The Laboratory

The UK has once again gon Scandi-mad, with loads of articles about how to have a hygge  Christmas. One tradition we love is the feast of Lucia ( last featured in 2017 ) with candles and processions and Italian songs. Our friends at LondonSwedes had organised several Lucia services/concerts across the UK and all of them were sold out. This is from the London one: As you can see they have got the whole candle-headdress-fire-risk thing going on. Here's a hamster dressed up for Lucia: And finally here's friend of the Advent Calendar, Sweden's Princess Estelle and her brother Prince Oscar, with their official Christmas photo, alongside a similar photo of her mother and uncle, released yesterday on Lucia:

December 13th is the feast of St Lucy, or Santa Lucia as she is known in Europe. Her story involves her bringing light to the people hiding in the Roman catacombs, and especially in Scandinavia, she represents light in the long dark winters. A procession of maidens wearing wreaths with candles in proceeds through the church while the Santa Lucia song is sung. At our Christmas Party last year our friend Tim won the Santa quiz so had the prize of dressing up in a Santa Lucia costume. What a good sport!