Holiday Traditions
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Christmas Puddings… absolutely nothing Austrian and the epitome of British Xmas. But we do it every year... usually preparing it in September as in needs some rest. Then it will be reheated, flambéed with lots of brandy and served with vanilla sauce. This year I was late... prepared it end of October...
Candied the lemons some days before:
Mixed them with raisins, almonds, sugar, spices, eggs and brandy… of course:
Steamed in bowls in hot water a whole day
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Our family took advantage of a Teacher’s professional activity day (kids day off) and cut our Christmas for this season. We normally take 3 days to decorate and should have everything completed on Sunday Evening.
We wanted to share a couple of pictures of our shenanigans:
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First Sunday in advent tomorrow so we are gearing up here. Generally Norwegians are low key and bound by tradition with regards to xmas. Many houses simply start with an advent star and that is it.
Tomorrow I’ll put some lights up outside. They are simple but very effective due to the permanent gloom and the fact that you they heavily influence out living room because they are visible from the inside all the time. Pics to come.
Last night I started preparing the pinnekjøtt. This is the first and last meal of xmas for us. We always eat it the first day of advent and on xmas eve. It consists of dried, salted, smoked lamb rib that had finne soaked for 24-48 hours before a 3 hour steam.
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@neph93 Very intrigued! A meal that I was unaware of, and which I have spent the last hour reading about. Hope to see more pictures of the dish served.
We have finished most of our decorations in the house and are now cleaning up and placing a few decorations around the house.
As my wife and I are both the oldest in our respective families, we have been handed down quite a few ornaments from each family. We have also spent almost 30 years together and have collected quite a few along the way.
I will try and get a few pictures of our favourites.
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Thought I'd contribute a picture of our tree
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@goosehd I’ve blogged the making of the pinnekjøtt almost every year on one thread or another here but will happily do it again tomorrow for the greater glory of this thread.
Beautiful trees gentlemen. Again, in line with conservative Norwegian traditions, ours won’t go up until the morning of «lillejulaften» which is December 23rd.
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@goosehd - WOW, your tree is spectacular. Would love to see close-ups of some of your family ornaments.
I love Christmas, and one of my favourite bits of the build-up is dressing the tree (with a glass of sherry or port on the side). We usually have a big tree (but nowhere near as big as that!) This year is likely to be just me and G, so I have two 4-5 ft potted trees (we're hoping we can plant them and keep them alive till next year) and I plan to decorate them next week. Usually I leave it till late December, but this year I'm all for getting a bit of festive cheer early. I love the tradition of collecting ornaments over the decades, I especially smile whenever I uncover one that has been given me by family, or brings back memories of where I/we bought it on a trip. Giles can be a big bah-humbug, but when the tree is done i know he loves it too.
@Chris your tree is splendid! We use white lights and mainly glass, red and gold decorations. I'm diggng the truly colourful approach - it's beautiful and can imagine the kids adore it.
@Chap I love that you enjoy traditional British Christmas pudding! The cross-over and sharing of traditions from different countries over the years has shaped all our Christmases. But I also love that there are still very local customs that maintain our cultural identities.
To me, most importantly, Christmas is an occasion - whatever one's beliefs or nationality - when we can celebrate family and friendship and joy (and loads of sparkly decorations).
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@Madame:
To me, most importantly, Christmas is an occasion - whatever one's beliefs or nationality - when we can celebrate family and friendship and joy (and loads of sparkly decorations).
@Madame Buttonfly A beautiful sentiment that I wholeheartedly agree with.
Here are a few of my personal favourite ornaments with a little history behind them.
These first three are all glass ornaments that have been passed down from our respective families:
