Holidaze and Traditions

gifts of time and love are surely the basic ingredients of a truly merry christmas.
peg bracken

Thanksgiving came a week early this year which I thought would be cool but it ended up throwing me (actually us) off a bit! We are currently renovating the bedroom, I am a bit busy with wrapping up projects from this year, an important artist chat – the artist lives in Pittsburgh (my hometown in The States), starting a new partnership with a creative crafter from Sweden and getting ready for the holiday season! My dream is to have the house completely decorated by December 1st but that just does not happen now I am hoping to be totally done by lilla julafton!

Being someone who lives between two cultures we incorporate both American and Swedish traditions into our holiday celebrations. One of my favorite traditions is listening to Christmas musik – we usually start after Thanksgiving but this year we waited until December 1. Our go to stations are Jul Radio, Mix Megapole Christmas – which reminds me of Pittsburgh’s 3WS or Washington DC’s WASH FM – it even follows the same dates! But right now, I am listening to more music on Spotify, my goal is to make a couple of holiday music playlists, but my current top 3 faves include: A Legendary Christmas (John Legend), Kära Vinter (Måns Zelmerlöw) and New Tradiciones (Adrienne Houghton) and honorable mention is of course A Charlie Brown Christmas (Vince Guaraldi Trio) this one is my all-time favorites!

mix megapol jul
pittsburgh 3ws christmas

One family tradition that I miss from The States is the Peanuts holidays – starting with Halloween and going through Christmas though I love listening to the music seeing the actual show evokes so many childhood memories!

Growing up we enjoyed many Christmas shows and movies and this is one tradition that I am so excited to share with Joakim! Every weekend we enjoy a different holiday movie starting Friday nights which is a perfect way to spend #fre dagsmys during the holiday season! Friday nights it is usually a cheesy romcom – it is so great that Netflix offers a selection between their own and a few from the Hallmark Channel. Saturday nights are for box office Christmas movies i.e. Love Actually, The Holiday (my two favs), Office Christmas Party and Almost Christmas (Joakim’s favorites)! And on Sunday nights we enjoy watching one of the many different versions of A Christmas Carol! I actually started reading the book in svenska this year, though it was a bit harder than I thought I really want to buy it so it is part of my growing Swedish book collection!

Another family tradition that I incorporate is Christmas cookie cutouts I use a Swedish recipe but I add a bit of holiday sprits – see more via ig Stories – the holidays! And Joakim is teaching me how to make Swedish meatballs with turkey meat and the male/Swedish version of Martha Stewart – Ern st Kirchsteiger’s food products include a Christmas ham made of chicken so this year I will have small portions to add to the JulBor d!

I so appreciate the way the holiday season is decorated and celebrated in Sweden! We keep things minimal with mostly lights, bringing the outdoors in and with pops of red and plaid throughout the house! We typically start celebrating on Christmas Eve’s Eve (that is the 23^rd) and continue through Annandag Jul (Boxing Day – the 26^th) but most of my family in The States will work on the 24^th and will go back on the 26^th and this was how my typical holiday working schedule was when I lived in The States.

Since moving here Joakim and I have spent New Year’s Eve with family or friends, but last year was the first NYE we spend at home and it was totally cozy chic – this might become a new tradition!