Christian’s Journals

December 31, 2025

The Christmas Season

December has been quite an exciting month! On the first weekend we had a rotary organized trip and went all around Stockholm. Some of the things we did were go to the abba museum, went to a christmas market in gamla stan, went to a christmas market in Skansen. This was great because we were able to see other exchange students we hadn't seen since inbound camp. There were actually a few new ones that we met as well! In December I also took a trip to Åland. Åland is an autonomous demilitarized region of Finland. What people do is they drive to the dock (was about four hours by bus for us) then hop on the ferry. The big reason that people do this is because there is a tax free store on the ferry. In Sweden the Tax on alcohol is quite high so people do this to avoid paying that tax. They take the ferry out to Åland then come back without even getting off. I ended up buying a Ralph Lauren cologne that was on a big discount. Once we got back we took the bus to strängäns then drove home. During the Christmas Season I was also very lucky to be able to photograph Lucia. Since it's so dark in the winter in Sweden Lucia is looked forward to and acts as a sort of light in the darkness of winter. All the tickets, especially at Domkyrka (cathedral) were sold out very early. Fortunately my host mom was able to ask one of her friends who is in the choir and I was able to get in as a  photographer. What I love about having a camera is it allows you to get places and do things you might not have been able to do otherwise. I've included a few of my favorite photos on the left. 

I've also been able to go to Stockholm a few times! We had the last Swedish lesson in Stockholm so it was great to see a big group of the Stockholm people at the same time. Afterwards we went out in the city and saw some of the light shows that were around the city including the one on city hall. Before Christmas I went back to Stockholm with a school friend to buy some Christmas gifts. We ended up going up to see the sunset over the city and it was very beautiful. Since it's the middle of winter the sun ended up setting around 3:15. Speaking of the sun, during the entire month of December Stockholm ended up getting around 30 minutes of direct sunlight. 

In Sweden All the Christmas celebrations take place on the 24th. Things kick off around lunch with a julbord and lots of traditional food. Then its followed with fika and later in the afternoon watching a traditional show called "Kalle Anka och hans vänner önskar God Jul" which translates to "Donald Duck and his friends wish you Merry Christmas". Its a collection of short Disney films that are shown every year at 3pm and the tradition has been going on since 1960. After Kalle Anka we did a Secret Santa and did a gift exchange. Since all of this was celebrated on the 24th I was then able to go to Stockholm on the 25th and celebrate with a few of the other exchange students. We ate pizza, did our own Secret Santa, then walked around the city a bit. It was great to be able to have a little taste of home and celebrate with people who were in the same situation and understood how we felt.

On New Year's Eve I didn't have any plans so I was fortunate to be invited to hang out with one of the other exchange students' families! At lunchtime we all went to a lake and ate hotdogs and socialized. After that we all went to the sauna. We then went back and forth between jumping in the frozen lake and warming up in the sauna. We then went home to get ready for the party (read the January journal to hear more).

In conclusion, December has been an amazing month! It's been awesome to experience the Christmas season from a new perspective that would have never been possible without my amazing host families, my Rotary club, and Rotary International!