We didn’t host Christmas Eve this year, so I haven’t got a single picture of what we ate that day. Instead I left the camera at home and just focused on being in the moment.

Besides, traditional Swedish Christmas food is not my favourite type of food. I love Jansson’s temptation (the potato bake with anchovies) and meatballs with allspice but am happy to skip the herring, Christmas ham and cabbages.

This post will instead focus on what we ate all the other days around Christmas. Staying with my parents for two weeks was a great excuse to indulge in lots of eating and cooking. Most of the food was quite festive and a little something extra, but we also squeezed in some everyday food.

We also made very good use of mother’s Christmas china service with the the words ‘God Jul’ which means Merry Christmas in Swedish; it features on most pictures. 

Charkuterie board: smoked sausage, cured ham, parmesan and crema di balsamico, olives.

Wild duck breast, peanut fingerling potatoes, port sauce, broccoli and rowanberry jelly.

Fresh crab, prawns, mayonnaise, bread and salad.

Almost as important as food – bubbly and candles

Poached halibut, boiled potatoes, lovely creamy sauce and carrots

Creme brulee

Weekday food: Christmas meatballs (seasoned with allspice) and creamy potato mash with extra butter

Fried shallots and carrot matchsticks, scallops and wild garlic oil

Classic Lobster Thermidor

Swedish pizza and coke on New Year’s Day

Lots of nice cookies made by mother (favourites are the chocolate ones and the crispy rolls)

Fish soup with prawns, aoili

It was a lovely Christmas last year!