Christmas in Sweden

Advent: lights in every window

In Sweden, the Christmas season begins on the first Sunday of Advent, and the start of Advent is a celebration in itself. On that day, households put up an Advent star (adventsstjärna), a paper or straw star lit from inside, and an electric candle arch (adventsljusstake) in their windows, so that by evening whole streets and apartment blocks glow through the long northern nights. A four-candle Advent holder is lit one candle more each Sunday, and families drink glögg and eat pepparkakor, thin ginger biscuits.

Through December, Swedes bake saffron buns and sweets, go to Christmas markets such as those at Skansen, Stockholm's open-air museum, and on Stortorget in the old town, Gamla stan, and gather for julbord dinners with colleagues and friends. On 10 December, Stockholm hosts the Nobel Prize award ceremony and banquet, part of the capital's December calendar.

Lucia: 13 December

Lucia, on 13 December, is the most Swedish of the Christmas festivals. Under the old Julian calendar this was thought of as the longest night of the year, and the day honours St Lucy of Syracuse, whose name comes from the Latin lux, light. Before dawn or after dark, a Lucia in a long white gown with a red sash and a crown of candles leads a procession of attendants holding candles, star boys in tall pointed hats, and Christmas gnomes and gingerbread figures, singing the Lucia song ("Sankta Lucia") and carols. Today any member of the group may take any role.

Processions take place in churches, workplaces, care homes and town squares, and one is broadcast nationally on television. They are followed by coffee or glögg with lussekatter, S-shaped saffron buns with raisins, and pepparkakor. The modern Lucia procession took shape at Skansen in the 1890s and spread nationwide after a Stockholm newspaper organised a Lucia competition in 1928.

Christmas Eve: Julafton

Julafton, Christmas Eve, is the heart of the Swedish Christmas. It is not an official public holiday, but almost everyone has the day off. Many families begin with dopp i grytan, dipping bread into the broth left from boiling the Christmas ham, which is why Christmas Eve was once called "dipping day" (dopparedagen). The julbord is then laid out and eaten through the afternoon and evening.

At 3pm the country pauses for Kalle Anka. Every Christmas Eve since 1960, Swedish public television SVT has shown the same Disney Christmas special, From All of Us to All of You, known in Sweden as Kalle Anka och hans vänner önskar god jul (Donald Duck and his friends wish you a merry Christmas). Around 40% of Swedes watch it each year, and changes to the line-up have caused national outcry.

Later, there is a knock at the door: the Jultomte arrives with a sack of presents and asks whether anyone has been good this year. Presents are opened on Christmas Eve, often with short rhyming verses written on the labels as clues to what is inside. The evening ends with risgrynsgröt, rice porridge, in which a single almond is hidden: whoever finds it is said to marry within the year.

The julbord: a Swedish Christmas buffet

The julbord, literally "Christmas table", is a buffet eaten in several rounds, starting with cold fish and finishing with sweets. Restaurants serve julbord dinners throughout December, and families lay out their own on Christmas Eve.

Julmust, a sweet, dark soft drink first made by Harry Roberts and his father Robert Roberts in 1910, makes up about half of all soft drink sales in Sweden in December, when sales of Coca-Cola can fall by as much as half.

The Jultomte and the Yule goat

The tomte of Swedish folklore is a small, bearded farm gnome who watches over the household and its animals, and who must be given a bowl of porridge on Christmas Eve to keep him content. In the 19th century he merged with St Nicholas and Santa Claus into the Jultomte, the Swedish Christmas gift-bringer, who lives in the forest or the far north rather than at the North Pole.

Before the tomte, presents were said to be brought by the julbock, the Yule goat, and small straw goats are still among the most common Swedish Christmas decorations, along with red-ribboned straw ornaments on the tree. The most famous is the Gävle Goat (Gävlebocken), a straw goat more than 13 metres tall built every year since 1966 in the town of Gävle at the start of Advent. It is known worldwide for the number of times it has been burned or damaged, more than 30, despite guards and fireproofing.

From Julotta to Knut's Day

Christmas Day, juldagen, traditionally begins with Julotta, an early-morning church service held by candlelight before dawn. It is a quiet day of rest and leftovers. Annandag jul, the second day of Christmas, on 26 December, is also a public holiday, and the start of post-Christmas sales. After New Year, Epiphany (trettondedag jul) on 6 January is a public holiday.

The Swedish Christmas season ends on Tjugondedag Knut, Knut's Day, on 13 January, twenty days after Christmas. Around this date families take down the Christmas tree, often at a party called julgransplundring ("plundering the Christmas tree"), where the sweets and decorations are taken from the tree before it is carried outside, to the old saying that "Knut dances Christmas out".

Swedish Christmas season dates 2026

Christmas in Sweden: frequently asked questions

Christmas in nearby countries