A New Tradition

One new addition to our Advent/Christmas season celebrations was St. Lucia Day. St. Lucia's day is a church feast day set aside to celebrate the young martyr, St. Lucia (St. Lucy). Her name means light so the day is also a reminder that as Jesus is our light, we are called to reflect His light to all the world as well. A traditional home celebration involves the eldest girl dressing in white with a red sash with a crown of candles on her head. She carries the St. Lucia buns to all the family members early in the morning while they are still tucked in bed.

It's mainly celebrated in Scandinavian countries like Sweden and Norway. Craig's Norwegian heritage is very important to him so even though he did not grow up celebrating this holiday, he was on board. Even more so when I told him it involved food. Who doesn't like a food holiday?

We prepared the week beforehand. Wednesday is was our baking day so we borrowed Neighbor J's kitchen for the afternoon and made these St. Lucia Rolls (also known as Saffron rolls). I underbaked them by just a few minutes so we could heat them up in the morning in our toaster oven. That worked really well and they were delicious. The only thing I would change would be to leave out the Saffron. I know that Saffron is the traditional flavor of St. Lucia rolls but we couldn't really taste it in the roll and it is really expensive. So expensive that when I bought it, the check-out lady double-checked the price then asked me if I really wanted to buy it. I'm sure I could have gotten it cheaper online but it was ~$15 for 0.03 oz at our local grocery store. Yikes! But the rolls were delicious.And not very crumble, which is good since we ate them in bed.

Thursday, our craft day, we made Lucy's St. Lucia crown. I had pre-cut the crown, leaves and candle parts (I just went free-hand) and they were waiting for her in her advent bag. Once we measure her head and I stapled the crown to the right size, I cover the outside with double stick tape so she could put the leaves and candles where she wanted to. I thought about letting her glue them but she really doesn't like to get messy and the double stick tape was similar to stickers so I thought she would enjoy that. And she did. We had a great time assembling it. But she was very much opposed to wearing it anytime I asked her that day or the next.

Technically, St. Lucia's day was Tuesday but we celebrated Sunday so daddy didn't have to feel rushed. When Lucy woke up, we made Craig stay in bed while we went and prepared the tray. I didn't dress her in white but she was wearing her red and white hanna anderson pajamas and h.a. is swedish so we were still pretty authentic, right :-)

She wanted to carry it herself. Tray carrying is a new skill of hers but I was nervous because the tray had several rolls plus the crown (that she still refused to wear). She actually did great but was so fast I didn't get any pictures of her.

Here she is showing daddy (and baby) the tray. Then we feasted on our rolls and once in bed, Craig asked her if she wanted to wear her crown and surprise, surprise, she did!

It might look like she is handing them out, but actually she is stealing everyone else's raisins. She liked the rolls but only tried them once all the raisins were consumed. 

Hmm, let me see, Yep, Raisins!

Overall, this was a great First St. Lucia Day for our family. I hope we keep this event as a tradition. Next year when I have a kitchen, I might even try making swedish meatballs or kneple soup that night. And maybe buy this book when Lucy's a few years older.