Christmas and New Years Eve
Christmas in Denmark culminates in the celebrations on Christmas Eve on the 24th, where the Danes eat a traditional meal of roasted duck, roast pork with crackling, red cabbage and caramelised potatoes. The dessert is risalamande, a creamy sweetened rice pudding, served cold with warm cherry sauce and chopped almonds for dessert. In one of the portions, a whole almond will be hidden, and whoever gets it is entitled to that years mandelgave, the almond present. After dinner, you hold hands while dancing around the tree and singing a mix of traditional hymns and more modern Christmas songs. This is normally followed by the unwrapping of all the Christmas presents.
On New year’s Eve, kransekage can be found in all Danish homes throughout the country. It is a cake made of several marzipan rings decorated with icing and is eaten right after the clock strikes midnight – maybe after jumping into the New Year from the sofa or a chair. Another stable is the Danish Queen Margrethe II’s annual New Year’s speech to the nation – a tradition that was started by her father King Christian X during World War II and something that for many marks the start of the night.
Read more about how Christmas and New Year’s Eve is celebrated in Denmark here.