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CHRISTMAS

How do Danes celebrate on Christmas Eve?

Christmas is celebrated on December 24th in Denmark, with present exchanging happening late in the day. Here's all you need to know about a Danish Christmas.

Published: 19 December 2022 14:51 CET
Updated: 24 December 2022 08:57 CET
Presents under a Christmas tree
Presents under a Christmas Tree, ready to be opened the evening of the 24th December. Photo: Henning Bagger/Ritzau Scanpix

Christmas Eve (Juleaften) is the date of excitement across households in Denmark. But despite the Christmas celebrations coming a day earlier than in most Anglophone countries, there is a bit of a waiting game, as everything happens in the late afternoon and evening.

Church

The Christmas Eve traditions may start for some families when they attend the afternoon service at church.

Christmas Eve Order of Service
A Christmas Eve Order of Service for Tved Church on Funen, Thursday 24th December 2020. Photo: Tim Kildeborg Jensen/Ritzau Scanpix

Television

Many families will sit down together with a glass of gløgg (a traditional Nordic mulled wine) or hot chocolate to watch the Disney Christmas Show on TV broadcaster DR at 4pm. The Disney classic shown is called From All of Us to All of You, known in Danish as Disneys juleshow.

Food

As in many countries, food is a focal point of celebrating Christmas in Denmark. The Christmas meal (julemiddag) is traditionally eaten in the evening. It consists of roast duck and/or pork, boiled or sugar-browned potatoes, sautéed red cabbage and gravy. The duck is sometimes stuffed with apples and prunes, which are then served separately.

Danish Christmas Eve dinner
A traditional Christmas Eve meal in Denmark. Photo: Vibeke Toft/Ritzau Scanpix

An estimated three out of four Danes eat duck on Christmas Eve, while 60 percent eat pork, meaning many eat both.

Dessert is something called risalamande, which is like a rice pudding mixed with whipped cream, vanilla, chopped almonds and served with warm cherry sauce. One whole almond is left in the dessert and whoever finds it wins a present, which is usually a julegris, a chocolate pig with marzipan filling. This game is often fixed so that a child (or children) wins the prize.

READ ALSO: Danish word of the day: Marcipangris

Danish Christmas dessert Risalamande
Risalamande with kirsebærsovs. Photo: Vibeke Toft/Ritzau Scanpix

The drink of course involves schnapps, as well as wine and beer, with many opportunities to toast skål and drink some more. 

READ ALSO: Why do Danes eat duck and pork at Christmas?

Dancing around the Christmas Tree

After the meal, the next tradition is to light candles (yes candles, not lights) on the Christmas tree and dance around, holding hands and singing Christmas songs, before moving onto presents. 

Dancing around the Christmas tree
Dancing around the Christmas tree on Christmas Eve. Photo: Bjarke Ørsted/Ritzau Scanpix

Presents

There are no chimney antics or middle-of-the-night creeping around in Denmark. Father Christmas himself (Julemanden, who may or may not be family member dressed up) comes to deliver presents (gaver) before or after dinner, depending on the level of excitement and patience of the children. 

Father Christmas, Julemand, handing out Christmas presents
A family member dressed up as Father Christmas (Julemanden) hands out Christmas presents on Christmas Eve in 1999. Photo: Linda Kastrup/Ritzau Scanpix

It is a long day of waiting for small children but gifts are also given in the run-up to Christmas. Some families give a sizeable present on the four Advent Sundays before Christmas. Others may get a small gift to unwrap each day in December leading up to Christmas. 

With food eaten and presents unwrapped, it will now be quite late and time to sleep it all off. The following day, December 25th, will involve more time with family and more food but the main excitement of Christmas is now over.

How do you say ‘Merry Christmas’ in Danish?

Jul means Christmas in Danish so to wish someone a Merry Christmas, you simply say god jul or glædelig jul.

READ MORE: My five favourite Danish childhood Christmas memories

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DANISH HABITS

Why do Danes love group singing at family gatherings?

If you’ve been to a wedding, birthday or confirmation in Denmark you’ll probably have experienced the phenomenon that is the 'fællessang' or group singing.

Published: 15 February 2023 12:47 CET
Why do Danes love group singing at family gatherings?

Most common at weddings, milestone birthdays or confirmations for young teenagers, the Danish group song usually takes place at some point after the beginning, but before the end of the meal when everyone is still sitting and gathered.

Somebody will go around handing out sheets of paper which will contain several verses and choruses of a song. The song sheets might also be decorated with photos of the birthday boy or girl or the happy couple.

Everyone will get a sheet which, on which a line at the top explains the tune to which the song will be sung. It will be a well-known song in Denmark but as a foreigner, you’ll probably never have heard of it.

Then it will be time to sing.

Everybody stands up and as the music begins you must sing along with everybody else. The lyrics will not be the original lyrics to the song (not that you know them anyway), but a completely new adapted version written by one of the guests.

These new lyrics will be all about the person or couple being celebrated at the party, perhaps including anecdotes about their life and shared experiences with the person who wrote this song, such as holidays, achievements or other major events (and sometimes also minor ones).

There may be one or two guests who sing along with gusto to this new song’s maiden (and only ever) outing, but most people will murmur and mumble their way through it.

It’s not so bad, you might think. It’s just a bit of fun, a little bit of singing that will soon be over. Wrong. There are usually at least five verses (plus choruses) and maybe more than ten, which means that this excruciating experience of mutual singing can feel like it goes on forever.

Danes are generally known for being reserved and sensible in the public sphere, but you won’t hear anyone complaining about joining in with the group song, and it usually gets plenty of words of encouragement after the event.

So what is it about birthdays and weddings that makes group-singing awkward lyrics to an ancient Danish tune such a well-loved custom?

It should also be noted that this tradition is popular everywhere: regardless of age, geographical location, political viewpoint or income level, all Danes keenly take part in party group singing.

READ ALSO: Five Danish children’s songs international parents will inevitably have to learn

A survey conducted by YouSee on behalf of newspaper Kristeligt Dagblad in 2021 found that one in two Danes consider group singing to be a national custom in Denmark, and that three in four consider songs in Danish to be an important part of the national cultural legacy.

The survey also found that group singing was popular across age groups, geographical location, and political affiliation, backing up the sense that you’re likely to experience it wherever you go to attend a gathering like a wedding or confirmation.

The survey was part of an article series by the newspaper focusing on songs from the Højskolesangbogen (book of songs for folk high schools), which were written with the purpose of being sung by groups at folk high schools, Danish adult education institutions based on the ideas of eighteenth-century philosopher N. F. S. Grundtvig.

While it therefore seems that group singing is backed by centuries of Danish tradition, singing in groups also brings people together outside of folk high schools.

A researcher in religious history from Aarhus University’s Grundtvig Centre who has researched the custom of group singing told Kristeligt Dagblad at the time that group singing could be considered a “signature cultural practice”, meaning something that Danes feel distinguishes them from other national identities.

It is becoming increasingly popular as an activity in modern Denmark, the researcher, Katrine Frøkjær Baunvig, told Kristeligt Dagblad.

“I see it more as part of a cultural experience trend, where you buy a ticket to a singing event and go there and sing because you think it will be good for yourself,” she said.

In Spring 2020, many people in Denmark took part in group singing events — sometimes involving singing from balconies or out of apartment windows — in initiatives aimed at helping national morale during the coronavirus crisis.

A researcher from a different field made comments that appear to support the notion of group singing as something that promotes a feeling of togetherness and belonging to a community.

“We primarily sing for the sense of community we get from it,” Lea Wierød Borcak, a postdoc in Musicology at Aarhus University in 2021, told Kristeligt Dagblad.

“Singing together is one of the most eminently unsurpassed ways to bring people together,” she said.

“I think that singing is an important ritual in itself for many people. What you actually sing is not so important, but when we mark these big milestones in life, we sing,” she also said.

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