Christmas Market

This was our first free weekend for a while, as we had finally assembled all of the furniture and completed the move.

One thing I really wanted to do the first time we went to Copenhagen was to watch the changing of the guards at Amalienborg Palace.  It happens at noon every day and we missed it the first time as we didn’t get out of Den Blå Planet aquarium in time to make it.  We planned to head out early Saturday morning as we’d also heard that there were some Christmas markets planned in Copenhagen.

On Friday night Kristine was invited out with some friends for a Julbord, which is a Christmas Feast and drinks.  The kids and I had a movie night and after they were in bed I watched a movie and fell asleep. Kris got home around 1am and Tomas hadn’t slept very well – he greeted her as she came in the door.

The next morning I chatted on Skype while Kristine slept in.  We needed to leave by about 9:30 to make sure we made the changing of the guard, but the kids (especially Tomas) were pretty tired and grumpy.  The train ride to Copenhagen was about an hour and I had a big day planned (see the next post) so we decided to cancel at the last minute (during the arguments about getting boots and rain gear sorted out) and instead have a quiet day at home.

 

That afternoon we decided to go check out one of the big Christmas markets at Katrinetorp Landeri.  A landeri is a country farm/agricultural property.   They were originally used as country estates in the summer.  Torp means croft in English, which is a farming land with a dwelling.

Katrinetorp is a preserved historic  English garden that has been restored and houses cafes and shops.  It was built in 1799 and the city of Malmö bought it in 1937 and leased it as a farm until 1992.  The main building was built in 1813 and has been restored.

Every year (for the last 15 years) a Christmas Market (julmarknad) has been hosted at the farm, selling crafts like hand dipped candles, candies, straw craft, wickerwork, sheepskin, woodwork and sewing/quilting.

It cost 20kr (~$3 for parking ) and 60kr (~$10) per adult to get in and it was very windy but we had fun.  There was a Lucia performance (Swedish caroling) and some very nice arts and crafts.  The kids were give 100kr each to spend on what they wanted and Tomas and Cameron picked lollies, while Alana saved hers.  We also had Santa photos taken.  When we were lining up, Kristine asked the lady in charge if it was ok that we spoke English and she nodded and ducked off to talk to Santa.  When we got there he spoke English to the kids and they were really happy to have a Swedish Santa.  I’ve made another small post about Santa in Sweden if you’re interested.

Santa asked Tomas what he wanted and he said “Everything in the world”.  I think he might have trouble getting that down the chimney...  They were also given small straw gifts (Strohstern or Straw Stars) to hang in the window so Santa knows where they are.

Some examples of straw decorations

 

Santa Lucia

The restored farm building

Buying lollies

The crowd inside one of the halls

Dancing around the Christmas tree

Buying fish lollies - the kids would pay and then use the stick with a basket on the end to fish in the window where someone would put a bag of lollies in the basket

Santa!