No one does Christmas quite like the Swedish. Santa allegedly lives just up the road in Rovaniemi, Lapland, and a Swedish Christmas is full of light, festivals and traditional foods to warm the soul. Homes begin preparing for Christmas long before 24 December.
"Leading up to Christmas, every Sunday we celebrate ‘Advent’ which is a countdown to Christmas," says Joachim Borenius, head chef at Sydney's Mjølner Restaurant, who grew up in Sweden's south west. "It starts four weeks before, and [it's] a big deal and something we still do [here in Australia]. We drink mulled wine [glögg] and eat lussekatter, which are saffron milk buns, and pepparkakor, pepper ginger biscuits."
Recipe for pepparkakor here.
A candle is lit every Sunday during Advent, lighting the way through the dark winter towards Christmas.
Lucia dagen
The first official festival is St Lucia's Day on 13 December. It celebrates the winter solstice in the old Julian calendar, and the Swedish pagan festival of lights.
Buttery lussekatter are made fresh for Saint Lucia's Day. Make a batch yourself - recipe here.
Fika Swedish Kitchen in Manly, Sydney hosts 'Lucia' on 13 December. It's a night of traditional Swedish delights and Christmas carols, sung by a choir dressed traditionally all in white, or as gingerbread men or Santa.
"It’s amazing," Diana Chirilas, the cafe's co-founder, told SBS Food. "Swedish families from all over Sydney come to celebrate with us that night."
Creative house building
Another sweet Swedish Christmas tradition is gingerbread house building. Families give their creativity free rein and create uniquely magical dwellings to display.
"The soundtrack to Christmas was always Evie Tornqvist, most likely on high rotation while we made the annual gingerbread houses," says Ulrika Fong, a Swedish-Australian home cook, who often returns to Sweden to celebrate Christmas with her family. "You would never use a kit, like you see here in Australia. It's always free architecture with many interesting constructions."
Fong has been busy in her Sydney kitchen this week making pepparkakor. Her secret to making these peppery ginger biscuits extra-crispy is to allow the dough to rise for up to two days. "It allows the dough to swell, making it easier to roll out," she says.
The pepparkakshus is traditionally eaten as part of dessert following the Christmas eve feast. Families begin preparations for Christmas dinner weeks in advance, often cooking together at nighttime in a careful order of dishes that has been worked out over generations.
Loaded Swedish julbord
There are so many elements to the Christmas julbord, or buffet, that a long lead time is mandatory.
"Christmas in Sweden is very set in stone," says Borenius. "A lot of families like their traditions. The culture is quite open-minded, so there are food trends that always come through, but Christmas is one of those times where they bring it back to the old-school style."
The julbord is laid out at lunch time, laden with a variety of cold fish, including gravalax, smoked salmon and herring salad. Other hot and cold meats are then added to the julbord. Julskinka, the Christmas ham uses crushed pepparkakor as a crumb coating; the crackling is served on the side.
Pork sausage, usually falukorv, also makes an appearance, alongside roast beef, lutfisk (dried cod), meatballs served with dill cream and lingonberries and liver pate. A variety of breads, salads, potato dishes and pickles round out the savoury julbord.
"Its a big spread of dishes," says Borenius.
Hitting the sweet spot
The sweet julbord is just as packed, though how anyone has room for sweet pastries, more pepparkakor and rich, sticky cakes like kladkakka, is a complete mystery. While most guests quietly digest, someone might dress up as Tomke, the Christmas gnome who lives in the forest, to knock on the front door and hand out gifts with wishes of God Jul. Every family leaves out a bowl of risgrynsgröt for the little 'Christmas helpers', as Ulrika Fong refers to them, which is gone by morning.
"The bowl is always empty in the morning, so he must exist," explains Fong. "Mr Fox is also happy..."
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