Christmastime in Denmark!

Christmas, or Jul, in Denmark is a HUGE deal. Christmas lights and trees start appearing all over the city at the end of November, and Christmas officially "starts" on December 1st. Celebrating Christmas is a month-long ordeal, but unlike in the States where basically shopping is a month-long ordeal, the Danes actually hold parties and celebrate all throughout December. Also, Christmas markets appear all throughout the city.

J-Day

December 1st is called "J-Day," and it's the day when Christmas beer is sol

d for the first time (of course the Danes would mark the beginning of Christmas celebration with alcohol). The beer is twice as alcoholic, very heavy, and only sold in December. I don't actually really like it that much, BUT the cans do have cute pictures of Santa, reindeer, and woodland critters, so that makes it better.

Julefrokost

Another Danish tradition is holding julefrokosts, which literally translates into "Christmas lunches." Although they're called lunches, they typically start around 4 and last long into the night. They are basically epic feasts with lots of alcohol and Danes have several Christmas lunches throughout December--one with their colleague, one with their neighbors, one with their professors, one with their friends, etc. Most of the Danes on my hall say Christmas time is exhausting because you can't go a week without have AT LEAST one Christmas lunch to attend (sort of like graduation parties, I guess).

My school held a Christmas lunch for all us students and host families, complete with gratuitous amounts of food, wine, and a pollyanna gift exchange. Plus, we all held hands and RAN (I mean full sprint) in a giant circle around the central Christmas tree all while signing Christmas songs aloud (This is another Danish tradition. A bit bazaar but really fun). Plus, next week my frisbee team is throwing a Christmas lunch! I can't wait. The people on my team are all so much fun. I'm sure there will be a blog posting later.

Gløgg and æbleskiver

Once again, these two are items are only available around Christmas time, and they are nothing short of magical.

Gløgg (pronounced "glug") is a warm spiced wine with almonds and raisins soaked in brandy and usually comes with mini gingerbread cookies. It is rather alcoholic but absolutely delicious and the perfect drink to get to warm up from the cold. Æbleskiver (pronounced "able-skee-ver") literally translates into "apple slices," but really they are these round, delicious donuts that you eat with powdered sugar and jam. They can be found ALL over Copenhagen and are SOO good. I think I've eaten them on at least 7 different occasions.

"Tour de Chamber" with my hall: Funny how an evening can begin so classy yet end so sloppy. I blame the Christmas beer.

So my hall last week threw a "Tour de Chamber," meaning we each decorated a room with a theme and then had food, and drink, and a game to go along with the theme. My roommate, Blaire, and I had our theme be "America" (predictably). The night was SO fun. It started out in Brian's room with Christmas beers, presents, candles, and santa hats. Other themes included: time machine (tin foil ALL over the food), snow storm (this white spray paint stuff all over the window and walls... which also naturally ended up being sprayed in people's faces), root vegetables? (funniest one of the night... this one guy, Kristoffer, just hung root vegetables everywhere from the ceiling and in the doorway on strings), and some less-decorated rooms that were nonetheless really fun. The night was a fantastic success. I love the Danes on my hall. They are all so great and so much fun. I'm going to miss them.

a classy beginning to the evening

time machine room shenanigans (these two are named Lars and Arni and they're 2 of my favorite people on my hall)

when "snow spray" gets into the wrong hands

Barathi and I! (representing a bit of the themes from each room... stickers, tin foil, and santa hats)

Rewind in time: Thanksgiving in Denmark!

Another reason I love the Danes on my hall is because they cook for Blaire and I all the time AND they're fantastic cooks. Since Blaire and I were away for Thanksgiving (me in Norway, Blaire in Paris), they waited till we came home and cooked an awesome Thanksgiving dinner on Monday night.

The sad part is that Danes don't even celebrate Thanksgiving but they made turkey, roasted vegetables, corn bread (from scratch), mashed potatoes, and gravy perfectly... and much better than Blaire and I could have done ourselves I must say.