A Foreign Student’s Guide to the Holidays in Iceland
Photos: Lárus Sigurðarson
While the holiday season is typically spent gathered together with friends and loved ones, that sort of thing may be difficult this year. Especially for international students who are staying in Iceland, the holiday blues can hit particularly hard. Still, that shouldn’t stop you from getting into the festive spirit, and believe me when I say that Iceland does “festive” like nowhere else on earth. Here are just a few ideas to get you started.
Buy a bunch of candy
Peace is fine, goodwill is nice, but the best part about the holidays is unequivocally the sweets. Most Icelanders celebrate Christmas by purchasing a giant tin of Quality Street candy or a giant box of Nói Síríus chocolates. Those who really know how to celebrate buy both and finish them by New Year’s, which I’m sure their dentists love.
Bake a bunch of sweets
This one is related to the last idea, but this is geared more towards those who have not only the motivation to do stuff in the kitchen, but the drive to challenge themselves. Icelandic sweets are plentiful around the holiday season, and many of them require expert levels of baking skills (looking at you, sörur). One sweet that isn’t particularly difficult to make is lakkrístoppar, a licorice meringue that melts in your mouth. As long as you have a mixer, this tasty confection is relatively easy to make. Mixing the eggs to the desired consistency by hand is a good way to kill your arm.
Here’s a recipe:
3 egg whites
200 g brown sugar
150 g licorice kurl (you can find bags of it at any grocery store or candy shop in Iceland)
150 g milk chocolate drops (I recommend Nói Síríus brand)
Whisk the egg whites and brown sugar into a soft and viscous meringue. Gently mix the licorice kurl and milk chocolate into the meringue. Shape meringue into ovals on a baking sheet and bake at 140°C for 20 minutes.
Go downtown
But baby, it’s COVID outside! Hear me out here: mask up, wash your hands really well, and keep at least two metres apart from one another. All the lights downtown are worth taking the necessary precautions. The Yule Cat alone is a sight for sore eyes, and that’s not even the most impressive structure. Check out the lights on Olís petrol station, which they do every year. I’m pretty sure you can see that thing from space when it’s lit up.
Myndir / Lárus Sigurðarson
If you’re looking for an excuse to walk around some more, the City of Reykjavík is hosting a scavenger hunt wherein images of the Yule Lads will be projected onto various buildings downtown. For those who like to win prizes, you can download an app and answer trivia questions about the Yule Lads for a chance to win big. Even if you don’t play the game, it’s worth walking around and keeping an eye out for these mischievous creatures. This year, the city will be introducing a new creature to the pantheon of Yule Lads. It all begins on December 3rd. Speaking of the Yule Lads...
Read up on the lore
Icelanders are crazy about Christmas. That’s not an opinion, it’s an objective fact. So naturally, they have a massive amount of lore tied up in their Christmas traditions. For example, there is not only one Santa who comes to town on one day, but 13 Santas who come to town one by one in the days leading up to Christmas Eve. Some of them are benevolent gift-givers who leave candy in the shoes of good children, but others are mischief makers who, whether intentionally or not, scare children and make huge messes. Then, of course, there is Grýla and her giant cat, who come down to snatch the kids who aren’t wearing new clothes, and boil them for breakfast.
Whether these traditions have a factual basis or are simply a means to tease kids into obedience after overdosing on sugar, we may never know. But one thing is certain: it’s a lot of fun to read about.
Get in touch with Pauline McCarthy
While most cultural events have been cancelled due to the pandemic, the folks at the Society of New Icelanders have been trying to come up with a way to hold this year's Festival of Nations - West Iceland (Þjóðahátíð Vesturlands).
They finally got approval to hold a virtual festival. People are encouraged to send in videos of them making a dish or performing a song or dance from their country. Those who send in recipe videos are asked to send in a text recipe with the video.
If you want to participate, hurry up and contact Pauline. The society wants to make sure a lot of countries are represented. For this reason, they only want one recipe video from each country. Potential participants can send Pauline a message on Facebook, or send an email to societyofnewicelanders@gmail.com
For those who only want to spectate, the festival will be entirely online. Once the project is ready, Pauline will post it on YouTube and link it to Facebook.
These are just a few of the fun things that you can do to make your holiday season a happy one. We may be living in uncertain and unprecedented times, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t have a safe, fun, happy holiday in a country that knows how to have a cool Yule.