The Christmas tree

The Christmas tree is central to the Danish way of celebrating the festive season.

Traditionally the Danish Christmas tree is the common spruce type, also known as Norwegian spruce. In more recent time, the common spruce has made way for the Normann spruce as it lasts a bit longer and results in fewer scattered needles on your living room floor by New Year's Eve.

Families fortunate enough to live close to the woods try to pick and cut their own tree. But of course, most Danes have to buy their Christmas tree just around the corner.

Decorating the Christmas tree

The Christmas tree itself is decorated with a silver or gold star on the top (never an angel), festoons of national flags, cornets with fruit, candies or cookies, small toy music instruments and the entire tree is often given the final touch with scatters of white fairy hair or strips of tin foil, reflecting the light from the glowing candles.

For the people who would like their Christmas tree to look more posh the company Georg Jensen, renowned for its Danish design, produces very elegant and exclusive Christmas decorations every year, appreciated by collectors and connoisseurs all over the world.

Lighting of the Christmas tree

The lighting of the Christmas tree is considered one of the highlights of Christmas Eve. Purists will argue that you have to use real candles and not electric lights on the Christmas tree for that genuine traditional Christmassy atmosphere.

Traditionally, the father of the family would light the Christmas tree and then invite the rest of the family to join him and admire the splendour of the tree. Today it is more common for the whole family actively to take part in all the traditional Christmas rituals.