Christmas Nostalgia

Christina here. It’s been a strange year and Christmas is definitely going to be different, although I’m lucky enough to be able to celebrate it with my husband and two daughters. It’s making me think about the past, however, and I’m feeling a trifle nostalgic. The Christmases we had as children always seem so much more magical than anything we can have as adults, and it’s lovely to have those memories. So today I thought I’d share the kind of Christmas I had as a child:-

It all began on the first Sunday of Advent – whichever Sunday was closest to the 1^st December. In the town where I lived that was the day all the shops were allowed to unveil their Christmas window displays (not late October like these days!) and the town’s Christmas lights were switched on. Just about the entire population trooped down to walk around and look at them. At that time of year in Sweden it gets dark before 3 o’clock in the afternoon, and I can never remember a year when we didn’t have lots of snow by then so the lights looked magical. There was also a Christmas market inside a huge underground car park (very sensible as it’s too cold to stand outside at that time of year). Lots to enchant a little girl!

In the following weeks, the preparations began. I was lucky enough to live in the same house as my maternal grandparents (in an apartment above theirs). I was always allowed to help Grandma with the cooking and baking, even though it probably took her twice as long with me and my little brother underfoot. She made special sausages – julkorv – which were my Grandpa’s favourites, as well as veal brawn, salt beef, tonnes of meatballs, pickled herring, gravad lax (marinated salmon) and various types of cookies. As I mentioned in a previous post, we also made gingerbread in great-grandfather’s bakery together with my aunts and cousins, a definite highlight of the year.

No Christmas was complete without special treats and Grandma made lots of sweets/candy. I still have her recipe for chocolate toffee which is fiendishly difficult to make. If you get even one tiny drop of water into the mixture, it’s spoiled, and even if you get it perfect it can still all go wrong when you leave it to cool. I very seldom get it right but I keep trying! (Needless to say, Grandma’s were always perfect). Then there was the marzipan. Personally I hate the stuff, but I really enjoyed rolling it out and making shapes, dipping them in chocolate or adding sugary decorations. Finally there were chocolate treats of various kinds – puffed rice covered in milk and dark chocolate, almond clusters and trios of hazelnuts in chocolate … I’m sure there were others too.

Grandma and I also spent hours making little pom-pom decorations for the Christmas tree out of tissue paper. For each one you needed an empty toilet roll as the center, and a sugar lump to go inside to add weight, then squares of tissue paper in different colours which had to be cut at the edges in long, thin strips. The whole was wrapped around the toilet roll, tied with string and voilá – a pom-pom. I’m not sure why we made new ones every year – perhaps it was just to keep me occupied? Last year when Sue Moorcroft and I visited Stockholm together, we went to an outdoor museum called Skansen and I was delighted to see just this kind of pom-pom on a tree in one of the houses there.

 

The 13^th of December is St Lucia’s day, traditionally the darkest day of the year. This is celebrated by girls dressed in long white nightgowns and wearing candles on their heads (usually electric ones these days as that is safer). They sing special Lucia songs and bring light to the darkness of the winter morning – it’s beautiful! If you’d like a taste, have a look here. You also eat special saffron buns called lussebullar, and Grandma and I made several batches (some without saffron too).

 

On the 23^rd December, the tree would be brought into the house and decorated. It was always a real fir tree, and to this day the smell brings back such vivid memories it almost leaves me breathless. We had one in our house and then we helped decorate my grandparents’ tree as well. In Sweden, Christmas is celebrated on Christmas Eve, and presents are not opened until the afternoon. My parents knew how excited my brother and I were so they always left one present at the end of our bed for us to open in the morning. For me, it was usually a book (Enid Blyton) to keep me busy and for my brother a toy car of some sort.

Christmas lunch was a smörgåsbord of everything we’d prepared during the previous weeks, with a huge boiled ham as a centerpiece. Then at last we were allowed to open our presents, first at home with just my family, then later at Grandma and Grandpa’s house together with all our aunts, uncles, cousins and other relatives. Stuffed full of sweets, we then settled down as Grandpa read aloud to us from a book by Astrid Lindgren – Emil i Lönneberga. He was a specialist at doing the regional accent required for this because the author came from the same county as us.

As if we hadn’t eaten enough already, there was a traditional evening meal of rice porridge – julgröt – with sugar, cinnamon and creamy milk. I have no idea how we managed that as well, but we did. A blanched almond was put in the porridge and whoever got that in their bowl was said to be the next person in the family to be married. Needless to say, this caused a lot of hilarity if it was one of us children.

So there you have it, a perfect childhood Christmas for me. What about you – what was yours like? I hope you have lots of happy memories!

HAPPY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!

Comments

[Maryellen Webber]

Thank you Christina for sharing your childhood Christmas memories! My family used to visit my mom's great aunt and have a meal of Polish foods. I remember one year Santa Claus actually came to visit and I was so surprised. My parents did their best to keep the magic of Santa Claus alive for us despite my older brother ruining the surprise by showing me where the presents were hidden!
Merry Christmas to you and your family Christina!

[Christina Courtenay]

That sounds lovely, Maryellen - it's great when families have all kinds of different traditions, especially with regard to the food. In my family we have two separate meals - a Swedish one on Christmas Eve and then the whole British turkey meal on Christmas Day. And as for Santa - yes I'm afraid I ruined it for my little brother too by telling him I'd overheard my mom booking one by phone!
Merry Christmas to you too!

[Christina Courtenay]

That sounds lovely, Maryellen - it's great when families have all kinds of different traditions, especially with regard to the food. In my family we have two separate meals - a Swedish one on Christmas Eve and then the whole British turkey meal on Christmas Day. And as for Santa - yes I'm afraid I ruined it for my little brother too by telling him I'd overheard my mom booking one by phone!
Merry Christmas to you too!

[Constance]

Thank you so much for sharing your lovely memories, Christina! Do you know the online card designer Jacquie Lawson? Each year, they create an online Advent calendar with a different theme. This year, the theme is Nordic Christmas - between your memories and the calendar, I feel as if I need to spend a Christmas in Sweden! My own childhood Christmases always began on Thanksgiving Day afternoon. My parents and aunts and uncles would draw names to know for whom each would get a Christmas gift. My sister and I would spend the afternoon making our shopping lists; for years when we were little, we each received $10 to purchase gifts. That had to cover gifts for our parents, each other, two grandmothers, two great aunts, one aunt and an uncle! Then, on the first weekend of December, we would travel to the nearest city and each of us would go with one parent to do our shopping, with almost all of it done at what we called “the five and dime”. Most of my purchases were pillow cases or towels, as I would embroider items each year for the older relatives, and I’m happy to say that many of those items have come back to me over the years. On the way home, we would stop for hot doughnuts and milk - eaten while we looked at all the Christmas lights. It was an exciting start to a month of magic, which ended with the burning of all the family Christmas trees on my grandmother’s farm - not ecologically sound, but spectacular to see!

[Sue McCormick]

I grew up in a family of classroom teachers (an an elementary principal for a father). And so did my children. I mention this because the school year was the calendar that dominated our lives. (A favorite family saying is "I'm so tired, I don't care whether school keeps or not!).

So yes, there was Advent with attending church services, and so on, but Christmas began when school was out, and lasted until the after Christmas holidays ended and school started again.

There was food preparation (my sister and I weren't involved), Santa did the presents, and so on. It was a magical season, but I don't have the type of memories you speak of.

Memories of family life as a young mother are quite different. Still school year constrained (because I was a classroom teacher). Finances were tight, so the tree I bought for the classroom was the tree for the family. It came home the last day of school, already decorated with the paper decorations prepared by the school children, but we added the ornaments I had grown up with, plus those my children had created. AND we added the lights — Such magic.

The children and I worked together to make cookies (we adored making Pepparkakor) and we also made and frozen sweet rolls together (probably starting at Advent). We froze these and gave them to family members as our Christmas present to them.

And there was THE PUZZLE, which we faithfully brought out on Christmas eve, and assembled every year. (It was words, not pictures; quotations from Shakespeare, and the words were placed on the puzzle in graphic shapes.

So my true nostalgia goes to those young mother days, when I began to become involved.

[Christina Courtenay]

That sounds wonderful, Constance! I love the idea of embroidering items for relatives and the fact that some of them are now in your possession. I think that sort of gift is always hugely appreciated because of the thought and hard work that went into it. I too remember being given a small amount of money to buy presents for everyone and going off with one of my parents. My brother, who was very cannny (as well as small and cute) managed to come home with more money than he left with one year, as well as the presents! No idea how. Thank you for sharing your memories!

[Christina Courtenay]

I'm glad you have so many lovely memories from your time as a young mother, Sue! It must have been difficult to fit everything around your work as a teacher, but great idea to bring home the tree. Pepparkakor have always been one of the tastes of Christmas for me and I am reluctant to eat them any other time of year (even though you can buy them in shops all year round). Puzzles and games are a must at Christmas too - hope you still bring yours out! Thank you for sharing!

[Mary Jo Putney]

What a marvelous Christmas you describe, Christina, complete with St. Lucia and her crown of lights, who has always fascinated me. My family had nice Christmases, but nothing like that!

[Sue McCormick]

My earlier post seems to have gotten lost? It was several paragraphs, so I would hate to loose it!

[Christina Courtenay]

I can see it Sue and I sent a reply - did you receive that? Hope it's just a glitch in the system!

[Christina Courtenay]

Thank you, Mary Jo! I think whatever type of Christmas we had, as long as we have happy memories that's the main thing!

[Pamela DG]

Christmas growing up was magical. My Mom's family was Norwegian and Dad's were rather pious Americans of Germans descent. Mom brought the magic of cookies, lots of presents, and lefse. She made ludefisk when her parenets visited. It was a bowl of gelatinous goo so Dad put an end to that tradition! Grandma could figure out what went wrong. Dad made sure we got to church and visited his parents who gave us one very special present. We lived in Ohio (As I still do) so visiting Mom's family for Christmas in North Dakota was not an option. We would go out and get a Scotch Pine on December 15th (Grandma and Grandpa Knutson's anniversary) bring it in and decorate it. One of the biggest things we did was to make Mom's Birthday special. That was the 21st of December so we made sure that she had presents wrapped in birthday paper under the tree on her special day.

[Misti]

Christmas was definitely magical as a child. Me and my 2 sisters and brother would all try and sleep in my brother's bed since his room was next to the stairs. We would creep down the stairs during the night to see what presents were under the tree. We thought we were being so sneaky and I'm sure my parents were laughing at how "quiet" we were being.
When I was in high school we had a Swedish exchange student live with us for the school year and we got to celebrate St. Lucia with her. It was really fun to experience her traditions that year.
Merry Christmas!

[Christina Courtenay]

How magical, Pamela! You're like me with two different traditions to accommodate - I think that makes it exciting. And ludefisk! We call it lutfisk in Sweden and my grandma cooked that too - it's an acquired taste but I loved it as it came with a bechamel sauce and boiled potatoes, delicious! Haven't eaten that for years. Thank you for sharing your memories!

[Christina Courtenay]

I'm sure we all thought we were being very stealthy as children LOL! I can just imagine you creeping about and your parents pretending they didn't see you. I'm glad you got to experience Lucia - it's definitely a beautiful tradition! Merry Christmas Misti!

[Annette N]

Thank you so much for sharing your memories with us. It is evident that you and your family shared wonderful times together.

Again, thank you for sharing. Merry Christmas to everyone.

I hope all are taking care and staying well.

[Kareni]

Thank you for sharing your memories and photos, Christina. From ages five to ten, my sister and I would fly to New Zealand from Australia to spend the summer/Christmas holidays with my Oma as my parents were working. It's kind of hard to believe in Santa when you're hauling a suitcase full of gifts! From about age eleven on, we spent Christmas with my parents. We'd open gifts late on Christmas Eve after my father returned from work; sometimes it would be VERY early Christmas morning by the time he returned, but we were happy to wait up! Occasionally there would be Dutch goodies that my other Oma sent ... speculaas and chocolate letters ... yum.

[Christina Courtenay]

Thank you, Annette, I'm glad you enjoyed the post! Happy Christmas to you as well and take care!

[Christina Courtenay]

How lovely to spend Christmas with your Oma - I'm sure you have some great memories of her to treasure! And the goodies your other grandma sent sound delicious. As for staying up late at Christmas, I think most kids are so hyper they can't go to sleep anyway. At least that's what I was like :-) Thank you for sharing!

[Anne Gracie]

Lovely post, Christina — made me quite nostalgic for my own childhood Christmases. For me, the scent of cut pine tree is essential to Christmas — artificial trees just don't do it for me. We generally travelled to my maternal grandparents for Christmas, and Nana's home was always full of good smells and good food. And relatives, especially the cousins who were almost my age (a bit older.) Other Christmases were spent at the beach, where we were living in the caravan, and a tree was put up in the annex. My presents were usually books as well, especially Enid Blyton. I only ever had one Astrid Lindgren book — Pippi Longstocking, and I loved her.

[Christina Courtenay]

Thank you Anne! I love the sound of your childhood Christmases, both with your grandma and on the beach. I’ve always liked big family gatherings and as a kid it’s great to have cousins to play with. Thank you for sharing!

[Karin]

Those are lovely Christmas memories, Christina. It sounds idyllic. My family is Jewish on my mother's side, but we always celebrated a secular version of Christmas anyway. My mother went all out, making 6 or 8 different types of Christmas cookies. Definitely vanilla kipferl(crescent shaped almond cookies dipped in powdered sugar), 2 types of meringues, and spritz cookies. She also baked many fruit cakes, in coffee cans, to give out as gifts all around the neighborhood. The tree would go up a few weeks before Christmas, and Christmas lights on our evergreen hedges outside. My father was German, so we got our gifts on the evening of Christmas Eve in the European tradition. But before we could open them, there was a ritual that my brother and I had to sing a couple of carols in German; Stille Nacht(Silent Night) and O Tannenbaum. Thank you for helping me to bring back those childhood memories!

[Christina Courtenay]

Wonderful, Karin! I love all the Christmas songs and especially Silent Night, so beautiful. I still sing it in Swedish in my head whenever I hear it - I guess we never forget the way we first learned the words. Thank you for sharing your memories!