Christmas

Back to the dining room at my grandmother’s. It would also be the site of the evening meal on Christmas eve. This would feature such traditional dishes as lutefisk, a rice dish with a geometric sprinkling of cinnamon and sugar on its surface, and sylta (sort of a jellied meat dish that I didn’t particularly like). Sometimes the latter would be made in a pie dish, with slices of hard-boiled egg placed in the dish when it was served, and of course balaksar at the end of the meal.



Sylta

After supper was over the table had to be cleared, and all the dishes washed and put away before it was time for the eagerly anticipated distribution of Christmas gifts. This took place in the parlor with everyone present arranged in chairs around the periphery of the room. The process was a very deliberate one, with each unwrapping of a present watched by everyone.

Following the opening of the gifts and a period of picking up the wrapping paper for use next Christmas, there would be a reading of the Christmas story (always the version in Luke), a prayer and then the singing of some of the traditional Christmas songs in the music room. Aunt Ruth would of course play the piano — I guess I was off in California by the time she was no longer on the scene to fulfill this function. The singing would include one of two of the Swedish carols such as “Glad a Yul aften” (sp?). The melody of the latter still has a festive and Christmasy air to me.