Brit Reacts to Christmas in Sweden

You usually put whatever you want on your plate, everything is voluntary. But if you follow tradition, you eat in a certain order: Plate 1: Herring and sturgeon. Plate 2: Salmon and other fish (grilled, cold-smoked/cooked salmon, fish pâté, eggs). Plate 3: Cold cuts (Christmas ham, pâtés, sausages and pig's feet). Plate 4: Warm (meatballs, prince's sausage, Jansson's temptation, ribs, dip in the pot, lute fish). Plate 5: Cheeses (cheeses such as stilton and cheddar belong to Christmas). Plate 6: Dessert (rice à la Malta, fruit salad, rice porridge). Plate 7: Christmas sweets (crackers, marzipan, marmalade, polka dots. Anything sweet you can find).

• Our Julbord, what we eat on Christmas, is definitely not just a mix of "what ever you like!" It's a very specific system both in what you serve, the specific dishes you serve on the table, and also the order you eat them in. -Even though it's a julbord (Christmas Smorgårdsbord) all foods are there at the same time, think a bit "Starter(s), Main Courses, Side Dishes, Desert." We begin with the cold fish, like haring and smoked salmon, and a devils eggs, and cusses and mixes that goes with that. First Starter no 1 with the fishes, then Starter no 2, it's the cold cuts meat, with the sauce and the mixes that suits with them. Special type of bread with both starter dishes. The cold cuts comes next and is of course also the big ham someone have spend ages on to do. and some mixes with those too. Then the "main meal" all that is warm on the table, the meatballs, the prince sausages, the ribs, the Jansons Frästelse, and so on, and the side dishes, that you add to all of them. Many mixes we don't eat at any other point during the year. And Dopp i Grytan, and different kind of Jule-bread and Jule-beer and Julemust. So our Christmas food is very much a "pre planned" dinner, with the same thing everywhere, it's just how grand scale it is that is different, no matter if you eat at home, eat at relatives or friends or goes to "JULBORD" with you partner in a cosy restaurant during the December months, or with your work, they all have basically the same, but it changes in quality, quantity depending on the place. But there is most definite s red thread and an order and an etiquette on how to eat it, when to eat it, that every place have, from restaurants to home. -I actually took a bit of offence at this part: "where we said they basically throw everything they have in the house", about 09:00 in. It really really isn't how he said at all. Quite opposite it's a specified type of food we usually only eat at Christmas and it takes a lot of planing. So we might have a bunch of dishes, but they are basically the same year after year after year. And many if them only on Christmas.

The Swedish Julbord (Yule table) is like a Swedish Smörgåsbord Christmas special. You eat it for lunch or dinner. You kan eat it befor X-mas, under X-mas and left overs after X-mas.

The reason why we always celebrate on eves, like Christmas Eve, Easter Eve, Midsummer Eve and so on is because back in the old days we used to count time differently. Each new day began at sunset which means Christmas began at sunset on the 24th.

Christmas dinner is eaten in a certain order in Sweden too. You eat herring and fish first, then meat dishes. And then hot meat dishes. After that, it's desserts.

In Sweden, most holiday celebrations are celebrated on Eve. In Swedish it is called "Afton". So we have Julafton (Christmas Eve), Nyårsafton (New Year's Eve), Påskafton (Easter Eve), and Midsommarafton (Midsummer Eve). I might have forgotten some more.

He forgot to mention that the 25:e (christmas day) is a huge party night for young people returning to their home towns for christmas celebrations! We call it ”hemvändarkväll” and it loosely translates to "coming-home-night".

Hello! :D First! :D About the swedish traditional christmas food, I want to point out a few things. There are actually some set customs in what order to eat the different dishes. We often start out with the cold dishes and the fish. So herring, salmon, the eggs with skagen on top (shrimp sallad) are dishes that will be eaten first. After that we eat the meat dishes, like meatballs, sausage, the roasted ham etc. So we don't usually eat the herring together with the ham or meatballs. Some of the side dishes, like the beat sallad for instance will go with a certain dish. In this case, the meatballs. So there are some "rules" or customs to follow. :) With that said, the random buffet experience may be due to the younger generation not being that strict on how to combine all the different dishes. It may be a new thing, but traditionally you don't have the ham on the same plate as the herring or salmon. Maybe someone will have more examples to add to this? :)

It is due to the fact that there are so few red days in England. In England you have 9 red days, In sweden we have 21 red days. And on top of that squeeze days and to round it up 5 weeks of vacation so you can gather up some days to spend during christmas. For example this year you can spend 3 days of vacation 27-29 and have 10 days off work. In 2024 you can spend 3 vacation days and get 12 days off... :)

He forgot to add that the whole santa thing is different here in Sweden aswell. Here he actually comes home to you and give you the presents. No coming down the chimney. He knocks on your door and is let it in and then leaves once all the presents are given out. My dad played santa when I grew up lol. He deserved an oscar! He went all out with the make up(no creepy mask that some families have with their santa), the clothes, which was grey and not the traditional red, and he put on a different voice and dialect and all that. He was great. And before santa came dad of course went out to buy sonething that he'd forgotten. Obviously when you grow older you become suspicious. So here santa is not an unseen mystery thing but somone you actually meet, and maybe talk to if you're brave.

In swedish schools, we get christmas dinner when the christmas break is coming closer. In my high school, we get julmust to drink aswell

If I got it right, in the old days you start at 24th with eating, presents, and games. It continued thru the night and you end it by going to church in the morning. The morning service is called Julotta.

I loved this. It's allways fun to watch your reactions. Merry Christmas to you!❤

A traditional South Sweden Christmas table for me is basically 2 different orientations. It is common to take them in a certain order. First up are different kinds of pickled herring, boiled egg halves, Jansson's Frestelse, which is a gratin of potatoes+onions+anchovies+cream and crust flour, herb bread, sauerkraut, different kinds of toppings such as different hard cheeses, different smoked sausages, smoked. /regular liver sausages etc. When you've let that sink in, it's time for the main course. It is cooked ham that is grilled with mustard and crust flour, dip in stew (not so common anymore, you save the ham spade that was left after you cooked the ham and use it to dip the herb bread in. Great with brown cabbage ) brown cabbage, red cabbage, meatballs, prince sausage, grilled ribs, various mustards, etc. After eating, about 1 hour later, rice porridge with fruit cream or juice soup and cinnamon is served. I'm sure I've forgotten a few, but this is roughly what I usually eat for Christmas. Now you're so full you're about to burst, but damn it's so good. So yes, 3 kg more on the scale and you usually have food left for a couple more days. 🎅🎄🎁💝Merry Christmas & Happy New Year everyone! 🍾🥂🎆🎇✨✨

So yes we play a lot of boardgames on Christmas eve , at least in my family's tradition. We don't watch TV on Christmas eve it's spent with family eating, opening gifts, talking etc. And the eating is in different sittings. You start with fish foods cold cut. Next is the warm meat portion of Christmas food and last ris ala Malta, dessert. Later it's coffee and cake and Christmas sweets and chocolate and fruit with the boardgames. And lots of julmust.

You should watch "Tomten är far till alla Barnen" Santa is the father to all the children. That is a Christmas classic!

For an outsider swedish julbord might seem unorganised but it’s not. Usually a family eat the same food every Christmas and there is a structure it’s organised.

the theme of swedish christmas dinner is "Winter Slaughter" and "What preserved Food must Go before it Goes"

We have quite a few “holidays” throughout the year. When we get time off from work. Some years a lot of them happens to be on the weekend. Which we call “The employers year. And some years it’s the opposite, called “The employees year”

The reason we celebrate christmas eve is that in the pagan days we used to celebrate Midwinter solstice on the evening of 21st or 22nd December. So when the nordic countries became Christians it was an easier transition to the new celebrations. It is simply a way to make christmas a bit of a mix between the old religion and the new one.