Christmas Eve Family Traditions | Guest Post
Christmas Eve Family Traditions | Guest Post
Today I have another guest post to share with you all today from the lovely Karalee at talesofbelle.com
We have teamed up for a collaboration to talk about our Christmas eve traditions.
Karalee has written about what traditions her and her family have on Christmas eve which you can read below.
My post on what we do on Christmas eve is live on Karalee’s blog – Christmas Eve Traditions | Guest Post on Talesofbelle.com
Karalee’s Christmas Eve Traditions
Christmas is a wonderful time, and I collaborated with Jordanne to share my Christmas Eve traditions, which are relatively new to me.
I am originally from the US and over four years ago I moved to Denmark where I have been partaking in Christmas Eve traditions with my boyfriend’s family and our daughter.
On Christmas Eve, me, my boyfriend, our daughter, my boyfriend’s mother, and his brother will drive to my boyfriend’s grandfather’s house for Christmas Eve dinner where we will also spend the night.
We often arrive in the afternoon to help prepare for the dinner. For dinner, we will have duck with boiled potatoes, caramelized potatoes, and pickled red cabbage.
Since I am vegetarian and I do not eat duck, I will make a mushroom dish, and last Christmas Eve I made a mushroom wellington.
During the downtime when we are not preparing dinner, we will watch classic Christmas movies on tv such as Home Alone.
Also, in Denmark every year a new Christmas calendar tv series is made, and on Christmas Eve, the final episode of the calendar will air, and we will watch that as well.
This year the tv series is Juleønsket (translation: The Christmas Wish), which is about a 12-year-old girl who wishes to spend Christmas Eve with her whole family, but her parents are working.
My daughter will also open a present early during this time so she has something to play with, and when dinner is ready, we will all eat together at the dining table.
After dinner, we will have risalamande for dessert which is rice pudding with chopped almonds that is topped with a cherry sauce.
A whole almond is placed in the bowl of rice pudding, and whoever finds the almond will win a gift like a Christmas package of Toffee or a gift card to the movie theatre.
I have never found the whole almond because I can only eat one portion of risalamande, but my boyfriend found the almond last year, so I know I count on him!
Once everyone had their fill of risalamande, we will partake in the Danish tradition of dancing or walking around the Christmas tree while singing Christmas songs.
We will sing around 4-5 songs including “Højt fra træets grønne top” (translation: high from the green treetop), “Et barn er født i Bethlehem” (translation: a child was born in Bethlehem), and “Glade Jul” (translation: happy Christmas).
It is a fun tradition and my daughter especially loves being the leader and dancing around the dining table as well. After dancing around the tree, we open the presents.
Usually, my boyfriend’s brother and myself will hand out the presents to everyone and one by one, we will open a present until all the presents have been opened.
My daughter loves opening her presents and playing with her new toys and I enjoy seeing the reactions of my boyfriend’s family when they open my gifts to them.
When we finish opening presents, we will watch some more Christmas movies or shows on tv until my daughter goes to bed, and shortly after everyone else will turn in for the night.
In the morning, we will have breakfast from the bakery and then head back home. That is, it for my Christmas Eve traditions!
Thank you Jordanne for collaborating with me and it was exciting learning about your Christmas eve traditions and being able to share mine!
A huge thank you to Karalee for collaborating with me on this, it’s been fun to read about traditions from a different place in the world.
If you want to have a read of my Christmas eve traditions, them you can pop on over to Karalee’s blog here – Christmas Eve Traditions | Guest Post on Talesofbelle.com
- Blog: talesofbelle.com
- Twitter: @KaraleeCupcake
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Thanks for sharing your Christmas eve traditions, I would like to have a bowl of risalamande one day to try it :)Nic
It sounds lovely doesn't it?!
What a sweet post! I always love seeing other people's traditions at holidays, and it sounds like you have a lovely day Karalee. The Christmas calendar tv series sounds like such a great watch too xxHannah
It's nice hearing about other people's traditions isn't it?
That rice pudding dessert sounds divine, I could a bowl of that now! xLucy | lucymary
Doesn't it?! I really want to try it.
Learning how people celebrate Christmas around the world is facisnating. I always want to visit Denmark and learn their culture.Michelle | Brokebutflawless
Isn't it? I love hearing about other people's traditions.