Happy new year everyone! I hope you had a fabulous start into 2013 and made some exciting plans for the year! For me those will be to write a smashing master thesis and to hopefully find a great job in summer.
I had decided to spend Christmas 2012 here in Sweden, together with my boyfriend and his family, because I always wanted to know what Swedish Christmas is like. Besides the usual things like eating plenty of food, unpacking plenty of gifts and hugging plenty of people, there were a few rather ”crazy” Swedish Christmas traditions.
First, it is a tradition (since 1960!!) to watch a Donald Duck cartoon and other small clips from Disney movies, such as Cinderella or Lady and the Tramp, on Christmas Eve. Not kidding! This was of course something I could not miss, expecting a special Christmas-sy episode, but my hopes were disappointed when I discovered it was mostly scenes I have seen throughout my childhood. Nevertheless it was something to laugh at and to have sentimental feelings, although it was a rather unusual Christmas activity for me.
Next, at Christmas dinner, you drink a lot of schnapps – and if you have ever met a Swede, you know that a lot really means A LOT! 😛
On Christmas Day, in Germany usually all shops are closed and you spend a(nother) cozy and copious lunch with your loved ones. In Sweden, we went shopping. For real! On that day all major shops start with something called ”mellandagsrea” (inbetween-the-days-sale or middle-day-sale), a huge campaign with massive discounts on many thing. Something like you have after summer or winter season. I guess this should be already the first opportunity to exchange unwanted Christmas gifts or to spend all the money you got the day before. Since my boyfriend and I moved into an appartment recently, we decided to use this unique chance of getting us some fancy gadgets (ok, there are rather boringly normal):
Now that was an unusual but joyful Christmas! 🙂 How have you celebrated Christmas at your home?
/Claudia
