by Joy Ann Ribar
Greetings readers and authors. December is my favorite month and always has been. My Scandinavian heritage was never more on display than in December, where the idea of hygge reigned supreme. The Danish word refers to the idea of creating coziness, and although there is no direct English translation for hygge, practitioners will tell you it is time spent with friends or family, around a fire or surrounded by candle light, singing songs or sharing stories, drinking hot cocoa or gløgg, wrapped in a blanket or wearing furry slippers, and there is laughter, always laughter. Wrapped up in one short word is one big feeling: contentment.
When I was a child, the Christmas season began on December first, the day we opened the first of twenty-four tiny doors on the festive Advent calendar that hung on our kitchen wall. We took turns – my siblings and I – and were rewarded with graphics that paired with the season: snowflakes, bells, ornaments, decorated trees, wreaths, trains, holly, angels, Santa, etc. We gathered around the calendar each morning with the anticipation of opening a door into the holidays, moment by moment.
According to Scandinavian heritage, Advent is the season of light, an important time to light fires and candles during the darkest and shortest days of the year. At my house, we had an Advent candle. It was white and decorated with images of holly, pine cones, ivy, and presents. A long column of numbers from one through twenty-four lined up on the wax pillar. Every night after dinner, my mother lit the candle and kept it lit until the wax melted away the top number. The calendar and the candle were ways we marked time anticipating Christmas.
But there were many other ways, too. December meant we spent special times together as a family, making and decorating cookies, crafting homemade ornaments, decorating the house, and secretly wrapping gifts for each other. I know many of you probably did and still do the same things.
Unique to my family was the miniature sleigh pulled by felt covered reindeer that sat through December on the front counter at our local post office. My father was the postmaster and his love of Christmas, in my opinion, was unmatched. When the holiday decor danced out of storage each year, we were excited to see the empty wooden sleigh, a mini Santa holding the reins.
My father bought small pieces of candy, miniature candy bars, rolls of Lifesavers, Smartees, and candy canes. My mother, sister, and I would take the scraps of holiday paper my mother saved every year, and painstakingly wrap each piece of candy into a little package for the sleigh, all tied up with yarn bows. When the sleigh was heaped full, my father set it on the post office counter and offered a package to every customer and their children. We refilled the sleigh frequently, loving every minute of the secrets it held.
He spread the holiday spirit with candy, but it didn’t stop there. He brought home the letters written to Santa, mailed from the post office in our small Wisconsin town of a thousand people. At night, he answered each child’s letter by hand, so they would know Santa believed they were as special as he was. My dad’s hair went from light blond to bright white at an early age. With his beard, mustache and twinkling blue eyes, many children thought Santa Claus worked at the post office!
When my father retired, he began carving wooden Santas and nisses, Danish elves that hold a special place in Scandinavian traditions. Legend says the nisse is a sprite, elf, or gnome that lives in forests or on farms and tends the animals. Every Christmas Eve, Scandinavian families leave rice pudding (also called risengrød) in a bowl for the nisse with the idea that if you take care of your nisse, your nisse will bring good fortune to you all year. My dad even carved wooden bowls and spoons so the wee folks could enjoy their rice pudding. We left the bowls right beside Santa’s plate of cookies.
In my book, Deep Flakes Christmas, two magical nisses are summoned to Deep Lakes to help the town save its holiday festival. I dedicated this book to my dad, who always brought magic to our holidays. Together with my mom, they filled the whole month of December with cozy memories I’ll always cherish.
I wish you all the coziness and warmth the holiday season can hold, and I hope you are blessed with your own cozy traditions to share with others. Happy hygge days!
ABOUT JOY ANN RIBAR
Joy Ann Ribar pens the Deep Lakes Cozy Mystery series in her RV writing nook everywhere it roams! Born and raised in central Wisconsin, Joy’s life includes a cocktail of careers: news reporter, paralegal, English educator, and college writing instructor. She loves to bake, explore the outdoors, and visit wineries. Joy infuses this mixture into her main character, Frankie Champagne, adding a special blend of sass and humor. Her writing is inspired by Wisconsin’s four distinct seasons, natural beauty, and kind-hearted, but sometimes quirky, people. If you’d like to see Joy in person, send her a message via email, on Facebook, or Instagram, to see if she’s in your neck of the woods or contact your local bookstore or library to see if they would like an author visit!
