You should know this article was originally meant to be a video… But I got over busy with way too many Julefrokost, so now it’s just an article!
Time to talk about Danes' favorite time of the year: Christmas! Regarding the Danish holidays' calendar, I probably should have seen it coming. Yet I must confess I was not ready for this madness! If I complain about some people in France taking Christmas too seriously, Danes take it to an all-new level.
I hope you’re ready, here comes my very serious analysis of the danish "Jul" tradition!
Celebrating Christmas for 3 months
For the first time in my life, Christmas really caught me by surprise! While I was planning to celebrate Halloween – like I usually do in France with my friends – I found it particularly complicated to find any Halloween party in the city. All events were “Jul”, “Julefrokost” and so on.
Just like the other French volunteer, I first thought very sadly that it was a reference to the French rap “artist” Jul, I understood Jul meant Christmas when we got invited to see the lighting of the Christmas light on the 31st of October.
After that date, the all city turned into “Christmas city”. Lights and Christmas trees started popping out everywhere, some trees were even appearing directly on the walls. And if some decoration can be bought ready-made, in Denmark, part of the tradition is to do it yourself. Even at work, we had a meeting to talk about work, while preparing some decoration for the office, which I haven’t done since I was 5.
But the Christmas madness doesn’t stop with the decorations. In November and December, you can also see people doing their running with Santa’s costume, and I even saw a car with deer horns and a red nose (just like Rudolph). What’s next?
Inaugurating Christmas with beer, hello J-dag
This is no surprise that beer is THE official drink in Denmark, but the “Christmas beer” being such a national pride was quite unexpected. The biggest event, launching the Christmas season in the country is J-Dag. Happening the first Friday of November, it celebrates the launching of the Julebryg – the Christmas beer from Tuborg. On this day, people gather in the cities to get super drunk with this very original beer that most Danes only drink on this day. And unlike most countries where Christmas is associated with the red color, this day is all Blue, like the packaging of the beer. This tradition really is what I call a marketing success!
Participating in about 50 Julefrokost
As an outsider, I was only invited to 4 Julefrokost, but with an average of 1 to 2 “lunch” per week from November to January (some might still do it in February), Danes appear to be the masters of Christmas meals! Work, friends, club, volunteering organization, family… In Denmark you need to celebrate Christmas with every social group you belong to.
The first challenge was finding something to eat, not so much because my French palate had always been refractory to the Danish food, but mostly because most of the dishes have meat (not easy being a vegetarian in this country).
The second challenge was making it through the all event without ending up in a coma from the alcohol mixing. Make no mistake, I never back-up from a challenge, but when it comes to face the Danes regarding alcohol drinks, I had to admit defeat. Beer and wine during the meal, punctuated with shots of snaps between every dish (see the photo on the right), before getting serious with some harder alcohol after the dinner. Only Vikings can go through it without dying!
Last, but not least, make it through all the singing. Singing in public is really not part of my culture (unless I’m super drunk and/or in a karaoke!), but Danes love to sing. So a lot of games and singing were involved during the meal, which neither I or my co-volunteer were ready for! Regarding this last challenge, I was lucky enough to only experience big dinner events and therefor avoided the dancing around the tree tradition!
I know I’m originally not a Christmas person, but here, it becomes a brand-new challenge!
No hard feelings, I love you and all, but when it comes to Christmas, really, What The Fuck Denmark?