A few years ago, I decided to research the Christmas traditions of the countries that both Hubby and my ancestors are from. Hubby's ancestry on his father's side is Norwegian and Swedish. So in hunting down some Swedish Christmas traditions I found one that I absolutely love! Why? Because it gives me an excuse to not take down the Christmas decorations on New Year's Day! Can I have a big "Hip hip hooray!" and a "Hallelujah!"?Here's the quote I found (sorry, I forgot to write down the reference back then):
"[In Sweden,] the Christmas spirit and enjoyment linger until January 14--Knut's Day--the day appointed to discard the Christmas tree and devour all the edible decorations. This is quite an occasion, especially for the young who occasionally dress as 'Old Knut' and play practical jokes and chant as they fling the old tree into the snow, with a promise to reunite with their beloved pine in one year."Hubby has always had a hard time parting with the Christmas decorations on New Year's Day so now our new "old" tradition is to wait until January 14th for Knut's Day. We don't have snow or a real Christmas tree to fling into the snow, but we do have other decorations that I wait until January 14th to put away. Then as I'm putting away the Christmas decorations, I put up the Valentine's Day decorations so it eases the shock of having empty bareness where the Christmas stuff used to be. And then we have Valentine's Day decorations for a whole month (which I absolutely love because I LOVE red!).
Because of this great adoption of a new "old" tradition, I don't feel guilty one bit just enjoying New Year's Day with Hubby instead of cleaning up the house. Our grandmothers did know best!
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