Never mind the dark, dreary days when it doesn’t get light until around 9am and darkness descends again around 4pm- a month in Denmark over winter meant experiencing a Danish Christmas with all its lovely traditions and food and lots of time spent with wonderful people. This was to be Antony’s first Christmas in Denmark and my seventh.
We’d had enough sunshine in the previous 11 weeks of tripping around Israel, Jordan and Cyprus to carry us through the dark Danish December/ January period and to be honest we were in need of a break from the sightseeing. Both of us were really looking forward to spending time with other people and I couldn’t wait to see my friends and in many cases meet the new additions to their families.
We arrived on December 16th and headed straight to Tåsinge, where Lilian & Mads warmly welcomed us. It was just lovely spending time together with them and their four kids in the lead up to Christmas. Miss 7 and Master 4 each had a ‘pakke-kalendar’ which is a Danish tradition. The children get to open a small gift each day leading up to Christmas. These two believed it was from a nisse – the Danish word for elves, but Miss 7 recognised some of the gifts as being from a local shop and did question how the nisse had got them! Each Sunday in Advent they also got to open an advent-present which was from their grandparents.
We had a wee excursion to a nearby farm to choose and fell the Christmas tree and get some vegetables. It’s the norm to get a ‘real’ tree here and often a tradition that the family all goes to choose the best tree, in the week or so leading up to Christmas.
Time on Tåsinge was spent mostly at home talking, cooking, eating, and for me lots of cuddles with the adorable 6 month old twins. It was great to just be with our friends and chill. And Lilian’s home is really nice – check out the beautiful views from the kitchen/ living area – on one of the few sunny days we had in Denmark!
We did get a little out and about with a drive to Valdemars Slot and around some other nice places on Tåsinge then into Svendborg.
We went for a walk in Landet, the village where Lilian and family live, and in the adjacent small forest. We also went on a bike trip to Svendborg (9km away) to get a couple of things. I borrowed an e-bike and Antony had a regular bike. The bike paths make cycling in Denmark so good!
Lilian is really the only Danish friend I keep in good touch with between visits as we send each other whats app voice messages regularly. She has also over the years visited NZ 3 times and we visited them when they lived in Sardinia too. While staying with Lilian we borrowed their car and headed to Langeland to spend an afternoon catching up with other friends Daniel & Lotte and their 5 children. Hyggeligt!
After a lovely relaxing stay on Tåsinge it was off to see other friends, Marianne and Hans Jørgen at their farm near Salbrovad on Fyn.
Puge Mølle is home to three active and lively girls; age seven, four and one and a half. They were lots of fun to be around but I was hit with some sickness that took me out of action a bit while here. It meant I was super tired and the first night there I spent more time in the bathroom than in the bed, no fun. 🙁
In Denmark, the 23rd of December is called ‘Little Christmas Eve.’ Along with our hosts (family of 5), Hans Jørgen’s parents, two sisters, a niece, a couple of neighbours and their adult son, we spent this night together around a big table.
We ate tarteletter first (puff pastry tarts with filling), then the classic risengrød dish – rice cooked in milk served with butter and cinnamon and sugar. This is served with juleøl (Christmas beer) which is sweet and with little or no alcohol. Across Denmark that night risengrød would be eaten by many a Danish family. They make large portions so there are plenty of leftovers. The next day they add whipped cream, chopped almonds and one whole almond to the risengrød turning it into risalamande… THE Danish Christmas dessert that is served cold with cherry sauce on Christmas Eve.
After dinner on the 23rd we played the present game which is always a lot of fun. For those not familiar with the popular Danish game, everyone brings along some wrapped gifts and places them in the centre of the table. This particular version stipulated the gifts needed to be second-hand. Dice get sent round the table and if you roll a 6 you take a gift from the middle (but don’t open it). Once all gifts are distributed the host sets a timer (no-one else knows when the game will end) and then people keep rolling dice. 6 – take any present you like from anyone, 3 – take one from your pile and give to someone else, 1 – take from someone and give to anyone else. It is a lot of fun. When the timer goes you get to open whatever is in front of you. I went for the smallest present and was stoked to get a little headphone-set as I’d left my ones at Lilian’s.
Christmas is celebrated in Denmark at night on the 24th (not like NZ where Christmas is during the day on the 25th). Aside from getting the food prepared, Christmas for many Danes starts with going to church in the afternoon of the 24th. I missed the service but felt ok by about 6pm to emerge from my day of hiding in bed. I showered and joined the family for the evening Christmas festivities which was really nice. I ate a plain boiled potato with salt which was just what I felt like! I continued to drink my electrolyte mix – yeeha! It would take a couple of days to get back to full strength but the worst was over.
It was a shame not to be able to enjoy the Christmas food on the 24th but Antony made up for it, trying all the food on offer including pork, duck, brown potatoes (sweet), boiled potatoes, red cabbage and a red cabbage salad. And of course the ris-alamande for dessert. He was not the lucky one to get the whole almond – that prize went to Hans Jorgen’s dad. And if that wasn’t enough food, he had a ris-alamande icecream too!
There are some lovely Christmas traditions which I had experienced before but Antony tried for the first time. Like lit candles on the Christmas tree, dancing or in our case walking round the Christmas tree singing Christmas carols and the appearance of Father Christmas (although our version looked and sounded rather peculiar).
After all the food and festivities and exchanging a few messages with our own families at home, around 10pm it was time for presents to be handed out and opened. It was lovely having a Christmas with kids and their delight and energy didn’t seem to wane as they handed out presents, opened presents and danced around excitedly. I went to bed before they did! It was a lovely Christmas despite the yucky bug I had… and I was grateful for my otherwise good health and for Antony and good friends to have Christmas with.
On the 25th we went to Hans Jørgen’s parents place for lunch – this was another opportunity for Antony to indulge in Danish Christmas food – this time on rugbrød. He loved the æbleflæsk – apples cooked in pork fat with bits of bacon in it. I took some boiled potatoes along and enjoyed them along with half a boiled egg. I was unsurprisingly rather hungry after completely emptying the contents of my stomach in the days before.
Marianne felt like something completely different to Christmas food so we made sushi for dinner… vegetarian, shrimp, and salmon sushi. I ate so much of the vege one but poor Antony could hardly eat anything after all the Christmas food he couldn’t take any more! After dinner we played Splendor with Miss 7 and Marianne. It was great to play board games again!
On the 26th we went for a decent walk with Hans Jorgen and the youngest asleep in the pram. Marianne was visiting a friend in Odense and the oldest two were with their grandparents. It was great to get out and enjoy the fresh air and the sights of the little village and agricultural area around it.
After dinner out on the 26th, we played Dixit then had fun with the excited older girls who were keen to play around … they made up a game with shops and money – no pretend cardboard boxes of food ‘on sale’, here it was real bottles of wine. Antony ended up having a lot of fun with the girls – although they had no common language they did a lot of chasing each other and rough and tumble and roaring noises!
On our last day at the farm Antony pruned the apple and pear trees in the backyard – something he also did in Tåsinge and then at the next place we went too.
So that was our 10 days in Denmark around Christmas… next it was off to Jylland to see Maya and celebrate New Year. While I’m looking into the train timetables to get from the farm up through Jylland to Maya’s place in Ommestrup (near Mørke), Hans Jørgen assures me that his father enjoys driving and his parents don’t have much else to do so he will ask them to drive us there. I didn’t think we could ask the couple well into their 80s to drive all that way but he insisted – saying they liked to feel useful. So sure enough they were happy to drive us and a few hours later we were on our way. So kind!
