Christmas in Iceland

Leikskólinn Mýri

Leikskólinn Lækjaborg

October 2007

Tradition

• Christmas has been celebrated in Iceland for many centuries

• It is to celebrate the birth of Jesus

• It is also called “The festival of light”because in Iceland it is always very, verydark in this time of year ( shortest day of the year being 21th of December) and people tried to have more light during the Christmas festival.

Before Christmas

• There is a tradition to eat a specially

prepared meal on the evening of 23rd of

December

• This meal is fermented skate, it is fish that

has been laid in a special liquid and it

smells very bad but tastes very good!

Celebration

• Icelanders begin the festivities by

celebrating on the evening of Dec. 24th,

the family gathers at six o´clock to listen to

or going to a mass

• At around seven o´clock we have a good

meal

• After the meal we open the Christmas

presents

Gastronomy

• The traditional meal for Christmas in

Iceland is “hangikjöt”, smoked lamb meat

• It is served with potatos, red cabbage,

peas, bechamel sauce and “laufabrauð”

• “Laufabrauð” are very thin wheatcakes

that are decorated by cutting fine pattern

into them and then deep fried

Christmas day

• On Christmas day the families gather to dine

together or meet for coffee/chocolate and

homemade cookies which are baked in

December. Many families bake many types of

cookies and make sweets, it is very nice and the

children participate a lot in this

• 26th of Dec. is a national holiday in Iceland too,

it is called “Second day of Christmas”

Other things for Christmas...

• We send a lot of Christmas cards to our

relatives and friends

• We give a lot of Christmas presents!

• In Iceland there are published a lot of

books in the weeks before Christmas, we

call it “book flood or book avelance” and

many people give books for presents

Christmas in Mýri...

• The children make cookies and sweets in

December

• They prepare theater or songs related to

Christmas

• Each class then invites the parents, siblings,

grandparents to a celebration from 15 – 17 one

day in December, where they preform and

afterwards we all sit together and enjoy what

they have prepared

Christmas in Mýri

• On last day of Christmas we have a

“Christmas dance” in our assembly room

• We dance around a Christmas tree and

sing Christmas songs and carols

• Two parents, dressed as Santa Claus

come and celebrate with us and give the

children mandarins and cookies

The Icelandic Yule Lads

and their parents• The Icelandic Yule Lads are

13.

• They live in the mountains withtheir parents, Grýla and Leppalúði.

• They come from the mountainsfrom 12th to 24th of Desember, one each day.

• They give good children a small present during the night while everyone is asleep.

• They put the presents in a shoe that the children have placed in the window.

Grýla and Leppalúði

• The parents of The Yule Ladslive in the mountains and are not very nice.

• Grýla is the dominant memberin their relationship.

• Grýla chases children whobehave badly and makesdinner out of them for her and her husband.

• In the old days Grýla was oftenused to frighten children tobehave well: “If you do not behave Grýla will come and get you!” And still somewhat today!

The Christmas CatJólakötturinn

• This cat is not very

cuddly!

• He lives with Grýla

and Leppalúði.

• He is very grumpy.

• He eats children who

do not get any new

clothes for Christmas.

Stiff-LegsStekkjastaur

• Stiff-Legs is the first to show up.

• He comes the nightbefore 12th of Desember.

• He goes to the sheep-house and tries to get some milk from the sheep.

• That is very difficult for him because his legs are stiff.

• He is also the first one toleave, he goes home on 25th of Desember.

Gully GawkGiljagaur

• Gully Gawk arrivesthe night before 13th of Desember.

• He sneaks into thecowhouse and tries tosteal the cream on top of the milk while the farmers aren´t looking.

• He leaves on 26th of Desember.

ShortyStúfur

• Shorty is the third one to

arrive, he shows up the

night before 14th of

Desember.

• He is very short.

• He likes to steal cooking

pans and licks the left

overs from them.

• He leaves on 27th of

Desember.

Ladle LickerÞvörusleikir

• Ladle Licker arrives the

night before 15th of

Desember.

• He is very thin.

• He likes to steal the ladle

that was used to stirr the

pots with and licks the

leftovers from it.

• He leaves on 28th of

Desember.

Pot ScraperPottaskefill

• Pot Scraper arrives

the night before 16th

of Desember.

• He steals pots that

haven´t been washed

and scapes the

leftovers from them.

• He leaves on the 29th

of Desember.

Bowl LickerAskasleikir

• Bowl Licker, the sixthone, arrives on the night before 17th of Desember.

• He hides under beds andwaits for the people to puttheir bowls of food on the floor to give the cats or dogs the left over food.

• Then he steals the bowland eats what is left.

• He leaves on 30th of Desember.

Door SlammerHurðaskellir

• Door Slammer arrives

on the night before

18th of Desember.

• He likes to slam doors

very hard. Especially

when people are

trying to take a nap.

• He leaves on 31th of

Desember.

Skyr GobblerSkyrgámur (skyr=Icelandic yogurt type)

• Skyr Gobbler arrivesthe night before 19th of Desember.

• He likes to eat skyr and if the container isclosed he smashes the lid open with his fist to get to the skyr.

• He leaves on 1st of January.

Sausage SnatcherBúgnakrækir

• Sausage Snatcherarrives on the nigth before 20th of Desemer.

• He climbs up therafters to stealsausages from where they hang after beeing smoked.

• He leaves on 2nd of January.

Window PeeperGluggagægir

• Window Peeperarrives on the night before 21st of Desember.

• He flattens his noseagainst every window, looking for something to steal.

• He leaves on 3rd of January.

Door SnifferGáttaþefur

• Door Sniffer arrives on

the night before 22nd of

Desember.

• He has a very big nose.

• He likes to smell food,

especially Christmas

cookies and “laufabrauð”.

• Maybe he tries to steal a

cookie or two.

• He leaves on 4th of

January.

Meet HookKetkrókur

• Meet Hook shows up the

night before 23rd of

Desember, on Saint

Thorlaks Day.

• He has a long pole with a

hook at the end. He puts

it down chimneys and

hooks meat that is hung

in the rafters.

• He leaves on 5th of

January.

Candle BeggarKertasníkir

• Candle Beggar arrives on

the night before 24th of

Desember.

• He likes candles very

much and tries to steal

the candles children get

for Christmas.

• He leaves on 6th of

January, on “the last day

of Christmas”.

Yule Lad´s clothes

• In the old days Yule

Lads wore clothes

made from wool,

often brown or gray.

• Today they also like

to dress in red and

white clothes just like

the American Santa

Claus.

Yule Lads in Lækjaborg

• Yule lads today are much nicer than they were inthe old days. They have almost completely stopped stealing and annoying people.

• They are very kind to children and visit us inLækjaborg once a year, during the “Christmas dance” that we have sometime after middle of Desember.

• They sing and dance around the Christmas Treewith the children and bring them presents. Often it is a book and mandarin oranges.

• After that they go outside in the garden and play for a while in our swings and slide.