In Norway, traditional Christmas festivities start weeks before the holiday. Families brew "Juleol," a special Christmas beer, cook traditional pork dishes, bake biscuits, cookies, and small cakes and prepare the "julekake," a sweet bread filled with raisins, candied peel, and cardamom. The Christmas Eve meal consists of porridge, fresh cod or "lutefisk"--boiled cod treated in lye solution--while Christmas Day dinner usually features a main pork dish.

Swedes have a month-long Christmas celebration beginning on December 13, the feast of St. Lucia. Christmas is celebrated on December 24 with rice pudding and ginger cookies. In Denmark, the Christmas feast is held at midnight on Christmas Eve. The highlight is dessert--a special rice pudding with an almond hidden inside. Whoever finds the almond is blessed with good luck for the following year.

Scandinavian Christmas Recipes Baked Rice Pudding Norwegian Krumkake Peppernuts Pickled Beet Salad Glazed Ham Pickled Herring Swedish Limpa (Rye Bread) Gravlax Swedish Ginger Thins Salmon Baked in Phyllo with Warm Potato Salad Swedish Meatballs with Lingonberry Sauce