Lets eat the tree

I love Christmas cookies and I love to bake them. This year I got some new cutters to add to my rather modest and very old collection of Christmas cookie cutters. The cookies I’ve baked this year are simple Danish butter cookies and I’ve baked them both for eating and to use on my Christmas tree as decorations.

I inherited my glass Christmas ornaments from my grand mothers. And I really love them and take extreme care that nothing happens to them. They are my most cherished items, I guess because they are so fragile, old and rare.

It is an old Danish tradition to put Danish flags on the Christmas tree - I think that there are paintings of some of the earliest Danish Christmas trees in about the1850s with Danish flags on and I have no idea why. – From my point of view there is absolutely no patriotism or nationalism involved. I guess it's the same with the way we use our flag for birthdays and other celebrations.

Advent: to stay and to go

Christmas is my favorite time of year, especially because of the traditions and the candles. Advent is the four Sundays before the 24^th and the Advent wreath with four candles are very popular here as a way of counting down the dark days until the light returns to the sky. Originally it might have been a Christian thing, but for me it mostly a was of have some candles and light to fight the darkness.

This Sunday is the third Sunday before Christmas and so there are two candles lit. My Advent wreath is very old. It used to belong to my Grandmother and I guess it's from the 1940s or 50s. It is made of iron and has room for clementines decorated with cloves. It always makes my apartment smell like Christmas.

This year I found another type of Advent wreath. - A more modern version than mine. This is a ‘take-away’ Advent wreath in a handy little box, so you can put it in your purse and take it to your friends when you go visit.

So while your candles are burning and you're enjoying some delicious Christmas cake and tea what better time than to send your friends and family a vintage design Christmas card. I found these beautiful ones at End of the Day Crafting on Etsy.

Christmas traditions: cookies and candles

One of the very best ways of spreading the Christmas spirit is by baking. These are old traditional Danish Christmas cookies and it is my first try. They have pepper in them, but no very munch and I’m not sure you could actually taste it.

They were very popular and even though I made around 50 small pieces last sunday, they are all gone now.

Next to the cookies is my calender candle, which is another Christmas tradition I really love .

Victorian Christmas in Copenhagen

I’m crazy about Christmas. It is I guess my rebound after hating the dark Danish winters so much. I especially love Copenhagen around Christmas – the old part of town can completely set me back in time and I forget all my depressing thoughts and feel like I part of a H.C. Andersen-fairytale. I always seek the traditional Danish Christmas decorations and the moods in Copenhagen, which are not difficult to find. Especially if you walk around Strædet in the evening, just past Gamel Torv - here you can easily disappear and pretend that you're back in the 1800s Copenhagen and might just run into H.C.A. himself.

Place of the month in December is The Victorian Home. I went there today for the first time and I think every one in this city should pay it a visit. It is a complete apartment as it looked in 1890 with the original interior. It is part of The National Museum and they only have limited guided tours making it a very unique experience. As you walk around the halls of this amazing place, you hear the story of the family, who lived there from the 1890s up until the 1960s until the apartment was given to The National Museum.
And this time of year it is especially charming as the apartment is decorated with an old traditional Danish Christmas tree.