Counting Down to Christmas – The What’s On Informational Advent Calendar

While Christmas in Iceland, like in so many other countries, is mainly about the joys of consumerism, with a healthy smattering of peace, love, and understanding, we have a few traditions that are uniquely Icelandic. Take a look at our 24 nuggets of wisdom about Icelandic Christmas, one for each day counting down to Christmas.

You could easily mistake the advent light for a Jewish tradition, but the advent light, an electric candelabra with seven candles, actually originated in Sweden, from the Christian tradition of the Advent Wreath. Despite their ubiquity here in Iceland, they’re a rather recent addition to Icelandic Christmas traditions.

Their origin story is simple: In the seventies, an Icelandic businessman saw some in Scandinavia, thought they looked cool and brought one home. Then all his friends wanted one, and thus, an Icelandic Christmas tradition was born.

Most towns in Iceland have at least one official Christmas tree. The trees are usually lit on the first Sunday of the advent (the fourth Sunday before Christmas) with a small ceremony with visits from the yule lads and other entertainment for the kids. The Reykjavík Christmas tree stands on Austurvöllur, the square in front of the parliament building.

For a long time, we got the Christmas tree from Oslo as a sign of the friendship between the cities, but a couple of years ago, city officials on both sides of the Atlantic decided it would be better to display this affection in a more environmentally friendly way than shipping huge pine trees across the ocean. Since then the Christmas tree has been Icelandic through and through, cut down by the mayor himself in Heiðmörk forest, just outside the city limits.

These crisp, wafer-thin cakes, made mostly of flour and butter, are a labour-intensive production as each one is carefully rolled out and carved with delicate decorations before it is deep-fried until golden. Families usually gather for a whole day of cutting and decorating the cakes, which are then served with butter during Christmas feasts and New Years’ dinners. It’s delicious!

An extraordinary amount of books are published in Iceland each year, considering the size of the nation. The Christmas season is the most important period in publishing in Iceland because books are a particularly popular Christmas gift. The majority of books are sold in December and for a few weeks around Christmas, every Icelander is a literary critic!

Christmas coincides with the winter solstice, the darkest time of year. This affects Iceland and other places around and above the arctic circle more than others; Iceland only gets around four hours of sunlight per day! Christmas is a festival of light, people take decorating their houses with Christmas lights seriously and the excitement for longer days and the return of summer is palpable.

As I said, Christmas in Iceland is a celebration of lights. It’s the darkest time of the year, so what better way to celebrate than to decorate your house with way too many Christmas lights? Extra points if they blink or change colours!

The Yule Lads are Iceland’s version of Santa Claus, mythical creatures who bring little children treats. That’s about the only way they are similar to the jolly and fatherly bearded figure, however, as the Yule Lads are an unruly group of trolls with a tendency towards petty theft and pranking unsuspecting humans in the days before Christmas.

The mischievous Yule Lads do have a softer side, though. When they come to town from the mountains where they live, they bring little treats for children who’ve left their shoes in the window… if they’ve been good, that is. If not, they can expect nothing but an old potato!

After dinner on New Year’s Eve, you need something to do. Why not go out and burn stuff? Most towns in Iceland have a huge bonfire on New Year’s Eve, Reykjavík even has 16! This is known as burning away the old year and is believed to be essential to be able to start the new year with a clean slate.

Like most places, you’re going to start hearing them way too early and be sick of them way before Christmas starts. It’s pretty similar to what you might imagine, with one exception; the translations. Many beloved Icelandic Christmas songs are actually foreign songs (not necessarily Christmas songs even) with Icelandic lyrics. You might even hear some melodies you recognise from home, in an Icelandic Christmas costume!

An ugly side effect of the Christmas season is Christmas stress. You want to have the house spotless, the gifts lavish, the cookies homemade and the whole house decorated but who has the time or the money? Luckily, there are plenty of ways to combat the stress, relax and lower those inhuman expectations. We recommend a strong dose of Christmas concerts, hot chocolate and (store-bought) Christmas cookies. Relax! You’re supposed to be enjoying this!

Hangikjöt, which translates to hung meat, is one of the traditional Christmas meals. Hangikjöt is smoked and cured lamb, and in the old days, it used to be hung over the kitchen fire, slowly smoking for weeks until it was taken down for the Christmas feast, which explains the name. Hangikjöt is traditionally served boiled with potatoes, peas and a white sauce, similar to béchamel, but if you have double smoked hangikjöt, it’s delicious served raw in tiny slices, with horseradish sauce.

In Iceland, Christmas is a family affair, and drinking is mostly limited to wine with dinner. It comes as no surprise then that the traditional Christmas drink is a non-alcoholic one. A mixture of two sodas produced in Iceland, malt-flavoured Malt and orange-flavoured Appelsín, I’m confident this drink is served in around 98% of Christmas feasts around the country. There’s some confusion regarding whether it’s better to pour the Appelsín or the Malt first, but the producer suggests that the alphabetical order is best.

The red gleaming apple has for years been the unequivocal Christmas fruit in Iceland, although mandarin oranges are a close second. The reason is simple, most fruit is imported to Iceland, and for a long while, Christmas was the only time to get apples. These days, we have the luxury of year-round fruit, but apples still have a seat at the Christmas feast.

The day before Christmas is the saint day of Iceland’s patron saint, St. Þorlákur. On Þorláksmessa, people finish the last of the Christmas shopping like you would expect, but there’s also a peculiar tradition that involves eating fermented skate. The pungent aroma and less than delicate flavour will make you much more appreciative of the delicious Christmas feast the following day!