Danish Canadian Museum Advent - December 5th

Just a bit of Christmas cheer from the front of the Danish Canadian Museum

Danish Canadian Museum Advent - December 5th

Inside a Danish Bakery or Konditor the array of baked goods is astonishing. Influenced by 18th century French, German and Austrian traditions, Danish pastry chefs created their own vast repertoire of baked goods, still beloved by contemporary Danes, including buttery little cakes, tartlets with jam, marzipan or custard fillings, puff pastries with chocolate and vanilla icing, and dozens of chocolate or almond flavored biscuits. These tartlets are miniature Danish versions of a Mazarin cake: a crisp pastry shell with an Almond paste filling. Truly a favorite in the museum.
 
When is it ok to start singing Christmas carols and wearing your favorite Christmas attire, or decorating your home? These questions come out every year some keep their tree up year-round and change the decorations with the seasons. For a few Danes it can start with the first Friday of November, when Christmas beer (julebryg) officially hits the liquor stores (bodegas). The majority impatiently wait until it's socially accepted to show Christmas excitement and that is around the Advent. For anyone who loves Christmas the question of when is too early at some point will cross your mind. If you never feel it is too early, well ENJOY the spirit! For everyone else, embrace the Danish belief that the last Sunday of November is the best day to start. However, you choose to celebrate Christmas in your homes - I encourage you to truly celebrate it! Slow down appreciate the simplicity of Christmas, it does not have to be crazy busy and you do not have to spend a million dollars to make the Christmas memories. My all-time favorite Christmas memory was the year my parents got us a monopoly game, we all shared it, my four siblings and me. We played Monopoly everyday for the full Christmas break. It stayed out on the coffee table for weeks, all of us, mom, dad and all of us kids played. Snuggled up in our living room with the fire going dads’ furs, violins, banjos, and guitars hanging on the walls, with the cold outside and the warmth inside - the safest simplest feeling in the world. To this day, every time I see or hear anything about a monopoly game, I am transported back to that Christmas. It was the most hyggelig feeling.​