Happy Santa Lucia Day

Hejsan! Hello!

God morgon! Good morning!

Välkommen till - welcome to our Santa Lucia Day celebration!
AND it's Gramma Enne's birthday today too!
Grattis på födelsedagen, Gramma Enne! 

Santa Lucia Day

Though the AG Kirsten in the books may speak Swedish fluently, I only know a few phrases. I hope I do not use them incorrectly in writing. As mentioned in the Meet the Girls page, Xyra got me because she wanted a doll to represent her Swedish heritage. Her mom (Gramma Enne) and Grammy both taught her how to say "thank you very much" which is tack så mycket.

While reading about the traditions we found out that the oldest girl in the family is usually the Santa Lucia Bride. Melody let me do it, since this is part of my (AG Kirsten Larson) collection and stories.

This is an early morning celebration. We kids are up before dawn to get everything ready. Then the bride followed by her handmaidens, star boys, and brownies, bring light and breakfast to wake the parents. My sisters just helped me today, but weren't handmaidens. We may do a bigger celebration next year. 

Since it was early morning, the pictures are a bit dark, but not too bad. (We didn't want to use the bright flash because we did figure out a way to "light" my wreath.)

Here I am heading to the kitchen all dressed.

Do you see they lights?

Now I've got the tray and am starting to the bedroom.

What do you think we used to make the light?

These are at the hallway.

I think you can see what we used a little better from this angle. Plus you can see the tray contents too.

It was fun delivering the buns, but even more fun to eat them. 

Some additional shots of me.

The buns are called lussekatter. We don't have the official ones that are shaped like sleeping cats or two eyeballs, but we read regular cinnamon buns are also used to celebrate Santa Lucia Day. Below are a few links to recipes if you want to try your hand at making buns for your family. We're including the links to our research as well.

Tack så mycket for stopping by. Hope you have a great day today!

Bun Recipes

http://scandinavianfood.about.com/od/swedishcelebrations/r/luciabuns.htm

http://www.sbs.com.au/food/recipes/saint-lucia-saffron-buns-lussekatter

http://www.food.com/recipe/saint-lucia-buns-lussekatter-saffron-buns-43784

http://www.ourbestbites.com/2009/05/overnight-cinnamon-rolls/

Santa Lucia Day Research

http://sweden.se/traditions/lucia/

http://www.catholicsistas.com/2012/12/06/get-ready-to-celebrate-st-lucias-day/

#santaluciaday

#saffronbuns

#Kirstenlarsen

#Swedishtraditions