One of the things I love about Sweden in December is the way it lives up to my clichéd idea of the perfect Christmas. While you are out and about, everyone is rugged up drinking glögg, kids are skating on impromptu rinks and the Christmas lights twinkle brighter than you could ever imagine on these dark northern nights. I was telling one of my good friends back in Oz about it and she said it sounded like a fairy tale. I guess it is. It is exactly like the white Christmases I’d seen in movies, on television in books and on every Christmas card I’d ever received.

I’d always thought that Christmas felt a bit ‘tacked on’ Downunder. A red velvet suit is not suitable attire for a portly gentleman anywhere in Australia in December. And I don’t think a Christmas roast and plum pudding with hot custard was ever meant to be eaten in 40C degree heat. (Not that you could ever tell my mother that.) In later years we had cold seafood and picnics on the beach instead. It's a great way to spend Christmas, in your bathers, munching on a prawn with a beer or ice cold champagne in the other hand, on the beach with the radio blaring songs about White Christmas which took on a whole new meaning with our beautiful sandy white beaches.

But now, living in Sweden, I have to say that today there are some things I really, really miss.

In no particular order they are:

* Big juicy red cherries and golden peaches suddenly appearing in the fruit shops.
* Avenues bursting with jacaranda blossoms
* The constant racket of cicadas.
* My friends and family.
* The smell of jasmine as you stumble home late after Christmas drinks.
* Getting a couple of kilos of freshly cooked prawns and tucking into them with friends.
* The Boxing Day Test match.
* A Christmas morning barbeque by the beach.

I think my new friend Jacqui (another antipodean love refugee in Sweden, but from sunny South Africa) put it really well when she said in her post about Christmas "It´s not easy when you miss everyone and imagine what they are busy doing while you are are on the otherside of the globe."

So very true!

Having said that, I did have a really enjoyable julafton with Lars-Göran's family. We have a few pictures to share, even though Lars-Göran considers them "below standard" - unfortunately the "candlelight" setting on our camera requires a *very* steady hand -- something I didn't have after a couple cups of glögg. And Lars-Göran mutters things about no flexibility in camera settings and people moving around, but I know you'll overlook that.

We arrived in Huddinge just after lunch time, laden down with food and presents. While I don't like to get presents myself, I do like to give them. Strange, isn't it? So I had enjoyed finding a few choice goodies over the last few weeks, wrapping them and thinking of the all important christmas rhyme (julrim) for the gift cards.

The Swedish word for Christmas presents is julklappar - literally "Christmas knocks". This refers to a very old custom, pre-dating the idea of Santa, where gifts were distributed in a very odd way. One would sneak up to the house, knock on the door then toss the present inside (let's hope it wasn't something fragile from Orrefors!) and make off without being recognised. The wrapping on these "christmas knocks" would contain an ironic rhyme. These days, one uses a rhyme that hints at what the gift may be, using a play on words.

We sat around chatting and doing some of the initial food preparation until everyone had arrived.



Everything was well organised and very relaxed as we sipped on glögg, nibbled on raisins and almonds and settled down to watch Kalle Anka (which I described here). My sister-in-law and I managed to snaffle the comfy chairs - well at least for half of it, after which we had to go back to the kitchen to finish off the food preparations. Even Lambi-Claus joined in relaxing, though she could smell the food and was puzzled as to why we were all sitting around watching tv when there was food to be shared with her.



While we busied ourselves in the kitchen, others made sure that the table was set out in the conservatory, which looked really sparkling and festive in the late afternoon gloom. No, that's not a misprint. It's about 3.30pm at this stage and as dark as a winter's night back home.



There were fewer of us this year, as every second year Lars-Göran's children spend julafton with their mother. We will all be getting together again for dinner later in the week, but for today there were the seven of us.

Meanwhile, in the kitchen Mille and I worked at last minute tasks. Even Lars-Göran was pressed ganged into peeling and halving the hard boiled eggs. The Swedish Christmas dinner is very big on protein, with typical fish offerings including gravlax (raw salmon cured in a salt-sugar-dill mixture) sliced paper thin and served with a dill-mustard sauce, various kinds of raw, marinated sill (herring), sillsallad (a “salad” made with herring and beetroot in a cream sauce), Janssons Frestelse ( or Jansson’s temptation, a gratin with potatoes, onions, cream, and anchovies), hard boiled eggs topped with caviar or small prawns and even lobster pieces. Other things on the smörgåsbord will include: Swedish meatballs, mustard coated baked ham , prinskorv (a tiny frankfurter), tjälknöl (chilblain roasted meat, served cold and thinly sliced), cheeses and various kinds of breads. And no Swedish meal would be complete without the ubiquitous boiled potatoes!



This is about half of it laid out on the serving board! We also had the vegetarian dishes that I made, plus various salad vegetables cut and arranged on a colourful platter. It looked so inviting that we all had no trouble digging in heartily, washing it down with toasts of ice cold vodka and glasses of julmust.

After our meal, it was time for tomte to arrive and hand out the gifts.



We all cried out "Hey! Where's your beard?", but tomte, who bore an uncanny resemblance to my brother-in-law Christer, told us that he was the new, improved, stream-lined version Stockholm tomte!



He read out the rhymes and we all made suggestions and guesses as to what the gifts could be. I like this way of distributing gifts - it takes a while but is the subject of a lot of laughter and community spirit. Some of the rhymes are really clever - especially those from my sister-in-law who has a real gift for them.

In the middle of this, we got a surprise visit from Lars-Göran's youngest daughter who had finished with her mother's christmas dinner and was passing by on her way to a friend's home for the night. Everyone was delighted to see her and she nursed Lambi while we opened our gifts.

Tomte was obviously reading this blog as Lars-Göran got that map of Långviksskär he needed. He also got enough chocolates, wine gums and those ghastly green jelly balls to last a normal person for a whole year. Which means he will eat them all by tomorrow!



My best gift? Well, from Lars-Göran, I got a pair beautiful, delicate glass candle holders. This was a complete surprise for me and involved a bit of detective work on his part. I had seen them in the window of one of the little shops in the harbour. I loved them instantly and pointed them out to him weeks and weeks ago. But these shops are only open "for the season" (ie June to September), so I had not thought about it again.

My dear husband had gone down there during the week and consulted some friends who have an office nearby. There was no number for the shop, but they put him on to the woman who owns the shop next door and after a little persuasion, she gave him the owner's phone number. He rang and enquired about the candle holders and about whether she lived in Nynäshamn and was going to her shop before Christmas.

She lives in Stora Vika, but told him that a Nynäshamn woman could be able to open up the shop for him. A later phone call indicated that the local woman had gone to Umeå for Christmas! But as she had to collect a few things from the shop for her home before Christmas eve, she agreed to come all the way from Stora Vika by bus and sell him the candle holders.

And people say there is no customer service in Sweden!

I'll post a picture later in the week when I remember to take one. As well as one of Seymour's new friends....

The only thing missing from julafton was the snow. Today, like us, Bruce is looking out the window waiting for the forecast snow to arrive.



I think the funniest gift was the banana guard that someone gave Christer. What will they think of next? It has been a great day, in no small part thanks to the warmth and generosity of Lars-Göran's family who have always made me feel very welcome and very much a member of their family. For which I am very grateful.



Merry Christmas!



And look, it's snowing outside and showing no signs of stopping! Thankyou, Santa. I'm off to go out and enjoy it while it lasts. And humming Emerson, Lake and Palmer's classic lines They said there'll be snow at Christmas