A Recap of Our Christmas 2023: A Tale of Two Christmases

Today’s post

Welcome to our first blog post of 2024! Another year has passed us by, and this will be Skandibaking’s fourth year, which is absolutely crazy to us. We wanted to give you a recap of the Christmas just gone, especially because we couldn’t spend it together in the same place this year. While that was definitely challenging and sad because we love to be together during Christmas, it meant we experienced pretty different Christmases, making it a bit more of an interesting topic to write a blog post about! We hope you enjoy reading a bit about how we spent our holidays this past year, and maybe it will inspire you to read more about Danish Christmas traditions, which we have shared in a blog post here.

Preparing for Christmas

As always, we started preparing early on for Christmas. We had to start ordering the Scandinavian goods that we need for the holidays way before December, so that we could get them all in time. This typically includes a few different foods, like pork roast, cherry sauce, and pudding rice, but also things like decorations, advent calendars, marzipan, and licorice. You can check out some of the tips we offer in this blog post for Scandinavians living abroad who want to celebrate some of their traditions in a new country.

In terms of any specific goods we might need, in the US, Sofie orders from the Scandinavian Butik, and in the UK, I order from Scandikitchen. I actually got lucky this past year, as my mormor (grandmother) came to visit the UK from Denmark back in October, so she brought me a few Christmas bits, like a kalenderlys and paper to make braided hearts and Christmas stars. I couldn’t travel back to the US this year for Christmas, so having those little familiar and traditional things made my Christmas feel a bit more magical. My boyfriend and I also took a trip to IKEA and bought plenty of nisser to gift to members of his family for Christmas, which also cheered me up. Below, you can read more about how we each spent our Christmases in 2023!

Sofie’s Christmas in the US

Sofie here – I spent the Christmas holidays here in the US, and got the chance to visit both my own and my husband’s family! My family makes sure to cram in all the Danish traditions we can when we are together – we eat rice porridge on the 23rd of December, along with Æbleskiver (Danish pancake balls) and gløgg (mulled wine) to get in the holiday spirit! We also usually decorate our Christmas tree on the 23rd of December, which may seem quite late (especially in the US), but we’ve always done it that way!

As per usual, we eat Danish Christmas dinner on the 24th. This involves cooking both roast pork loin with the crackling on, or flæskesteg, and roast duck with apples and prunes, andesteg! We accompany our savory mains with caramelized potatoes, boiled potatoes, braised red cabbage, and a delicious gravy. We wrap up dinner with a rich and creamy dessert, risalamande! It’s not just any old dessert though – it involves a game where if you find the whole almond hidden in the dessert, you win a present! You can read more about our Danish holiday traditions in our blog post here.

This year, we also did a Danish julefrokost (Christmas lunch) on the 25th. Danes usually host these throughout December. It’s a big luncheon where you make smørrebrød (Danish open-faced sandwiches) and drink lots of snaps! It’s always so fun to eat some of our favorite foods from Denmark on top of rye bread. We’re hoping to put together a guide on hosting a Christmas lunch for next year’s holiday season – stay tuned!

Along with spending time with my family, we also traveled to Utah to visit my husband’s family! It’s always nice to see some snow around the holidays, especially now that I live in a much warmer place (Texas). And we usually get some skiing in too, which always makes it feel like real winter! This year, I also got the chance to relax and start reading more books, which is something I want to continue. We are not affiliated with Libby in any way, but if you live in the US and get a local library card, you can sign up for the Libby app! It lets you check out ebooks or audiobooks, so you can read them on your device or listen to them! I’ve found it a great way to get back into reading. I’m back in Austin now, but keep reading to hear about Emma’s holidays!

Emma’s Christmas in the UK

My Christmas was very different from the usual celebrations in the US, where we pretty much only celebrate Danish traditions with a slight American twist. Instead, I got to have a very British Christmas! What I can say is that it included heading to the pub on Christmas Day, which was very rogue for me but still very fun. Christmas dinner was pretty much like an extra British roast dinner, and it was very delicious (but no match for Danish Christmas dinner, sorry). I got to pull a cracker for the first time, though, and I certainly enjoyed that!

It was a very festive and busy Christmas, with plenty of food, booze, and sweets, just everything you could really want for the holidays. And on Boxing Day, we went to the Manchester United vs. Aston Villa match, which was a very fun experience. I did miss the singing around the Christmas tree, though – that Danish tradition just can’t be beat by anything else!

Christmas lights in London and Birmingham

The one thing I will say about the UK is that it is definitely more magical than the US at Christmastime. Probably not more than Scandinavia (sorry!) but still very cozy with all the Christmas markets and lights. I had actually never been to London at Christmas, despite living in the UK for over 2 years now, but this Christmas was the one. On what seemed to be the coldest day of December, I went to Winter Wonderland with some friends, and it was so much fun and definitely got me in the holiday spirit. I also love the Birmingham Christmas markets because while they do sell overpriced food and drinks, the small local businesses have great products on display that you can check out and even buy as Christmas presents for people.

Thanks for reading!

We hope you enjoyed reading more about how we spent our Christmases this year. We certainly enjoyed writing a little recap for you! While it’s not easy to spend the holidays apart from family, some years that’s just the way it is. And you can always make things feel a bit better by getting familiar or traditional goodies, whether that’s food or decorations, to make you feel closer to home. Hopefully, you had a great Christmas 2023 and a wonderful New Year! Wishing you all the best for the year ahead.