Swedish Language Blog

Finally! December is here and today we are properly kicking off the countdown to Christmas. Well, this is  not entirely true, since first of Advent was last Sunday (November 27) and that’s the day when most Swedes goes candles-and-stars-mental and decorate every window possible. You know the story, Sweden is pretty dark and miserably around this time of the year and we need light, light and more light to stay sane. This is what my windows look like – very Swedish but the only difference is that here in England, I’m one of few with decorated windows. It’s in other words easy to spot the Swede on the street! Please feel free to comment on our lovely December weather, wet and 10 degrees warm…

It was a man named Oskar Andersson who invented the world’s first electrical candlestick (adventsljusstake) in 1934. These have been custom in most Swedish homes and possibly thanks to IKEA, they are now spreading across the globe. They consist of seven electrical candles, normally put together in a pyramid shape, and can be made of wood, plastic, stee and you can pend an absolute fortune on one if you feel the need. The red flowers are called julstjärna in Sweden (Christmas star) but I believe the correct name is Poinsettia or Christmas rose. A must in the Christmas window!

Another big milestone in the countdown to Christmas is Julkalendern, the Christmas calendar. It is a Advent calendar in the form of a television show starting on the first of December, and ending on Christmas Eve. The show comes with an Advent calendar and after every show, you open a new window. Every episode is 15 minutes long and is shown either early in the morning, at 7.15 am – it’s a great and very cosy way to start the day!  – or in the evening, at 6 .15 pm. It’s a much loved and old tradition; the first Julkalender was first on Swedish TV in 1960 and has been going every year since. The tradition has spread to the other Scandinavian countries and the national radio has its own julkalender as well.  There’s a new story every year, but the show is normally set somewhere in a wintery Sweden and contains either a mystery or even a few ghosts – and tonnes of Christmas spirit! This year’s julkalender is called Tjuvarnas jul (The Christmas of the thieves) and is a classic fairytail in the spirit of Charles Dickens.Read more about it here and make sure to watch it here! Christmas spirit guaranteed

Oh well, I know it’s early but still: God jul for know, dear blog readers!

To get you all in a lovely spirit of Christmas I’m going to share a recipe for Swedish Pepparkakor. It is relatively easy to make so you should all have a go

Time needed: Has to cool over night in fridge

Makes about: 125 cookies

Ingredients:

2,5 dl (1 cup) brown sugar

0,8 dl (1/3 cup) light sirup

0,8 dl (1/3 cup) water

150g (1,3 stick or 2/3 cups) butter or margarine

1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

1 tablespoon ground ginger

1 teaspoon ground cloves

8 dl (3 1/3 cups) flour

1,5 teaspoon baking soda

 

Instructions:

Part 1.

1. Mix the brown sugar, syrup, and water in a saucepan. Let boil.

2. Add the butter or margarine and let it melt. Continue by adding the spices.

3. Let the contents cool without stirring.

4. Mix the baking soda with 3/4 of the flour in a separate bowl (the rest of the flour will be used for working the dough on the counter.

5. Add the flour mixture to the saucepan and work to dough to a ball.

6. Wrap the dough in plastic-wrap and let chill in fridge until next day.

 

Part 2.

7. Turn the oven on to 175°C (or 350°F)

8. Work the dough on a floured surface, kneed the flour into the dough if needed.

9. Roll out the dough and cut out cookies with cutters, or by hand. Place them on a greased tray or tray with oven paper. Let the cookies bake in the middle of the oven between 6-8 minutes.

Let cookies cool before serving. Can be kept in a tin in room temperature or in the freezer. Enjoy your Swedish Pepparkakor!

When talking about Pepparkakor in Sweden we always say to young children that you become good if you eat gingerbread cookies. In Swedish “Man blir snäll av att äta pepparkakor!” Try saying that to your children next time they’re naughty, I bet they’ll like the idea

Christmas means different things to different people, I’m sure that that is a commonly agreed on fact by now. For a lot of people christmas has no longer anything to do with the birth of Jesus, it can be summed up with presents, Santa, snow and holidays. In Sweden food and family are huge contributing factors as well.

The stores aren’t terrible about when they hang out their x-mas decorations and it is really only this week that they have really pulled out things. I was a little surprised at this and thought “Wow, is it christmas time so soon?” I’ve talked to people and most of us agree that it is the lack of snow making it hard to believe its soon december. In many cities in Sweden there is always snow on the ground by mid-november. This year at least Umeå (in the north) hasn’t had snow once.

Instead I have focused on what the stores have to offer. Pepparkaksdeg (gingerbread dough) has been out on the markets for about 2 weeks, if not a little bit longer. And they have been handing out free Christmas recipe pamphlets too.

Of course everything is online as always, but I find it very inspiring to pick up a pamphlet and look through it while choosing what Christmas baking to do.

This is ICA’s (one of Sweden’s biggest grocery store chains) Christmas logo for this year. The text on the picture saying “Julköket” meaning the Christmas kitchen, and followed by “och det goda stöket” on the second row. “Och det goda stöket” means: and the good preparations/bustling about.