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What is a Danish julefrokost?
Picture all your family and friends sitting around the dinner table, which is decorated festively for Christmas, enjoying some of your favorite foods and drinks. You’re spending your time chatting or playing games, or just enjoying each other’s company. That’s basically the main idea of julefrokost, or a Danish Christmas lunch. It’s probably what Danes look forward to most in December, other than Christmas Eve, as it’s just a chance to gather and have a good time, drink lots of alcohol, and eat good food. So whether you’re at a work julefrokost, or one with friends and family, it’s always a time of hygge (coziness) and festive cheer.
Psst…we published an Ebook!
This amazing tradition is part of the reason why we decided to write an ebook for this holiday season! We wanted to share it with those of you who may not know much about it, but we also wanted to provide a guide for any Danes living outside of Denmark who miss home and want to host a Danish julefrokost for their friends or family. Hopefully, this book will provide both inspiration and very detailed guidance to hosting a julefrokost!
Growing up mostly in the US, we’re lucky that our mom ensured we experienced an authentic julefrokost, and now we get to share that with our non-Danish family and friends, too. With our mom’s advice from hosting various julefrokost events for colleagues, and our own experiences, we’d like to think we’ve become experts at planning for this event outside of Denmark, which can be challenging in many ways. In this post, you’ll get a little taste of what our ebook has to offer, and an idea of what hosting a Danish julefrokost entails!
Get the Julefrokost Guide
Bring a touch of Danish hygge to your Christmas this year with our detailed digital PDF guide to planning and hosting your own traditional Danish julefrokost (Christmas lunch).
buy it hereMenu planning
Your menu for julefrokost will depend on the group of people you’re hosting. You could be entertaining a group of non-Danes, which means you’ll want a good balance of the traditional dishes (herring, mackerel, etc.) for people to try something new, and the crowd-pleasers for non-Danish tastebuds, aka frikadeller and tarteletter. If you’re hosting other Danes, you can probably go as traditional as you like, perhaps even serving sylte (called head cheese in English, basically cold meat set in jelly) or rullepølse (spiced pork)!
Traditionally, most of the Danish julefrokost food is eaten as toppings on smørrebrød, or open-faced sandwiches. The fish course comes first and then meat, then cheese and dessert (the latter two aren’t eaten as sandwiches, obviously). Some hosts serve the sandwiches pre-assembled, but we like to put all the toppings out on the table and let people make their own. It lets them be a part of the tradition directly, and they can customize the sandwiches to what they like or their dietary needs! Our full recipe page for smørrebrød goes into more detail, but you’ll also find a visual guide in the ebook that shows you how to make each sandwich.
In terms of drinks, you should definitely serve shots of snaps (aquavit), and then beer is usually the drink that people enjoy throughout the meal. But it’s easiest to ask people to bring their own alcohol, so if they want wine or something else, that’s up to them (would not recommend that, though – light beer often goes down the easiest!). For dessert, you can decide what you want to make, but we like serving Danish Christmas cookies and some chocolates and liquorice.
Preparation schedule for your Danish julefrokost
Now, the trickiest part about hosting any large meal is staying organized. In our ebook, you’ll find details and tips for the entire process, from months before to the day of, which will help you know what you need to be doing at each stage. For example, if you need to order Scandinavian goods online, you want to make sure you’re on top of this at least a month ahead of time, so that if anything is out of stock or you can’t get it, you have some time to order it from another source.
We also like to make a spreadsheet schedule for the day of the event, because although we do some prep in between courses, it’s crucial to be well-prepared and have a to-do list. This is a resource you’ll find in the ebook, too, which you can copy and customize to your own julefrokost needs.
Decorating – keeping it Scandi and simple
Decoration is a really fun part of julefrokost, and it helps create a lovely atmosphere if you put in some effort. But equally, it isn’t necessary to go out and buy a bunch of new stuff – just use what you already have if you can! All you really need is enough plates, glasses, and cutlery for everyone, along with some serving dishes and utensils. A tablecloth, table runner, fabric napkins, and some candles will do wonders. And if you’re planning to serve all the toppings on the table, there’s no need to decorate as much, because there won’t even be room for it. If you need inspiration, our ebook is full of beautiful photos to help you create the proper ambience for your julefrokost.
Entertaining your guests at a Danish julefrokost
What about entertainment for your guests? Depending on the group, games are an excellent choice, including gift-giving games like pakkeleg, White Elephant, or Secret Santa. Board games can be fun in between courses, too. If we’re hosting non-Danes, we also like to teach them some Danish Christmas crafts, like braided hearts and stars, and that can take up quite a lot of time. You also might just want to sit around the table and chat and catch up, which is obviously the best use of julefrokost time, and is the true hygge we all want when we plan this event! Again, check out the ebook for more entertainment ideas (including a made-up song and classic Danish Christmas eating game).
Watch Our Video
Check out this vlog on how Emma planned and hosted a julefrokost for friends in Birmingham:
Thanks for your support!
Thank you for reading this post and for the amazing support on the ebook that we’ve already had. We hope you learned a lot about the Danish julefrokost and are intrigued enough to buy our ebook, which is linked here! We put a lot of heart and soul into it, along with great tips and tricks, so we really hope it’s helpful. Let us know in the comments what you think – have you ever been to a Danish julefrokost?
