Scandinavian Christmas

Since, according to the huge crowd at the grocery store, Thanksgiving is tomorrow, I hereby bring you a HOLIDAY POST!

Let's be real. For me, Thanksgiving is not a time where I worry so much about how much I eat. Honestly, I don't like turkey, I don't really like mashed potatoes, I like lefse, but not enough to eat too much of it. So Thanksgiving is not so much a time where I feel like I binge too badly, except I do eat more snacks than usual. No, it's not Thanksgiving that causes me problems. You know, it's not even Christmas either, really, since Christmas Eve and Christmas Day are both focused around similar foods. Do you know what holiday I struggle with most?

Well, it's called Lille Julaften.

Say it with me: "LEE-leh YOOL-auf-ten"

It's a cool Scandinavian thing our family still does. Which I both love and don't fully understand.

Most people in Norway and maybe Denmark(?), as far as I can discern from the really badly translated websites, celebrate Lille Julaften (Literally "Little Christmas") on December 23rd. This could be wrong, and if I have Danish or Norwegian readers who want to correct me on ANY of this, please feel welcome to because I had to use google translate and other people's blogs to figure even THIS mishmash out.

Little Christmas occurs to keep the Nisse (Christmas Gnomes) happy. Most Nisse are like elves or gnomes that hang out with your barnyard animals. If you don't appease them, especially on Christmas, they will play tricks on you. If you don't give them food, they will retaliate-- how you may ask?

THIS IS CONFUSING!!!

By REARRANGING your farm animals. I know. I know. Just don't make 'em mad.

 In Norway it's dedicated  to a Norwegian bishop who lived in the 1100s, named (I kid you not,) Thorlakr Thorhallsson. In Norway it's also considered "wash night," where people are supposed to wash? everything?

This is not a joke, the Nisse will REARRANGE.

I've always been kind of unclear about... well, all of that. Anyway, the food and gifts are pretty straightforward, even if the reasoning isn't. So the tradition is to exchange either tiny or white elephant presents and eat aebelskiver and risengrod. And clean. And keep Christmas Gnomes away. I think.

Aebelskivers are pancake balls. With applesauce. I know how to make them and they're FABOO.

Risengrod is a little bit more confusing, since it's Rice Pudding, which I myself have only recently tried out of a box. AMAZING, btw.  But the point of the Risengrod is that there's supposed to be an almond hidden in the big bowl and whoever gets the almond wins a prize! Yay! Almondprize! AND! My grandma told me that if you find the almond, you get good luck all year!  She also mentioned that some people hide a coin instead of an almond. Glogg and Hvidtol (both alcohol!) are also involved somehow.

I hope the Nisse don't take my Almondprize.

Okay, so if it sounds like I have no IDEA what I'm talking about, it's because this tradition wasn't exactly passed down to me from my great-great-grandparents. They did participate in it, as far as I remember, but in our family, we call it Little Christmas and it's more about pizza and games than anything else. Every year we gather at my aunt's house for pizza, games and tiny presents. It is absolutely one of my favorite things. It happens year after year on December 23rd, and has no aebelskiver, or rice pudding and no alcohol.

Ah yes, the ancient tradition of... Godfathers?

Anyway, so that was a long explanation to get to-- Little Christmas is basically my scariest holiday because I LOVE PIZZA. Pizza is like one of my favorite foods, I could eat everything in that picture, seriously! And I'm with my family, who I know totally loves me. Unfortunately, they totally love me, so I BINGE on Little Christmas.

Oh, the pizza is so delicious. I can go eat Godfather's at any time of the year, really, but the pizza at Little Christmas is like, magical. Any suggestions on how to keep the holiday binge under control? What's your favorite/infamous holiday binge food?