So for this week's video, we wanted to compare American and Swedish Christmas traditions. I know what you're thinking. You're probably like, come on, are they really that different? They are. Yep, pretty much. Let's get crackling. Get it? Crackling. So the crackling. Instead of cracking. Alright, so Lauren, yes, you're an almost sweet. I'm an almost American. What do you think is different? One of the things I noticed was that there were santa's everywhere. Except for the santa's looked really different. They looked like this guy. Okay? And so I was like, oh, you guys have so many santa's. It's like as much as we have, but they dress way cuter. And then they just looked at me. She's like, that's not santa. These little guys, they are more like something that you would see in the woods, like from old tales. They're like, gnomes. Yeah, not elves. We call them house gnomes. Who's Tom Tide? No. Who's Tom Tide? And you see them pretty much everywhere around Christmas time. Our santa clause looks pretty American. Is he fat though? Yeah, is he? Yeah, not American fat. I mean, American fat is over here. Chunky, I would say our santa is. Now I also wonder what you think about events and like the celebration of Advent. Okay, right. So I would say that America is a much more religious country. Oh, yeah. Absolutely. Every Sunday in December, you light a new candle around the wreath and then by the time all the candles are there, it's Christmas time. We only really do that in America in church. As far as I know, as far as like friends of mine, I've never seen anybody do it except for church. Swedes, basically everybody does it. Sweden, Sweden. And Sweden is not a really religious country. So this tradition has kind of moved from religious to I guess, it is a cultural, like Christmas tradition. That is really also all about Hingier just getting real cozy with the Christmas celebrations. Okay, next difference is that I feel like Sweden has more actual days of celebration leading up to Christmas. In America, it's like Christmas season starts and then it's kind of just like a build up until actual Christmas in Sweden. They have Advent where they're celebrating every Sunday and then you also have the New Seas, which is... Luce is huge. It's actually today, 13th of December. And I think it's in the Italian tradition from the beginning, but anyhow, we Swedes love it. And I don't know if you've seen it, it's really pretty. We're seeing and dress up and it's almost like a mini Halloween, but like Christmas theme. It's really cute. And we even go to something called Yul Boud which is translated to Christmas table. You go to a specific restaurant or some really nice hotels have good Christmas tables. You would go where you eat a whole bunch. It's a beautiful buffet and we of course have snaps and we sing Christmas songs because that's what Swedes do. Okay, actual Christmas. Actual Christmas. In America, Santa lives up at the North Pole, gets his reindeer. Well, first you have to like write him a letter, right? And what do you do that? Do you like leave it out somewhere? Yeah, and like put it in the mailbox or where do you put it? I think it depends on the family. Okay, but you definitely have to write a letter to Santa. That's really adorable, but would you, I'm still like, you're so curious, would you write in that letter? Is it a wish list? Yeah, yeah. Okay, but you also like, like I've been good. To your Santa, I've been really good this year. I would love to have blah blah blah blah blah blah. However, I was that kid that always like wished for world peace. I can't think of anything I really want. So maybe a Barbie and world peace. You wanted Barbie's? Let's move on. So Santa gets your letter. You either go on the nod to your nice list. Then you wait, Christmas Eve comes around, and you put out chocolate chip cookies and milk cookies and milk. Because you want him to be happy, so you give him cookies and milk. Then Christmas morning, the 25th, you wake up with this full stocking and presents underneath the Christmas tree. And then usually it's a big meal with extended family in the afternoon. And what do you eat? Wait, like what's traditional American Christmas food? I don't know, like turkey, ham. So that's basically like American Christmas day. What about, and what happens on the 26th? Just hang out, I guess. I'm a kid. But I need to know about Santa and Sweden. Okay, so I don't know what do you do with the kids. When it comes to Swedish Christmas, actual Christmas, we celebrate mainly on the 24th and not on the 25th Christmas Eve. On Christmas Eve is our big celebration day. We also leave some refreshments for Santa, but not cookies and milk, we put out porridge. So like the healthy version of cookies and milk. And we leave it in like a pretty bowl outside, like on the doorstep. So Christmas Eve Eve, you leave out the porridge. Yeah. And then when the kids wake up on the 24th, what happened? We have stockings. Okay, some gifts are in the stockings, but usually just like one or two or a few. Sometimes we have a bunch of gifts on the tree. And then later on Christmas Eve, still on the 24th, the dad, usually the dad in the family or an adult, says, well, you know what, I have to go and buy the papers I forgot. So I'll be right back. He leaves and magically while this adult is gone comes this big Santa, dressed up, like usually like really good outfits. And yes, chunky outfits beard, you know, all the stuff. And he would also come with this act of gifts and read a couple and hand them out. And then he would take off. In my family, maybe we're maybe not, I don't know, but we would also give our Santa when he came the snops. So a little shot of something really hard. So that's kind of what we do. We watch, this is the holy grail, this is like you don't mess with this, but at three o'clock PM, you watched Donald Duck. Excuse me, what? No, it's like that is happening. The whole family, even like adults. Yeah, everyone gathers around the TV at three o'clock to watch the same show every year. And it's a compilation of different Disney movies. This is so weird. Oh my god. But wait, what I'm talking about, I'm like, is this real? This is really, this is really straight. It doesn't change every year. No, it's the same thing over and over again. Yes, so only little piece that that is changing is like a tiny part of like Disney news, like a new film that year, but that's all other than that, it's all the same. You know, these cups are really small. It's like four six and it's gone. Other than these like hundreds of differences, what are the similarities? In both places, of course, the holiday is about gathering family together, being around people that you love and showing that time together and creating a special atmosphere, exchanging gifts, celebrating with good food, Santa. However, I will also say, I have celebrated in both places. In the states, there tends to be a much more commercial aspect to Christmas. Now, don't get me wrong. That exists here in Sweden too. However, it feels like on a much different level in America. It feels a lot more in the states like the consumerism has really affected the spirit of the holidays and it doesn't feel like that here. Not as much. I really agree, because I've also spent quite some Christmases in the states by now. It's not about giving insane, expensive gifts or showing how much you love someone in money. That's a terrible concept. That's a terrible idea. And that's why it's a tricky when giving gifts has become such a stable of showing love and gratitude around Christmas. And don't get us wrong. Like, we love Christmas gifts. We are huge gift givers. Yes, we love the gift of giving. We really do love that. But that's not what it's about. And I think that's the big focus that needs to shift for us to really be able to enjoy Christmas. One other thing that we want to touch on before we get slayed in the comments is that, of course, Christmas celebrations in the states and in Sweden, they're very significantly based on the families that you're from, the culture that you grew up in, and your location within those two countries. So please put that hat on as you think about the stuff that we said and as you go to comment about how wrong we are about the certain truth. But please do comment about how differently you might be doing things, because that's super interesting. All right, you guys, that does it for this video. Thank you so much for watching. We enjoyed making it. I hope you enjoyed watching it. I have an almond in my mouth, so I'm about to hear that. Next week we'll be right back here in these exact same seats. And we will be talking about how to have the best possible winter experience using the Danish mindset of Higgia. And I probably didn't pronounce that right, but that's how we're saying it. And if you haven't already, do subscribe to the weekly friend letter that we're sending out on Sundays. We're having great conversations on all topics, high and low, and it's really a lot of fun. So we'll have to see you there. Well, we will see you guys next week. Maybe even still with our tiny little cups. Cheers guys. Cheers. Bye. Can I have a refill? Yes. Thank you. Did you put vodka in this, Will? Um, yeah. Perfect.