Danish Royal Family Christmas: 2024 -

[iceflower]

* *

Welcome to Part 2 of the thread for the Christmas Celebrations of the Danish Royal Family.

You can find the old thread here:

​

** Danish Royal Family Christmas: 2003, 2004, 2006-2014, 2016-2023 **​

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[iceflower]

The plans for this year's Christmas celebrations have been announced today:

Den kongelige families jul 2024

Aarhus danner i år atter ramme om Kongefamiliens jul. D.M. Kongen og Dronningen vil sammen med D.K.H. Kronprinsen, Prinsesse Isabella, Prins Vincent og Prinsesse Josephine fejre jul på Ma...

www.kongehuset.dk

DET DANSKE KONGEHUS 🇩🇰 on Instagram: "Aarhus danner i år atter ramme om Kongefamiliens jul. Deres Majestæter Kongen og Dronningen vil sammen med Deres Kongelige Højheder Kronprinsen, Prinsesse Isabella, Prins Vincent og Prinsesse Josephine fejre ju

3,315 likes, 9 comments - detdanskekongehus on November 27, 2024: "Aarhus danner i år atter ramme om Kongefamiliens jul. Deres Majestæter Kongen og Dronningen vil sammen med Deres Kongelige Højheder Kronprinsen, Prinsesse Isabella, Prins Vincent og Prinsesse Josephine fejre jul på Marselisborg...

www.instagram.com

This year, Aarhus will once again be the setting for the Royal Family's Christmas. HM The King and Queen, together with HRH The Crown Prince, Princess Isabella, Prince Vincent and Princess Josephine, will celebrate Christmas at Marselisborg Castle together with HM Queen Margrethe.
Since the King was a child, the Aarhus Castle has – with a few exceptions – been the focal point for the Royal Family's Christmas celebrations. The King resides at the castle from 23-26 December, and in this connection a changing of the guard at the Royal Life Guard will take place every day at 12:00. Queen Margrethe will be staying at Marselisborg Castle from 20-30 December. During the period of royal residence at Marselisborg Castle, the Royal Life Guard will march daily from Gardergården at 11.50 am on Carl Nielsens Vej up to the main gate of the palace, where the changing of the guard takes place with accompanying ceremonies including music by the Tambour Corps. HRH Prince Joachim and Princess Marie celebrate Christmas with their children at the Princess's family. On the last evening of the year, the King will give his first New Year's speech. This will take place from Frederik VIII's Palace at Amalienborg at 6 pm.

 

[Hans-Rickard]

QMII must be feeling a lot better now since her accident, as she will be at Marselisborg for 10 days…. It is not an easy castle to handle if you can’t walk fairly well on your own…

Lovely that the tradition can continue…

 

[An Ard Ri]

QMII must be feeling a lot better now since her accident, as she will be at Marselisborg for 10 days…. It is not an easy castle to handle if you can’t walk fairly well on your own…

Lovely that the tradition can continue…

I've always really enjoyed the Danish Royal Christmas Traditions!

 

[principessa]

I would be really pleased if the Danish Royal Court will this year also publishes an adventcalender like the other years.

 

[Hans-Rickard]

I've always really enjoyed the Danish Royal Christmas Traditions!

Same here… They are interesting to follow around christmas and new year, and does not go into a period of seclusion like some other royal families

 

[An Ard Ri]

Same here… They are interesting to follow around christmas and new year, and does not go into a period of seclusion like some other royal families

They really embrace the Festive Season and I have learnt so much about Danish Christmas traditions from it.

 

[iceflower]

The advent calendar tradition continues, it's now called "The Royal Couple's Advent Calendar 2024":

Første søndag i advent

I løbet af decembers fire adventssøndage undersøger D.M. Kongen og Dronningen en række danske juletraditioner. Med besøg rundt omkring i Danmark er Majestæterne sammen med en række eksper...

www.kongehuset.dk

DET DANSKE KONGEHUS 🇩🇰 on Instagram: "Et rigtigt vikingmåltid ⚔️ Tidligere i dag blev den første video i Kongeparrets adventskalender offentliggjort på Kongehusets digitale medier. I videoen besøgte Hans Majestæt Kongen Vikingeskibsmuseet i Roski

1,723 likes, 10 comments - detdanskekongehus on December 1, 2024: "Et rigtigt vikingmåltid ⚔️ Tidligere i dag blev den første video i Kongeparrets adventskalender offentliggjort på Kongehusets digitale medier. I videoen besøgte Hans Majestæt Kongen Vikingeskibsmuseet i Roskilde, hvor...

www.instagram.com

DET DANSKE KONGEHUS 🇩🇰 on Instagram: "Første søndag i advent 🕯️ I løbet af decembers fire adventssøndage undersøger Deres Majestæter Kongen og Dronningen en række danske juletraditioner. Med besøg rundt omkring i Danmark er Majestæterne sammen med

21K likes, 317 comments - detdanskekongehus on December 1, 2024: "Første søndag i advent 🕯️ I løbet af decembers fire adventssøndage undersøger Deres Majestæter Kongen og Dronningen en række danske juletraditioner. Med besøg rundt omkring i Danmark er Majestæterne sammen med en række...

www.instagram.com

First Sunday in Advent During the four Advent Sundays of December, Their Majesties the King and Queen will examine a number of Danish Christmas traditions.With visits around Denmark, Their Majesties, together with a number of experts, will help find the common thread from the Vikings' pre-Christian Christmas to the holiday we know and celebrate today In the first Advent episode, His Majesty the King visits the Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde, where the King, together with archaeologist Jacob Nyborg Andreassen, will walk in the footsteps of the Vikings and, among other things, taste what our ancestors ate and drank during the sweet Christmas season.Christmas has been one of the great holidays of the year in the Nordic countries since ancient times. In the darkest times, the Vikings gathered around the long table to drink for peace and eat well. The word 'jól' originates from the Viking Age and has been used long before Christianity took root in Denmark.

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=8343563002438733

 

[LibrarianDaisy]

Am so glad they are continuing the tradition - love hearing about the Danish customs and their history

 

[Muhler]

A nice touch that they end the video by toasting in mead for Odin and the King.

A very educational video at the Roskilde Viking-ship museum. The town of Roskilde also house, as you know, Roskilde Cathedral where Danish monarchs have been buried for centuries, so the past and present for more than 1.000 years is literally being connected here
Christmas is of course a pagan celebration pre-dating Christianity (and even the Nordic gods of the Viking Age), called Jul (the modern spelling). Old English also had a word for Jul, but that was replaced by Christ's Mass.
The purpose was to celebrate that the darkest part of the winter was over and that it would be lighter day by day from now on.
The food was then as now centered around eating pork, but also fairly modern dishes like sea-weed and of course porridge. Initially people brought their own food when visiting someone during the Christmas days, but at some point a lord came up with the idea of hosting a Christmas dinner, earning a load of credit! That was taken up by other lords and eventually common people, to the extent that they could afford such lavish dinners.

I guess we will see Queen Mary explore something else in regards to Christmas next Sunday.

It fascinates me how much Old English I can understand (when seeing the words written. It's almost on par with how much Old Norse I can understand (also seeing the words in writing)
Try reading and listening to this Old English version of Agni Parthene:

 

[polyesco]

Love that we can learn more and more about Danish history and traditions.
A new spin on a Christmas treat from the DRF

 

[Izzie]

Love that we can learn more and more about Danish history and traditions.
A new spin on a Christmas treat from the DRF

So I guess we are not getting the fun daily posts like before showcasing the rest of the family and bts of staff etc? Too bad. Those have been enjoyable and does not have them feel totally MIA during the slower December month. Also, no showing of the candle lighting.

 

[polyesco]

So I guess we are not getting the fun daily posts like before showcasing the rest of the family and bts of staff etc? Too bad. Those have been enjoyable and does not have them feel totally MIA during the slower December month. Also, no showing of the candle lighting.

Something different but nice. I liked that they highlighted someone in their profesion/field.

 

[iceflower]

It's the second Sunday in Advent today, December 8, and Mary participated this time:

DET DANSKE KONGEHUS 🇩🇰 on Instagram: "Anden søndag i advent 🕯️🕯️ Fællesskab om julens salmer er en tradition, som binder mange sammen i december måned. Både ved gudstjenester eller julesammenkomster og når der danses rundt om juletræet den 24. decem

15K likes, 142 comments - detdanskekongehus on December 8, 2024: "Anden søndag i advent 🕯️🕯️ Fællesskab om julens salmer er en tradition, som binder mange sammen i december måned. Både ved gudstjenester eller julesammenkomster og når der danses rundt om juletræet den 24. december. Men også de...

www.instagram.com

Second Sunday in Advent Community around Christmas hymns is a tradition that binds many together in the month of December. Both at church services or Christmas gatherings and when dancing around the Christmas tree on December 24. But also the upcoming confirmation candidates in Grundtvig's Church in Bispebjerg gather at this time around Christmas hymns. That is why Her Majesty The Queen visited their confirmation preparation for a talk about Christmas traditions and joyful message. Led by parish priests Inge Lise Løkkegaard and Agnete Veit, the Queen and the upcoming confirmation candidates also marked the second Sunday of Advent this year by singing Grundtvig's Christmas hymn classic "Dejlig er den himmel blå" together. And then two candles in the church's Advent wreath were lit, of course. Today's post is part of the Royal Couple's digital Advent calendar. During the four Advent Sundays in December, Their Majesties the King and Queen will examine a number of Danish Christmas traditions around Denmark.

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=556357753854485

Dronning Mary kom på uventet besøg: Blev stillet det ene spørgsmål efter det andet

Dronning Mary dukkede pludselig op og overraskede en række konfirmander, der fik lov at stille hende en række spørgsmål.

www.billedbladet.dk

 

[Muhler]

A very nice video.
Queen Mary met the upcoming confirmands. And was told about advent really is = a countdown to Christmas. The custom with an advent-wreath stems from Germany. Lighting the candles symbolize the longing for the light that will eventually come to us.
Queen Mary was also asked about her Christmas in Australia, where it is summer at this time of year.
She would wake up a way too early in the morning to have a sneak peak at the presents that lay under the Christmas tree or wherever. - And then the looong agonizing wait until the parents got up and the presents could finally be presented.
Then an outdoor lunch.
Among the presents would often be some beach-stuff like a surfboard, so it was off to the beach, at least for a swim.

Queen Mary has unsurprisingly embraced quite a few Danish Christmas traditions. The advent-wreath, calendar light, the small calendar presents and the more modern advent presents. (That can be a little figurine or a LEGO-man. Here at our place we continue a tradition that started before Mrs Muhler and I even got married. She gets a chocolate calendar from me with pretty good chocolate judging from the rare occasions I've allowed to nibble a bit of the pieces. My In-laws, who worship our children - it's the only grandchildren they have so they are excused - make a gift-calendar for them each year. Don't know what they get though, as both have moved away from home.)

Queen went on to talk about the sense of togetherness that follow with being together celebrating Christmas, appreciating your loved ones and reflect on those who are no more among us.
The sense of togetherness is also something she feels strongly in singing the Christmas psalms with other people.

She adds that some years the family dance around the Christmas tree. - As you may recall QMII is faithful to the original version of Christmas, where the Christmas tree is decorated to be viewed and admired, but not danced around. Unless she has caved in recently.

The video ends with with a Danish Christmas psalm, that is no doubt among the top five psalms on Christmas eve. And during the singing of that psalm you walk slowly around the Christmas tree.

 

[polyesco]

It was a lovely video with the group of teenagers. Thank you Muhler for the extra info.

 

[polyesco]

Nikolai will be spending Christmas in Australia, as confirmed (for some reason) by Alexandra's press spokesperson

Grev Nikolai og Benedikte overrasker: Jul i Australien

Grev Nikolai og hans Benedikte overrasker ved at danse om juletræet down under.

www.seoghoer.dk

 

[Muhler]

They appear to be fond of Australia, maybe they plan on settling there? At least for some years.

 

[Prinsara]

I miss QMII’s elves. I hope they are having a happy December with her.

 

[iceflower]

Queen Mary for the third Sunday of Advent today:

DET DANSKE KONGEHUS 🇩🇰 on Instagram: "Tredje søndag i advent 🕯️🕯️🕯️ Livet på landet i 17- og 1800-tallet var langt fra idyllisk. I bondesamfundet var der stor forskel på folks levevilkår, og omsorg og næstekærlighed var i hverdagen ikke et udpræget

21K likes, 158 comments - detdanskekongehus on December 15, 2024: "Tredje søndag i advent 🕯️🕯️🕯️ Livet på landet i 17- og 1800-tallet var langt fra idyllisk. I bondesamfundet var der stor forskel på folks levevilkår, og omsorg og næstekærlighed var i hverdagen ikke et udpræget fænomen. Men i...

www.instagram.com

DET DANSKE KONGEHUS 🇩🇰 on Instagram: "På loftet sidder nissen med sin julegrød. Men hvorfor gør han egentlig det? 🧑🏼‍🎄🥄🍚 Svaret finder Hendes Majestæt Dronningen i dagens adventsvideo, som blev offentliggjort på Kongehusets digitale platforme i morg

21K likes, 111 comments - detdanskekongehus on December 15, 2024: "På loftet sidder nissen med sin julegrød. Men hvorfor gør han egentlig det? 🧑🏼‍🎄🥄🍚 Svaret finder Hendes Majestæt Dronningen i dagens adventsvideo, som blev offentliggjort på Kongehusets digitale platforme i morges. I Den...

www.instagram.com

Third Sunday in Advent Life in the countryside in the 17th and 18th centuries was far from idyllic. In the farming community, there were great differences in people's living conditions, and care and charity were not a prominent phenomenon in everyday life. But during Christmas time it was often different. Here, many felt a shared responsibility to ensure that no one went hungry.In this Advent video, Her Majesty the Queen delves into a number of Christmas stories from the old days. It takes place in the Funen Village in Odense, where the Queen, together with Development Manager Lise Gerda Knudsen, investigates how Christmas in the countryside in the old days was a sustainable and circular holiday, but also a special time of year that was filled with superstition and community. And elves, of course.

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=599097549241359

https://www.facebook.com/detdanskekongehus/posts/pfbid02QSVCiwyYp166NHK66PNvv92fSKxca28HmqXZ3LkvKMurKAjnptRDZJ2EG6jHsSr7l

 

[Muhler]

A delightful video.
Queen Mary was visiting the Funen Village near the city of Odense, which is an open air museum with farms and homesteads from 16-1700s. Absolutely worth a visit for a history buff. There is a similar museum in Aarhus, The Old Town, which is an affluent merchant town from 1600-1850. Now also with a section from the the 1970s - I feel old!

Anyway, Queen Mary and the curator of the museum talked about Christmas traditions on Christmas Eve, they have actually been covered in the Christmas thread a few years back. (They well be mentioned in parenthesis here.)
People slept in alcoves, but not on Christmas Night! On Christmas Night the dead returned and that also included dead relatives. And being a kind of guests they were to sleep in the alcoves. I guess it would kind of creepy to share your bed with a ghost...
Charity was very much a part of Christmas, there you earned some brownie points with God by also feeding the poor. (They went from door to door during Christmas BTW.)
The food was left out on the table throughout all the twelve days of Christmas. There the food soaked up the Christmas spirit/blessing and the leftovers were ploughed into the fields come spring, ensuring a good harvest.

Animals were also fed well during Christmas. - (But you never ever went into the stables on Christmas Night! On that night the animals could speak and they did. But if anyone was foolish enough to go out and try and listen to the animals, they would become mute. So no one ever learned what the animals said. That superstition existed well into the 1900s in some more remote parts of DK.)

The Nisse (a kind of house-spirit that has probably existed since farming began in DK some 6.000 years ago) was also treated on Christmas Night. A bowl of porridge was placed in the attic in order to placate the Nisse. If the Nisse was pleased some of the porridge had been eaten (cats, mice and rats no doubt).
(The Nisse is not to be confused with an elf. A Nisse was first a house-spirit that took on a more physical form during the 1600s, which is the reason why he, it was always a man, was dressed a peasant attire. He looked after the farm and it's inhabitants, humans and animals. Sometimes causing mischief, but if offended he could be really mean! Causing illness, misfortune even death among humans and animals. And if you moved away from the farm, the Nisse went along. Hence a common saying in DK: The Nisse moves along. = The problems/issues you have, will follow you if not dealt with.
Later on the Nisse was married and became an old benign figure, and eventually he evolved into a helper of Santa and not too bright!) The Nisse got his name, because a very common name back then was Niels, and short for Niels was Nis (it's Niller today), hence Nisse.
The Nisse would look pretty much like this around 1700: https://terjebjornstad.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/norsk-julekort-3.png?w=584 Even though this guy here is Norwegian.

QM and the curator addressed each other with formal You, even though the curator at one point used informal you. Not that I think Queen Mary would mind one bit. - But I personally prefer that the senior DRF members at least are addressed with formal You. It's part of the show I think, as well as showing respect for the office.

 

[hereditarytitles]

Thank you for the information about Funen Village and the historic Christmas stories. Fyn Island is on our travel agenda for the future, because since childhood I am a fan of Hans Christian Andersen's fairytales and would like to visit the places where he used to live. It is off topic, but I also had to think of the movie "Babettes Fest", "Babettes Gaestebud" after the novel by Karen Blixen. I loved that movie, I got an impression about life in a Danish fishervillage in the 19th century.

 

[Prinsara]

I miss QMII’s elves. I hope they are having a happy December with her.

Forgive me; her cones are not elves. They look more like gnomes, anyway.

 

[polyesco]

So fun learning about the history and culture! They have done so well with the 3 videos

 

[Muhler]

Forgive me; her cones are not elves. They look more like gnomes, anyway.

Indeed. It's a somewhat make-do translation, because AFAIK there is no English word for Nisse.
We do however also have elves in DK, and some 22.000 elves-dwellings.
Here is one: https://usercontent.one/wp/www.sh-s...ads/2020/04/shsite000681.jpg?media=1667814267
They are actually neolithic and Bronze Age burial mounds, which was a fairly affluent period so there were tens of thousands of such mounds all over DK, most have been ploughed away over the past three thousand years but there are still quite a lot around.
Beforehand the purpose of these mounds was unknown to most ordinary people, but they were clearly a place of mystique and as such a place where elves would live.
Elves were beautiful creatures who would often appear at night or around dusk (the spooky-hour in medieval times, where things were blurred in every definition of the word) often approaching humans who would walk by, enticing them with their song and beauty.
If you went with such elves to their mound, you'd see the mound rise on pillars of light and close behind you. Once inside such a mound, the elves would dance you to death! There was nothing to do, you could not resist their song, beauty and allure, you simply had to dance along.
A few survived and escaped to tell the tale though. One of the things the survivors told, was that if you embraced such an elf, and who wouldn't, you could feel a large cavity in their backs. And then you'd better run!!

Elves were around at all times of the year, and of course also at Christmas. During Christmas it was practically obligatory to visit friends and family - and as most of the people in your parish and the neighboring parishes in the 16-1700 were related in some way - there were a lot of people to visit! And going home from such a visit, you'd likely be in a very merry mood! An easy prey for the elves to invite you to a last waltz...

But Nisser were not elves. They were house-spirits, that eventually became personified and they lived in a specific place and had a specific role. While elves were magical, mysterious and incongruous creatures.

The stories about elves have a remarkable resemblance to later UFO stories. Dusk or night. Remote places. Enticing creatures. Mounds with light. Creatures that acted and did things beyond comprehension. Often changing the outlook on life of those who experienced such an "abduction" or near encounter and returned.

 

[An Ard Ri]

Are the RF no longer posting the daily DR Christmas traditions on social media?

 

[Somebody]

No, this year they seemed to do a weekly activity.

 

[An Ard Ri]

I will miss the fun daily posts but am relieved that the tradition is being carried on in a weekly basis!

 

[Muhler]

In another thread Sun Lion said this:
"The translation of the article quotes the Queen as saying cognac is poured over the plum pudding … also called a plum duff in Tasmania … and set alight, and how Mary likes to have it at Christmas."

Now, since Queen Mary is fond of this, we may assume it's an Australian/British tradition she may still be enjoying
So can someone tell those of us who have no idea about plum puddings, about the traditions surrounding such a thing at Christmas?

 

[hereditarytitles]

In another thread Sun Lion said this:
"The translation of the article quotes the Queen as saying cognac is poured over the plum pudding … also called a plum duff in Tasmania … and set alight, and how Mary likes to have it at Christmas."

Now, since Queen Mary is fond of this, we may assume it's an Australian/British tradition she may still be enjoying
So can someone tell those of us who have no idea about plum puddings, about the traditions surrounding such a thing at Christmas?

Plum pudding is so very British and I assume that all British influenced countries or former colonies of the British have kept certain customs food included. Each country does have their own traditions.

I still don't know how to make plum pudding, is it really made out of plums? i guess each country in the world has its traditional Christmas dinner.
I remember my grandmother who was from East Prussia, it was a strict rule at Christmas having a big fat goose in the oven for hours. It was served with homemade dumplings and red cabbage. Goose or ducks are still popular for dinner at Christmas, but some people here are just eating potato salad and hot dogs.