Advent calendars

My very first project I want to show you is the three Advent calendars I made for my two kids and the exchange student who lives with us this year.



I started in early october with the one on the left and became overly optimistic when I decided to make the other two.

I found the patterns in my collection of patterns that I have collected for the past 15 years. I altered the middle one a bit - first because I thought it could be too big and second because I ran out of time.

The one I was most excited about what the first one. When I was an exchange student 20 years ago my hostmother had a stocking made for me - I loved it. It had my name on it and it was a piece of american culture.

This too is a piece of danish culture. I came up the idea to make it and for each day there is a little piece of danish christmas culture. Here is the list of what she will recieve over the 24 days up to christmas (I hope she doesn't read this blog - then the surprise will be ruined :) ).

Brunkager	Brunkager is among the very traditional cookies for Christmas. It has a very distinct taste and is so Christmas. The dough can be frozen up to 12 months and should actually be made a month or so before baking.
Bånd til vindue	One way to decorate your window could be to place red ribbons in a cross on the window. Very old school.
Dansk julefilm	The most famous Christmas movie is actually not a Christmas movie but it contains a scene which all Danes know.
Englespil	The angel chimes are a traditional piece of Christmas decorations.
Finskbrød	For us finskbrød is also a part of Christmas – it isn’t as full of flavor as the other ones but nice none the less.
Julehjerte	A ”braided” Julehjerte is very traditional decoration for the tree. It is filled with pebernødder or other goodies. A famous line in a Danish Christmas song says: First the tree is shown and then it is eaten referring to all the goodies in the hearts.
Julekalender	Every child in Denmark gets a Christmas calendar or Advent calendar. One hatch is opened each day and it corresponds to one episode of this year’s Christmas children program on TV. The proceeds from the sale of the calendars are used for charity.
Julemusik	A CD of Danish Christmas music.
Juletromme	The Juletromme is hung on the tree – very traditional Christmas tree decoration
Jødekager	Jødekager is also a christmas cookie – yummy!
Kalenderlys	On the first day of December we light the Christmas candle. It is a countdown for Christmas. Usually we get behind or forget to blow it out so we “burn” more than one day.
Klejne	Another Christmas cookie – only this one is not baked in the oven but in palm oil – like donuts are.
Konfekt	Marcipan, chocolate and other goodies – who wouldn’t like that. Konfekt is a big part of Christmas.
Kravlenisser	Kravlenisser is placed all over the house to remind us of their existence. If you do not bring them rice porridge they may tease you or worse.
Kræmmerhus	A traditional Christmas tree decoration.
Mus – a game	You put 10 or more pebernødder (cookie) on a table in front of him. One participant outside the door while another points to a pebernød. Then the other participant have to guess what pebernød that have been identified by eating the pebernødder that have been laid up until he / she takes the pebernød which have been pointed out and the other participating shouts MUS. Then it is the neighbor's turn ....
Nelliker og appelsin	Stick cloves into the orange and wrap red ribbon around – hang it in your window and you have the smell of Christmas in your room.
Nisse	A nisse is a mysterious figure. We all know what they look like and what they can do. They live in the attic and they can tease the people in the house if they want to. In the old days you had to keep the Nisse happy otherwise your harvest would be bad.
Opskriftsbog	When you go home and talk about the food you have had here you may want to try it at home. Here is a recipe book to collect your favorite Danish recipes.
Pebernødder	Pebernødder is put in julehjerter and kræmmerhuse on the tree and eaten after we dance around the tree. There is also a game with pebernødder but that is for another day.
Peters Jul	The most famous of all Danish Christmas stories is Peters Jul. It is about a boy who can’t wait for Christmas.
Pigen med svovlstikkerne	The sad fairytale from H.C. Andersen about a little girl at Christmas.
Sne på dåse	In the corners of the red cross on the window spray some fake snow – we have very little snow here, so we have to make our own.
Stjerne	This will be a challenge – it is even for Danes. The star is hung on the Christmas tree or in windows.
Vaniliekrans	Another traditional Christmas cookie is the Vaniliekrans. Made of vanilla and almonds it is yummy.

She knew I was working on one for each of the kids - so when she got up on december 1st. and there was one for her too - she was so excited. Worth all the effort!