Swedish Christmas Decorations

I couldn't write just one post about Swedish Christmas, since there is so much tradition involved. So, first, I've decided to write about decorations that pop up around Christmas time in Sweden. This Saturday, December 13th, is St. Lucia's Day, the patron saint of light, so stay tuned for a post about that. And then I will also write a long post about Christmas food! There's quite a lot of it.

So, the most ubiquitous decorations are the adventsstjärnor (advent stars) that decorate almost every window.

The stars light up the darkness (which begins around 3PM now in Uppsala) and add a lot of cozy feeling.


The next most common decoration is the adventsljusstake (advent candle holders) that appear everywhere. They're often electric these days, and frequently LED, but there are definitely some with real candles.

Of course the most common decorations are light, because it really gets so dark, especially when there isn't snow yet. Stay tuned for a post about St. Lucia - a true celebration of light!