And all through OUR house is the smell of Christmas baking, the crinkle of wrapping paper and sticky tape and lots of frantic activity. Yes, December 23rd is the night before Christmas in Sweden.

There used to be a lot of comment in expat circles about the "right" way to celebrate Christmas, especially from the newly arrived Americans to Sweden. Nobody could get over the idea of doing the main feast and pressies on Christmas Eve. "What's wrong with these Swedes?", etc.

I have asked my family here, but nobody could tell me why this was the case. A friend in Örebro, however, explained it to me. Long ago, Christmas Day was a very sacred and holy day in Sweden and most people spent it at church for a good part of the day. Apparently, in the late 1800s at least, you were FINED and visited by the local law for NOT being in church on holy days.

So when better to party, have a few (quite a few) shots of festive and alcoholic Yuletide cheer, eat yourself senseless, open pressies and just have a rolicking good time, but Christmas Eve. And since the Lutheran (and most Protestant faiths) motto is "You play, you pay", you used to spend Christmas Day nursing your hangover and trying to sleep quietly through the church services.

And that, girls and boys, is why Swedes do the main celebrating on December 24th, not December 25th.

Today, the apartment is full of the smells of freshly baked saffron buns, cinnamon laced fruit sauce boiling away, vört bread with the lovely spicy smell of ginger, cloves and mixed spices and the smell of toasting almonds, melting chocolate and toffee. Add to that, the glögg with its infusion of spices and it's an intoxicating, heady aroma.

The phone has been ringing non-stop as the kids frantically scramble around doing last minute shopping and using us as the information service. It makes me laugh that they have left everything so late, but I guess it's typical. I'd be shocked if they were actually organised. I'm so happy we'll all be together this year.

Tonight we'll wrap all the gifts together, drinking lots of mulled wine and munching on knäck, almonds etc and then make sure we have everything ready so we only have to get up in the morning and leave for my brother-in-law's house where we are celebrating julafton with the family.

I am playing Christmas carols in the background as I type. The two CDs I'm favouring this year are by Dream a Dream with Charlotte Church (and including my favourite carol O Holy Night and Glade Jul by the wonderful Norwegian singer Sissel Kyrkjebø. This also features O Holy Night (in Norwegian) as well as my favourite Scandinavian carol, Nu tändas tusen juleljus (Now A Thousand Christmas Candles Are Being Lit).

Though according to this quiz, my favourite carol is an Aussie one. I guess you can never take the Aussie out of me!



Yes, that does bring back memories.....

I feel very at home with Christmas here now. For the first couple of years I felt a bit like a visitor at someone else's feast day. Don't get me wrong, my family here were very welcoming and I was interested in learning about my new country and its traditions. But it felt foreign. In the same way as when Malaysian friends invited us to join them for Hari Raya or Chinese friends celebrated Lunar New Year. It was great to go and share good food and drink in the company of friends, but it still lacked a special meaning that it had for our friends who had been brought up with the tradition.

Now it feels more and more a real part of me. Yes, I miss family and friends back in Adelaide, but Sweden has left its mark on me as well. I even look forward to the Christmas spread, despite no turkey, roast potatoes, gravy and Christmas pudding. An expat friend of mine here described the typical Swedish Christmas dinner as: herring in various forms, pork in various forms, potatoes in various forms, bread in various forms, and enough cabbage (again, in various forms) to provide for all the natural gas needs of a small country for a year if only we had a method to collect it. I really laughed at that. There's a lot of truth there.

My priority this year is simple. Eat, drink and be very merry!