Imagine a snowy Christmas with candles lit everywhere, beautiful choirs, and the smell of spice in the air.  You are picturing Christmas in Sweden! Whether you are traveling to Sweden for Christmas or just want to celebrate like the Swedish, you will find some fun things to learn and do here.

Fun Facts about Christmas in Sweden

• Christmas in Sweden is called Jul. It is celebrated throughout the month of December and even into January.
• To say Merry Christmas in Sweden you need to say God Jul.
• Sweden also celebrates St. Lucia Day on December 13th. It is to remember the young girl Lucia who would sneak food to jailed Christians in Rome. The story says that she made a wreath of candles on her head so that she could carry more food and still see where she was going.
• Today St. Lucia Day is celebrated in all Scandinavian countries. On the 13th girls dress up in white dresses and red waist sashes and put wreaths with candles on their heads like this picture.

• There are traditional songs sung and lots of yummy treats like pepparkaker ( a thin gingerbread cookie) and Lussekatts (a sweet roll with saffron and raisins).
• The Swedes also celebrate their main holiday on Christmas Eve. The give presents and have their large meal. They eat a jolbord which is a selections of meatballs, smoked fish, salads, sausages, potatoes, and lots of yummy desserts including rice pudding.
• Santa is called “Tomten” in Sweden and he is often helped by his gnomes called “Nissan.” They make sure that every child in Sweden receives presents.

Donald Duck is a Big Part of Christmas

Every single Christmas Eve at 3 o’clock, kids and grown-ups all over Sweden do something really special – they sit down together to watch Donald Duck cartoons on TV!

It’s like a big TV party that everyone in the whole country joins. They watch the same old Disney cartoons every year, with Donald Duck getting into all sorts of silly adventures. The funny thing is, even parents and grandparents get super excited to watch – they’ve been watching these same cartoons since they were kids too!

Imagine having your whole family, maybe even your cousins and aunts and uncles, all squishing onto the couch together, eating Christmas cookies, and laughing at Donald Duck’s funny jokes and mistakes. Some people even know all the words by heart because they’ve seen it so many times!

The best part? Everyone in Sweden does this at exactly the same time – it’s like one giant family watching TV together. Pretty cool, right? They’ve been doing this every Christmas Eve since 1959.

Would you want to try watching Donald Duck cartoons on Christmas Eve like Swedish kids do? Here is one you can watch for yourself.

What to Make for Christmas in Sweden

Pepparkaker Recipe

This traditional Swedish cookie is a little bit different than a traditional gingerbread cookie. It has more spice and dissolves in your mouth. It is not very cakey either.

Here is the recipe

The recipe calls for golden syrup, but you can use corn syrup but it isn’t quite as good. You can find golden syrup at Whole Foods and most grocery stores near the maple syrup or the corn syrup.

What to make for a Swedish Christmas craft

I couldn’t pick just one so I thought you could pick or do both!

We will be making a Tomten garland!

This craft comes from https://www.whatdowedoallday.com/tomten-garland/

Please visit here for more complete instructions and lots more Swedish-style crafts.

• Cut triangles from white and red paper. We made all of our triangles identical so our tomten were symmetrical, but it is not necessary. Allow your child to take the lead.
• Cut circles for the faces.
• Glue the tomten parts together as shown.
• Draw faces.
• Cut invisible thread to the desired length and tape tomten to the string.
• Hang in a window or on a tree or wherever you think a bunch of mischievous gnomes should hang out.

 

Make your own Santa Lucia wreath or hat

You can have your own little Santa Lucia celebration by making your headdress.

Visit http://kiddley.com/2006/12/13/paper-santa-lucia-crowns-and-hats/

You will find step-by-step instructions on how to easily make your crowns with candles.

Swedish Christmas Carols

If you want to learn the Swedish carol that you sing on St. Lucia day here it is.

 

What to read about Christmas in Sweden

Here is a great book about the festival of St. Lucia

Sale

Lucia Morning in Sweden

• Ewa Rydaker (Author)
• English (Publication Language)
• 36 Pages - 06/01/2014 (Publication Date) - Nodin Press (Publisher)

$8.71

Buy on Amazon

This is a more detailed book about Christmas in Sweden. There are lots of books in this series and I love to read about a different culture each week with my kids.

Sale

Christmas in Sweden (Christmas Around the World)

• Enderlein, Cheryl L. (Author)
• English (Publication Language)
• 24 Pages - 02/01/2013 (Publication Date) - Capstone Press (Publisher)

$20.55

Buy on Amazon

Sign up for FREE coloring pages that feature Christmas in Sweden

I hope this inspires you to add some new things into your Christmas celebrations this year!

If you are interested in more of this series check out the article on Christmas in New Zealand.

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Swedish Activities for Kids

 

Last update on 2025-03-24 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API

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