Danish Christmas Recipes (2024)

Danish Christmas Recipes focus on simple comfort food passed down for centuries through tradition. Still, often Danes can’t agree on what constitutes a true traditional Danish Christmas meal.

Danish Christmas Recipes (1)

(This post is written by Pia Sonne, a native of Denmark and the writer behind the blog Busy Hands, Quiet Hearts.)

There are several things Danes mostly eat at Christmas time. These go way back to when you had the ingredients available only in season or wanted to show off your wealth by the number of spices and sugar you could put in a dish.

While white flour, sugar, and cream may be common enough these days, historically they were special treat foods. Most traditional Danish Christmas recipes come from a time when simply adding cream and cardamom to a dish made it an extravagance.

Most Danish Christmas foods are easy to make, relatively inexpensive, and incredibly comforting.

Risengrød

Risengrød is a delicious porridge made with rice and milk and served with cinnamon sugar and plenty of butter. These days it’s often made on the stovetop or slow cooker, but historically, it was “put to bed” by wrapping the pot in blankets to create a simple slow cooker after the mix was brought to a boil.

Though it’s a simple dish, it’s the basis for other Danish Christmas recipes, namely Risalamande and Klatkager, both of which are made with cold leftover Risengrød. (And they’re arguably more delicious than the original dish!)

~ How to Make Risengrod ~

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Risengrød served with butter and cinnamon sugar

Sylte (Head Cheese)

“At sylte” is the Danish verb for to pickle, but sylte as a noun means brawn or head cheese. This is traditionally made by boiling a pigs head and sometimes also the trotters in a big pot for several hours.

You then pick off all the meat and maybe the brain and some eyeballs if you are brave (they are delicious by the way) and pour over the broth from the pot.

The broth is very gelatinous and will go stiff and preserve the meat.

Danes often have brawn with mustard and pickled beets on rye bread.

~ How to Make Sylte ~

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Blodpølse (Blood Sausage)

Blodpølse means blood sausage or black pudding. It’s a mixture of fresh pig’s blood, fat, spices, sugar, and raisins, which is then boiled.

Danes have different ways of eating blodpølse. I grew up eating it “straight” with sugar. Some have it with jam as well. Other’s fry it on a pan before eating it.

Blood sausage is often purchased, but if you’d like to make your own, there’s a recipe in The Nordic Cookbook.

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Blood Sausage

The Christmas Dinner Roast Debacle

The dinner on Christmas Eve, which is when Danes celebrate Christmas, is something that can really divide people.

It’s traditional to have a roast, but what kind?

Flæskesteg med Rødkål (Roast Pork and Spiced Red Cabbage)

The first roast option is flæskesteg. In 2018, 64% of Danes had flæskesteg on Christmas Eve.

Flæskesteg is a pork roast often made from the neck or the back of the pig. It’s served with rødkål, a spiced red cabbage dish.

Flæskesteg is served year-round and is also eaten cold on rye bread for lunch.

Getting the pork rind crisp is the biggest worry of every cook at Christmas. A good tip is to cut the rind in many places, but avoid cutting into the meat, then rub salt in all the cuts.

~ How to Make Flæskesteg ~

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Flæskesteg med Rødkål

Andesteg (Roast Duck)

The second roast option, and my preferred Christmas dinner, is a duck. I’m not alone in this, 78% of Danes had duck on Christmas Eve in 2018.

Andesteg is a delicious duck roasted whole, stuffed with prunes, apples and often served with the entrails. It makes a glorious brown sauce and with the moist but tender meat and crisp skin, what’s not to love?

Danes typically only eat duck at Mortens aften (November 11th) and Christmas Eve.

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Why the Math Doesn’t Add Up

But wait, you can easily tell that we’re already over 100% between the pork and the duck.

That would be because both kinds are served in many families.

Because the roast is such a devise matter, many families serve both kinds to please everyone. In some families, you have to eat both, while in others you are free to pick the meat you prefer.

All Kinds of Potatoes

You can’t have Christmas dinner without potatoes and many Danes serve several kinds at Christmas.

Most Danes have brown potatoes, which are sugar-glazed potatoes. In 2018, 85% had brown potatoes (Brunde Kartofler).

White potatoes are just plain old boiled potatoes without the skin on them. 86% have them for dinner on Christmas Eve.

Finally, half (52%) the population celebrating Christmas also have crisps or potato chips for dinner. If you’ve never had a really good brown sauce with plain salted crips you’re missing out.

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Risalamande with Cherry Sauce

For dessert, 88% of Danes have risalamande with cherry sauce. You can learn to make your own as well as read about the game we play while eating it here: Danish Risalamande.

It seems like we Danes need to argue over the food at Christmas. It’s almost a tradition of its own. When it comes to risalamande, we debate whether the cherry sauce should be warm or not.

In 2018, 75% had their cherry sauce warm, 18% had it cold and 7% didn’t have any cherry sauce at all on their risalamande.

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After the Christmas Dinner

Danes aren’t done eating on Christmas Eve when the winner of the mandelgave has been found. Instead, we carry on with our Christmas traditions and with eating.

Besides eating a whole slew of homemade traditional Danish Christmas cookies we also indulge in konfekt.

These confections are made with primarily marzipan and nougat, chocolate, and nuts.

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Many families (50% in 2018) make these themselves in the weeks leading up to Christmas as it’s great fun to do with children.

(Source for Christmas Statistics Here)

Danish Christmas Recipes

Looking for more Traditional Danish Holiday Recipes?

  • Danish Klejner
  • Danish Havregrynskugler
  • Danish Luciaboller
  • Danish Jodekager
  • Danish Peppernodder
  • Danish Aebleskiver
  • Danish Butter Cookies (Vaniljekranse)

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Danish Christmas Recipes (2024)

FAQs

What is a traditional Danish Christmas meal? ›

Christmas dinner is a serious affair. Traditionally, you will be sat at a table for a good few hours, eating a meal of roast pork and duck plus boiled potatoes, red cabbage and gravy. Risalamande is the big Christmas dessert, a rice pudding topped with cherry sauce where a whole almond will be hiding.

What is Copenhagen traditional Christmas dinner? ›

The traditional Danish Christmas dinner usually consists of different kinds of oven-roasted meats, usually pork, duck, or goose with pickled and fermented vegetables on the side.

What is the special dessert they eat on Christmas Day in Denmark? ›

Risalamande - Danish Rice Pudding

Risalamande has been a beloved Christmas dessert in Denmark for decades. It is known from around year 1900, when the upper class began serving Risalamande with cherry sauce for Christmas instead of rice porridge.

What is Scandinavia's Christmas food? ›

These lunches will usually consist of a smörgåsbord of bread and fish along with generous amounts of beers, spirits and wine followed by singing and toasts. The big Christmas dinner, meanwhile, is traditionally held on the 24th and involves a sumptuous feast of pork, red cabbage, potatoes and gravy.

What do Danish people drink on Christmas? ›

Gløgg – a hot and sweet mulled wine – goes hand in hand with the Danish Christmas season. Many Danes add additional alcohol in the form of schnapps or rum for fuller flavour and kick. You can also add fresh ginger for extra spice or chilli for heat. Enjoy!

What is Santa called in Denmark? ›

In Denmark, Santa Claus is known as Julemanden (literally "the Yule Man") and is said to arrive on a sleigh drawn by reindeer, with presents for the children.

What is a Swiss Christmas dinner? ›

In the German part of Switzerland, there are three traditional Christmas meals: meat fondue (either Fondue Chinoise, which is thinly sliced meat cooked in bouillon, or Fondue Bourguignon which is meat cubes cooked in hot oil); and Filet im Teig, which is a pork fillet covered in sausage meat containing either savoury ...

What is a Swedish Christmas dinner? ›

Julbord, Smorgasbord

It's basically a smorgasbord with a few dishes that is only available during christmas. The julbord is available in many restaurants in Sweden from the end of november until christmas eve. The food served at restaurants is more or less the same as what people eat in their homes on christmas eve.

What is the most famous dessert in Denmark? ›

The Brunsviger

The most mouth-watering of all Danish delicacies, the brunsviger is a cake of crater-filled dough, drizzled by a thick layer of brown sugar and butter. This delicious concoction of sugar and fat soaks into the spongey cake, making for a delicious, moreish and sticky teatime snack.

Do they eat Kringle in Denmark? ›

Kringle (/ˈkrɪŋɡəl/,) is a Northern European pastry, a variety of pretzel. Pretzels were introduced by Roman Catholic monks in the 13th century in Denmark, and from there they spread throughout Scandinavia and evolved into several kinds of sweet, salty or filled pastries, all in the shape of kringle.

How to have a Danish Christmas? ›

Danish Christmas is celebrated in the evening on December 24. Traditionally, that means eating an elaborate Christmas dinner in the evening, dancing around the Christmas tree and opening presents. There is a virtual shutdown in the country during this time.

What do Norwegians have for Christmas dinner? ›

Christmas food, drinks and snacks

The most popular Christmas Eve dinner is the ribbe (pork ribs or pork belly, bone in), but lutefisk (cod cured in lye), pinnekjøtt (dry-cured ribs of lamb), boiled cod, ham roast and turkey are also common dishes.

What is the Christmas town in Scandinavia? ›

Santa Claus Village is located in Rovaniemi, Finland, the official hometown of Santa Claus. Santa Claus has made Lapland in Northern Finland his home for centuries, and the Arctic Circle is close to his heart because many Christmas secrets are rooted in this magical place.

What is the Scandinavian tradition on Christmas Eve? ›

Between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. on Christmas Eve, Christmas dinner is usually served. The feast may include oven-baked ham, rutabaga casserole, beetroot salad, and similar Scandinavian holiday foods. Santa Claus usually visits houses on Christmas Eve to give presents to those who have been good.

What is a Dutch Christmas meal? ›

Dutch Christmas dinners usually consist of venison, goose, hare, or turkey with plenty of vegetables and Kerstbrood (Christmas bread). The Dutch also celebrate by eating gourmetten, a hot plate on which diners place a set of mini pans containing their choice of meat or vegetables.

What do the Swedish have for Christmas dinner? ›

Christmas presents are under the lighted tree, candles shine brightly and the smorgasbord (or smörgåsbord, as it's written in Swedish) has been prepared with all the classic dishes: Christmas ham, pork sausage, an egg and anchovy mixture (gubbröra), herring salad, pickled herring, home-made liver pâté, wort-flavoured ...

Why do Danish celebrate Christmas on 24th? ›

Q: Why do Norway, Denmark and Sweden celebrate Christmas on 24th dec.? The Scandinavian tradition is to celebrate all holidays on the eve before the Holy day(on which you should rest and go to church…). Midsummer is not celebrated on midsummer day, it's midsummer eve.

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