Yesterday it was 1st of advent. Advent it a pretty serious thing here in Sweden, its the one thing everyone looks forward to after two months with rain/snow, darkness and staying in.We crave the warmth, to meet up with friends, to eat good food and to celebrate.
This is also a day full of personal traditions for me. Taking out my advent-stars and putting them into my windows (and the yearly struggle with the timers, trying to make them light up at the same time), eating advent-lunch and the yearly christmas market in the city.
It all starts with lightening the advent candle, this tradition have been around since the 19th century with its origin in Germany and their advent-tree where they lit 7 candles (one for each day of the week) every sunday.
Then we always eat “advent-lunch”, with meatballs, prinskorv (the small sausage, its the same as a vienna sausage), christmas-ham and the Swedish speciality of “Julmust”, a sweet soft drink only sold during christmas.
After lunch, its time to go down to the city-centre and the yearly christmas market. Here we always drink this years Blossa-glögg (this years flavor was Earl Gray, it was amazing!), we lit a candle in the snow for those who are not here with us anymore and then all of us friends meet up at the same restaurant, which none of us like, and eat before going home.
Crumbles and Kale 
This was so much fun to read and I chucked when you said you ate at the same restaurant…traditions are like that sometimes! 🙂
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Haha, yeah and it’s so horrible, think we waited 1h45min for the food (which wasn’t great) this time, but we still go back every year…
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You’re stalwart! And you asked on my blog about what Swedish food I’ve had – I’ve had a few pastries but don’t remember what they were called, Swedish meatballs, of course, but probably different than how you serve them there, and I think a potato dish that was layered and then turned out of the pan all crisp and gorgeous, and ligonberry jam…I do tend to stay away from the herring and fish that is on almost every Swedish/American table for the holidays except for maybe Gravlax. Just not that brave! And Swedish pancakes and many sandwiches, little pickles and condiments on Schmorgasbords, so I can’t wait to sit down and explore your blog.
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That potato dish I think is called “Jansens frestelse” and is on my list to share around Christmas since I don’t usually make it until then 🙂 Hope you will find something here that you will like 🙂
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