‘What made celebrating Christmas so special when I was a child’

Christmas when I was a child was not like it is today. My mother started baking the day before first Sunday in advent. She always made six different cookies and Christmas bread. The cookies were stored in a tin and not eaten before Christmas.

In the evening we made our own decorations for the house and tree. My dad was very good at cutting out paper Christmas shapes. I remember he used to make Christmas hearts our of paper plaited into a basket that was filled with homemade lollies and it would hang on our tree.

Our dolls would disappear a couple of weeks before Christmas; my mother would make new clothes for them. Our house was decorated with pine and paper nisser, a Danish Christmas elf.

My dad was very good at cutting out paper into Christmas hearts. that were made of paper plaited into a basket that was filled with homemade lollies and hanged on the tree. our dolls disappeared a few weeks before Christmas, mum made new clothes for them. The house got decorated with pine and paper Nisse, a danish Christmas elf. The mischievous gnome is said to have played pranks of people during Christmastime.

Every Sunday before Christmas a candle would be lit. We had four candles in a ring made of pine. We would light the first one on the first Sunday in advent, then the second the next Sunday, and so on.

There was not a lot of money in our home, but we always looked forward to the evening with the tree and present. Our dinner on December 24 was rice porridge to start with, roast pork and goose, and a desert made of rice and cream with cherry sauce, all homemade. After dinner we had to help our mum with cleaning up. Dad disappeared, but it wasn’t until we were a bit older that we realised he put up the tree and decorated it and put the gift under the tree while we were cleaning.

My mother and father, brother, sister and I would come into the room where the tree was, we joined hands and we would dance around the tree while singing Christmas songs. My dad read about the birth of Jesus in the manger, and there was more singing and dancing before we each got our presents. Our dolls had new clothes, there was a piece of fabric for an apron for us girls and one for a shirt for my brother, and a packet of crayons. We always enjoyed the occasion.

Our tree was up until January 6, before being taken down for the year on January 7.

Did your family have any special Christmas traditions when you were growing up? Have you passed these on to other generations in your family?

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