Traditions are meant to be kept – or?

Christmas is com­ing. All I want is to let myself be lulled into Christmas spir­it. In my mind, I see myself bak­ing saf­fron buns, mak­ing tof­fee, light­ing can­dles, and final­ly learn­ing my par­ents’ recipe for cured salmon. But a new age is coming.

The rushing time

The ambi­tions for Christmas are high. Then some­thing hap­pens. December is com­ing and the Advent Sunday. Oh, the freez­er should be full of saf­fron buns, but there are only peas, and the mush­rooms I picked last year.

Second Sunday in Advent. Glögg-fika. Christmas party.

Third Sunday in Advent. It gets urgent to fix the buns.

Fourth Sunday in Advent. Forgot buy­ing saffron.

Christmas Eve. There are no buns this year either.

The dis­ap­point­ment could have been total, but I just feel relief.

The (not so anymore) traditional food feast

For many, Christmas is the most tra­di­tion-bound food feast. So also in my home. There should be the pota­to dish Jansson’s Temptation, a dozen dif­fer­ent sorts of pick­led her­ring, and of course, my par­ents’ cured salmon. At a quick glance, one would think that noth­ing has changed dur­ing my life­time – that is with the Christmas smorgasbord.

But even in my home, in our fam­i­ly with strong Christmas tra­di­tions, there has been a shift. It start­ed when dad pop­ping a green sal­ad between the pota­to and the meat­balls. The fol­low­ing year, anoth­er fresh sal­ad (tip: kale, orange and pome­gran­ate) would fit on the over­crowd­ed table. And so it has continued.

Who real­ly eats the sausage prin­sko­rv? Get rid of it! And yet anoth­er sal­ad (cab­bage again) pushed out two sorts of pick­led herrings.

Greener and more quality

In some ways, it feels right to re-lay the Christmas table. Apparently, we are not alone.

According to a study by The Swedish Food Federation, more and more Swedes are reshap­ing their Christmas smor­gas­bord: Younger ones want to eat green­stuff. Most want to eat less meat. And if the tra­di­tion­al baked Christmas ham stays, it must be of good quality.

The Christmas smor­gas­bord is becom­ing a nice mix of tra­di­tion and renew­al. One adds and sub­tracts, so every­one gets what they want.

That’s why I am relieved when I real­ize that I have no saf­fron buns to offer. Me – who love Christmas! I’m involved in cre­at­ing a new Christmas smor­gas­bord. And no dry saf­fron buns are need­ed on it.

The winds of change

I am glad that the winds of change are allowed to blow all the way into the kitchen on the Christmas Eve itself. Why would Christmas be pro­tect­ed when noth­ing else escapes the par­a­digm shift tak­ing place in the food world.

We Swedes are a can­dy-lov­ing peo­ple, who eat 15 kilos of choco­late and can­dy per per­son and year. But even Christmas sweets are start­ing to change. And that is a good thing in sev­er­al ways.

What is real­ly impor­tant? Should Christmas tra­di­tions be upheld ad absur­dum? Or should every­thing old be thrown out for the new and hot? If you ask me, I say you should both uphold and change tra­di­tions. There are no musts, but keep what makes you hap­py. And who says that the new and the old can­not go hand in hand?

The experience is what counts

The seren­i­ty of Christmas is pri­mar­i­ly not about what you do, but more so about what you expe­ri­ence. And obvi­ous­ly, it’s not only me who has such long­ing. A study made by MasterCard shows that the Christmas present of the year is an expe­ri­ence. People want to social­ize, enjoy time togeth­er and indulge themselves.

We cre­ate new tra­di­tions, and we redo old ones. The new dish­es we, in my fam­i­ly, put on the table are timely.

How about the saf­fron buns? Well, they may show up on next year’s Christmas smor­gas­bord. As an expe­ri­ence – new and old at the same time.