December 1 - Jul kalendar. For many years Swedish TV and radio have featured an advent calendar with different themes - it becomes a "must" for most families at around 6 p.m.!

The Advent Candles - On the first Sunday in Advent, the first candle is lit, on the second Sunday two candles are lit ... and so on.

December 13 - Lucia Day. Lucia orginates from Italy but is celebrated every year in Sweden. Early in the dark morning the lussetåg (Lucia parade) headed by the Lucia, Queen of Light, wearing a crown of candles, a white dress with red sash, followed tärnor (her maids), stjärngossar (star boys) and tomtar (Christmas sprites dresed in red and white). They bring lussekatter (saffron buns) and pepparkakor (spicy gingerbread biscuits) and hot coffee and sing traditional songs.

December 24 - Christmas Eve. This is The Day in Sweden! Jul skinka (Christmas ham) is usually the centre of the table served with sweet and sour red cabbage together with other typical smögåsbord dishes:
- meatballs
- lutfisk (dried ling soaked in lye and then boiled)
- prinskorv (small sausages)
- gravad lax (salmon marinated in dill)
- Janssons frestelse (type of potatoes gratin)
- other types of sausages, cold meats, fish dishes and much more!

The Jul gröt is a special Christmas porridge and contains one almond - the person who gets the almond is said to get good luck!

Later in the day, Tomten (Father Christmas) visits and asks if there are any good children he can give gifts to!

Gifts often have a riddle attached to them to guess the contents. It is also traditional to dance around the Christmas tree singing songs.

Glögg (mulled wine) is the main drink of the festive season.

January 6 -Christmas Tree plundering: The day when children dance around the Christmas tree as it is derobed and then it is thrown out into the snow!

Links to other good Swedish Christmas pages:

• Joakim Hansson's Christmas pages at Luleå University
• The Christmas pages produced by The Swedish Embassy in Washington D.C. are very good
• Swedish Christmas Chemistry
• Björn Winterfjord's account of How we celebrate Christmas in Sweden
• Swedish recipes - a good source of Christmas recipes
• Judith Pierce Rosenberg's A Swedish Kitchen - another excellent source of Swedish Christmas recipes
• Swedish Food - includes recipes for glögg, ham, red cabbage etc.