How It Is Celebrated – Christmas In Denmark

Some people in Denmark give and receive extra Advent presents on the four Sundays of Advent.

Every year a set of Christmas stamps/stickers/seals called julemærket are sold in December to help raise money for the charity.

Christmas Parties are held from 1st November to 24th December where everyone has a good time! Making cakes and biscuits is popular in the time before Christmas. Gingerbread cookies and vanilla ones are often favorites.

In Denmark most people go to a Church Service on Christmas Eve about 4.00pm to hear the Christmas sermon or talk. It’s also an old, traditional custom to give animals a treat on Christmas Eve, so some people go for a walk in the park or woods and they might take some food to give the animals and birds. You might also go for a walk to give you an appetite for the Christmas meal!

Like in Sweden, the 1958 Disney special “From All of Us to All of You” is shown on the TV in the afternoon on Christmas Eve.

When they get home the main Christmas meal is eaten between 6.00pm and 8.00pm. It’s served on a beautifully decorated table. Popular Christmas foods include roast duck, goose or pork. They are served with boiled and sweet potatoes, red cabbage, beetroot and cranberry jam/sauce.

After the meal the lights on the Christmas Tree are lit, people might dance around the tree and sing carols. Then it’s time for people to open their presents. The Christmas tree normally has a gold or silver star on the top and often has silver ‘fairy hair’ on it to make it glitter.

On Christmas day people meet with their family and have a big lunch together with danish open-faced sandwiches on rye-bread.

In Danish Happy/Merry Christmas is ‘Glædelig Jul’.