NO MORE JOTTING IT IN

Nordiska Museet in Stockholm (The Museum of Nordic History) has an excellent calendar named Årets Dagar (Days of the Year). It's a guide to when, how and why for Swedish traditions. Now available as a free app for iPhone and Android, where you an mark days and holidays you want to be reminded of. Perfect for the trivia oriented, Scandi-interested, or the expat who's lost track of the days...
IMAGE: ITUNES

SCANDINAVIAN RECIPES ONLINE

I am not in the business of reinventing the wheel, so whenever someone from abroad asks for a recipe of a Swedish or Scandinavian dish I send them one of the links below.

It's my little list of excellent recipes from Scandinavia that are tested and adapted for a global crowd.

Happy cooking!

SAVEUR - Scandinavian Recipes  
SAVEUR - A Scandinavian Dinner Party 
World Food Channel - World Recipes: Scandinavian Recipes
Jamie Oliver - Super quick salmon gravlax
Martha Stewart Living - Swedish Crayfish Boil
Martha Stewart Living - Dinner Party, Northern Light: The cold/weather comforts of Sweden
Marcus Samuelsson on Martha - How to make pickled cucumber salad
Food Network/Marcus Samuelsson - Gravlax Club Sandwich
Epicurious/Andreas Viestad - Fish soup from Bergen 
Rachael Ray - Sailor's beef and potato casserole

LUCIA

I can't help it. The 13th of December in Norway doesn't come close to Lucia day in Sweden. I suppose the next best thing is seeing the broadcast on SVT Play here (available worldwide for another 30 days). The next next best thing is to press play.
IMAGE: LUCIA IN GUSTAV VASA KYRKA, Ola Ericson/imagebank.sweden.se

SCANDI CELEBRATIONS LITE

Do you want to bring a little bit of Scandinavia into your christmas season without sidestepping any of your present family traditions? Try one or more of these simple additions:

Make a 4-candle arrangement and light a candle each Sunday in advent.
Serve 7 kinds of cookies. 
Celebrate the day of Lucia on the 13th of December and eat some kind of buns.

Find a CD with Scandinavian christmas music you enjoy and add to your December playlist. 

Add gravlax and Swedish meatballs to your holiday brunch.

OUR DAILY BREAD

A given for Swedes travelling abroad for Christmas is bringing knäckebröd, or crisp bread from Leksand. These tin storage boxes offer some protection and can double as gift boxes. Visit the bakery shop in Leksand or the webshop.

IMAGES: PRODUCT IMAGES LEKSANDS KNÄCKEBRÖD

LIGHTEN UP

Did you know that Swedish retailer Clas Ohlson now sells Liljeholmen candles, low torchlights and tealights? Available at great prices in stores as well as through their webshop in Sweden, Norway, Finland, the UK and China. Hooray! No more stocking up on candles every trip to Sweden!
IMAGE: PRODUCT IMAGE CLAS OHLSON.SE

CAN DO

"Oh mom, christmas has been wonderful! I want it to be christmas again!" The 4-year old was delighted over the holidays, enjoying the atmosphere, new toys, and the gingerbread house. And he's right, it was wonderful. The only thing we truly missed was Swedish Julmust, but you can't have it all. I think I may have found an all year round supplier of julmust-cans. Much easier to transport and store than glass bottles.
IMAGE: TOREBRINGS

RADIO: VINTER

Today is the first of eight programs called Vinter, a winter version of the popular radioformat Sommar, where an invited guest fills an hour of music and monologue. The programs are available online for 30 days and are then archived as podcasts for free downloads. (In Swedish only) 

WET YOUR APP-ETITE

Two great (free) apps to guide you through the flavours of Swedish christmas foods (in Swedish):

Create your Swedish christmas menu at Scan.

A wonderful looking cookbook and audio guide at Milda (though I'm a paper and pen kinda gal myself so I ordered a free printed copy here).

IMAGE: PRESS IMAGES HKSCAN

WATCH THE CEREMONIES

Watch the live webcasts HERE or HERE (schedule on the same page) or on SVT HERE.
IMAGE:PRESS IMAGE NOBELSTIFTELSEN, BY FRIDA WESTHOLM

LUCKY NUMBER SEVEN

Nobody knows why Swedish tradition demands seven different kinds of home made cookies if it's to be considered a proper cookie platter (usually accompanying coffee). It's a custom that suddenly gained popularity in the late 1800's, and its origin remains a mystery to this day.

What we do know is that food and retail company ICA dates back to 1917. In 1945 one of its subdivisions held a competition for cookie recipies yielding more than 8000 entries. The best recipes were compiled into a collection that quickly became a household staple in Sweden. By 2005 the 84 continually revised editions had sold 3,4 million copies over the years. An edition in English was released in 2008 and is the ultimate christmas gift for any baker with a Scandinavian heritage or interest. 

Available anywhere in Sweden, for example here (Swedish), here (English) and here (Swedish). Preview available at Amazon.com.
IMAGE: TANT GUL, USED WITH PERMISSION

BRING A BOOK

Beautiful cookbooks that introduce Swedish cooking to English speaking amateur cooks can be hard to find. Preferably also without fanaticism requiring authentic methods and ingredients, but instead gently combining tradition and modern fare into recipes suitable for Swedish beginners in the kitchen, as well as the many Americans curious about their Scandinavian roots. Three that stand the test and make excellent gifts: Simply Swedish released 2007, and Notes from a Swedish kitchen released in March 2012, both by Margareta Schild Landgren, and our favourite Very Swedish by Annica Triberg.

LISTEN IN

Did you know that the Swedish Public Radio has two channels devoted to christmas music only? The channels are available between 29th of November and 9th of January.  Both stations are available online:

P2 Klassisk jul, tradditional christmas music
P4 Bjällerklang, popular christmas music

As a service to those of you that are technically or "swedishally" challenged, I've also added them to the sidebar of this page. Just press play. Happy listening!

OLFACTORY FACTORY

My sister, who lives in the US, stocks up on pure stearin candles from Liljeholmens. She confesses to pulling them out of the cupboard not to light them, but to have a whiff. Why? They smell like christmas, she says.

Since 1830 Liljeholmens Stearinfabrik has been producing high quality candles, making them a christmas staple in most Swedish households. It was these candles we lit in advent as we read advent poems, it was these candles we carried when singing the Lucia processions, it was these red candles mother lit on Christmas Eve.

There's another secret to why they are a quintessential christmas smell. Liljeholmens are suppliers to most churches in Sweden. Since these may date back centuries, even to the medieval age, theirs is a characteristic smell of old stone, wood, metal, glass, and lit candles. Of those the easiest to export is, of course, the candles.

Available internationally through Swedishop, Scandiafood, and Fjorn Scandinavian. Their factory outlet is located in Oskarshamn, Sweden.
IMAGES: LILJEHOLMENS STEARINFABRIK, USED WITH PERMISSION

FOR MY BOOKIES

Floris Books in Great Britain has a great selection of the classic Swedish authors translated into english. Since their page isn't very user friendly I've made a selection of links below. The english editions are also available in Sweden through Adlibris.com, in Norway in through Norli.no, and in the US through Amazon.com.

A Home, A Farm, A Family, by Carl Larsson 

The Holy Night and The Wonderful Adventures of Nils by Selma Lagerlöf

The tomte's christmas porridge, by Sven Nordqvist. 

 A Calf for Christmas, and In the Land of Twilight, by Astrid Lindgren

Goldie at the Orphanage, Goldie at the Farm, by Martha Sandwall Bergström (Kulla Gulla) 

Books by Elsa Beskow are available both in regular size and mini editions. 
IMAGES: ADLIBRIS.COM/SE