Christmas

I have nothing new to show you today, I am sewing a Christmas table topper but haven´t finished yet and I don´t want to show you until it is finished. I am going to show you something old. I did this a year ago when my "little" brother had his first baby, a little girl I am so fond of, I try to act like a granny because she hasn´t got one here in Iceland.

I want to tell you a little about how our Christmas traditions are. On the 23rd we finish decorating the house and the Christmas tree. On the 24th we have dinner at 6 o´clock and after that we open our presents. On the 25th we have smoked lamb called "hangikjöt" and cakes called "laufabrauð" (you can read all about it here). There are no special traditions on the 26th. On the 31st we also have dinner at 6 o´clock and at midnight we go nuts and fireworks fill the sky. We (the Icelandic people) spend loooooots of money on fireworks. On New years day we also have smoked lamb.

Laufabrauð

We have 13 santas here in Iceland and the first comes on the night of the 12th, so before the children go to sleep they put their shoe out in the window and in the morning of the 12th they rush to see what santa has brought to them in the night, some are afraid of them ;) The santas come one after another each night until the morning of the 24th. They all have their own name, I am going to post a picture of them the day they come so on the 12th the first will be here on my blog, watch out because they are a little naughty, they love to tease, well they have changed over the years but they were very scary in the old days.