches and visiting with family and friends.
The traditional Christmas Eve meal is duck, gravy, caramelized potatoes, plain potatoes, and red cabbage, although we had turkey instead of duck. For dessert there is a very delicious type of rice pudding called "risalamande". It is rice pudding mixed with chopped almonds and whipped cream and served cold with cherry sauce on top. One or perhaps two or three whole almonds are put into the risalamande and each person tries to find the almond in their portion. The person who finds it gets a small present. When a person finds a whole almond they try to hide the fact that they have it so that everyone has to finish the entire dessert before revealing who found it. Here is a recipe in case you would like to try to make it: http://risalamande.com/index.php?. (Make sure you take the skin off the almonds by boiling them in water.) And here is a link to information about the history of this dish: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Risalamande. Danish people also eat a lot of marzipan at Christmas.
After supper it is traditional to sing Christmas carols while holding hands and walking around the Christmas tree in a circle, although there is one song where everyone goes through the whole house in a line while holding hands. Here is a video of another family doing this (we actually sang this song): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEJeFtkSgLk&feature=related.
Danish people really like hearts and there are special hearts that are made at Christmas time into little baskets and hung on the tree. They are also used around the house and in stores as decoration. They are usually red and white. If you would like to see how they are made you can here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQA333i52k0.
There is a gift game that is played at Christmas called "pakkeleg". Everyone brings some "white elephant" gifts (some can be nice, but many are silly) and puts them together in the center of the table. Everyone then takes turns rolling a die. If you get a six you take a present until all of the presents are claimed. Then different numbers are associated with taking a present from the person on your right, your left, anywhere, or switching seats with someone and the game continues until the timer goes off. At that point whatever presents you have in front of you are yours to keep. The game goes at a fast pace and can result in much laughter.
Another interesting tradition is that of the Christmas beer. Danish breweries release their Christmas beer on the first Friday of November (this day is called "J-day") at precisely 8:59 pm. The beer is darker and usually higher in alcohol content then normal and the bottles and cans are specially decorated. Often English licorice is added to the beer. If you are interested you can find out more about this here: http://www.visitdenmark.dk/international/en-gb/menu/turist/inspiration/christmas-in-denmark/the-danish-christmas-beer.htm.
There is also a tradition in Denmark of having special Christmas TV shows that play every day from December 1st until Christmas. One of the shows that has become very popular in Denmark is called "The Julekalender". There are three men who act in the show and play a Danish family as well as three "nisser", which are Danish elves. They speak a combination of Danish and English, but when they say things in English they speak the way they would if they were speaking Danish. This is often quite humorous. (English is nearly universal as a second language among the younger generations of Danes.) I saw a little of one episode while I was in Denmark and even though I couldn't understand it that well it was still funny. Here are a couple of examples of the nisser singing songs in the show: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIIJPziUDK0 and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODxdKYiFaDA&feature=related. Here is a short example of the part of the show with the Danish family (notice that the women is being played by a man): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gAtCAtwQ_M&feature=results_video&playnext=1&list=PLF798D5068F498DA0.
I hope this gives you an idea of what Christmas in Denmark is like. It was very interesting to me to have this cultural experience and I wanted to share some of it with you.
