Neither here nor there

Her apartment was simple and elegant. It had all the best traits of Danish design combined with the tastes of a stylish young person. The furniture was vintage in style and of course there were candles. Carefully arranged postcards and prints hung on the wall. This was the home of a good friend of mine, a place that always felt cozy and inviting.

There was a God Jul banner above the couch and some heart shaped ornaments made of construction paper hanging from a potted plant for lack of a Christmas tree. These hearts could be found anywhere from my friend's fern to the decorations at Baresso, the major coffee chain, to those hanging on Stroget, the major shopping street in Copenhagen, to the free postcards available all over town. In a nation that is officially Lutheran Christmas was celebrated unabashedly and visibly. It was refreshing and strange to be in a place where you could wish somebody a god jul without thinking about whether you would offend them. Here it was Christmas break not a PG-13 winter break.

For many of us this was our first Christmas away from home so our friend had invited us over to show us what a Danish Christmas feast is like—complete of course with a game of white elephant where everything had to be purchased from the local dollar store we were obsessed with.

The food was typical of the type that my Danish friend made for us. It was centered around pork. I suspect that there is good Danish food that isn't pork based but I've had little reason thus far to eat it. She took a good tender cut of pork with a layer of fat on the top and roasted it until the top was nice and crispy but the center was still nice and moist. Then there were homemade buns that provided the foundation for the sandwich. We would then add homemade mayonnaise and mustard, and top it all off with beats. It was simple and delicious.

The Danish word hygge perfectly describes over Christmas dinner. It is often translated as cozy but this doesn't fully encompass its range. It is the scent of candle wax, and chatting with good friends, over good food. It is feeling completely at ease. It is feeling as though there is nowhere else that you are meant to be. It is sweater weather. It is a meal prepared with love by a good friend for a family assembled of exchange students celebrating Christmas somewhere on the other side of the world that feels exactly like home.