A Danish Christmas Story. December 2018.

This year Andy and I decided we were going to spend the holidays in Copenhagen. We wanted to have at least one Danish Christmas/New Year’s while we lived here. Since we were spending the holidays away from our families for the first time, we tried to incorporate some of our family’s traditions here. I also made some of our favorite dishes from our travels.

We started Christmas Eve at a friend’s lovely holiday party.

Heading home to get ready for dinner and Santa.For Christmas Eve, I made my favorite dish from Rome, Cacio e Pepe. We followed dinner with a viewing of Home Alone. Katherine and Andy made a plate of goodies for Santa. This year’s offering was very impressive.

Happy Birthday Jesus, Merry Christmas!

After tearing through all the presents, I made the traditional Simmons Christmas brunch- Eggs Benedict. (The English muffins were hard to find.)

We had tea later that afternoon, with scones Katherine helped me make, in my new Perch’s teapot. Our ode to Edinburgh.Dinner was pork schnitzel (Germany) and fried mozzarella (Prague), with gelato (Italy) for dessert.

New Year’s Eve- K in her new nightgown and some homemade blueberry muffins (a Kee Christmas morning tradition.)

It is crazy here at New Year’s. Fireworks everywhere. We live in the city and heard fireworks in the days both before and after 31st. The kids weren’t impressed after a few days of being woken up by the noise. They light them off everywhere, sides of the street, parks, courtyards, store fronts. I ran to the store and came across some fireworks being set off in the middle of the road. What was hilarious to me, was that no-one even seemed to give it a second glance- cars kept going, people didn’t even stop to watch. Like true Danes, we watched the Queen’s New Year Address (in Danish.)

Later that night we heard singing outside our window. It was the Russians singing outside their embassy. It seems they had a mini celebration with their ambassador, ending with a toast. Then they dispersed.

As midnight approached, we walked with the kids to the Lakes to watch the fireworks. The Danes are usually pretty level headed, with a strong streak of common sense, but not on New Year’s. They go wild with the fireworks. They are constant and haphazard. The wearing of protective eyewear is actually recommended due to the prevalence of injuries.