Happy Holidays

"Gleðileg Jól" is an Icelandic greeting which is almost exclusively used in December. That's all the help you get… but I think you can guess its meaning.

Here is ReykjavíkMag's guide to "Jól" in Iceland… follow it and you will assuredly have a most "gleðileg" time indeed. If you are not the Christmas type, we also take a look at the famous Icelandic New Year's celebrations.

On or before the first Sunday in December, Icelanders decorate their houses with all sorts of shiny things and pretty lights, but the all-important tree doesn't make an appearance until the 23rd. This is presumably because Mary and Joseph waited until then to decorate their tree.

It will come as not much of a surprise that people here do a lot of shopping at this festive time of year. People give and receive all sorts of gifts as you can imagine, but the absolute most popular gifts are books. With the long winter nights and the extraordinarily high price of literary products, this is indeed understandable. Virtually every other television advert at this time of year is plugging a newly released book that you "simply must own".

What might come as a surprise is that Icelandic Christmases are helped along by trolls. There are 13 Jólasveinar (Yuletide lads) who are descended from trolls and come down from the mountains one-by-one and leave gifts for good children in shoes left on window sills from the 12th onwards. Bad children risk receiving a potato, but even this is a blessing. Over the years, the lads have become more generous and much less terrifying.

Their mother and their house pet are rather different, though. Grýla, their troll mother, is famed for eating naughty children - which is very gruesome, but ultimately deserved, one might suppose. On the other hand, the Christmas Cat likes nothing more than eating poverty-stricken kids (or, more accurately, those who don't get any new clothes for Christmas). Let's hope that new socks are acceptable, otherwise I think Save the Children might be having words with said feline.

Now then, food and drink are rather important to the continued existence of life on earth - but they are also important for the successful celebrating of Yuletide. At this time of year you may like to try baking some cookies, not just because they are delicious, but because they are a Christmas tradition all of their own: most families will get together in early December and bake several different types including a special spiced variety, not unlike ginger snaps.

Forget turkey though. The Icelandic Christmas revolves around hangikjöt (smoked lamb), jólasíld (Christmas herring) and skata (rotting skate) - and a list of other delights almost as long as your arm.

The skate deserves special mention: it's a tradition that originated in the West Fjords. One must leave some skate to rot for three weeks, and then gather with friends to wolf it down with milk and Brennivín on the 23rd December. It has become common practice to meet in restaurants to avoid stinking out the family home. One friend told me how his cat hides in a cupboard on this day, because the fumes burn its sensitive little nose. Enough said.

If you are not Icelandic, and therefore not bound by this tradition, you may prefer to go to a restaurant and enjoy some other festive fare. Many of the best eateries offer a sumptuous Christmas buffet, where you can try all the delicacies without trying your bank manager. While many establishments (like Perlan for example) offer their buffet every evening, Vox restaurant at Hotel Nordica offers it every Sunday lunchtime and on the 26th and 31st December. In the evening they offer their renowned à la carte Christmas menu.

As far as drinking goes, there aren't many great Icelandic traditions. Jólaglögg is somewhat popular, but it's more or less a ripoff of German gluhwein. Wine and beer are of course popular too - but the main drink is the non-alcoholic jólaöl, or Christmas ale. It is a simple mixture of appelsín (a sort of orangeade) and maltextrakt, which I'm sure you can translate for yourself. It's rather nice, so maybe try it… but be forewarned: every family swears by a different ratio, so take advice, but don't treat it as gospel.

Now, I'm sure there's a tonne I'm missing here, but this topic could fill a book, so we must move on swiftly to avoid getting bogged down in metaphorical philosophical festive treacle. Let's move onto the most important bit: Christmas itself.

In accordance with the ancient Hebrew calendar, in which the new day officially starts at sunset, Iceland and several other European countries (notably Christmasland itself, Germany) celebrate most heartily on Christmas Eve evening. As bells toll all over the land at 18:00, the festivities are officially deemed to have begun.

A long meal is followed by the exchanging of gifts and a pleasant family-oriented evening. Christmas Day itself is mostly used for visiting friends and family and playing with new toys, of course.

With Jól officially over, there is little to do but remain festively cheery and await the New Year. The 31st of December should go as follows:

Have a good celebratory meal, maybe with family or friends, and then have, or go to, a party or gathering and get pleasantly (but not stupidly) drunk before midnight. At midnight you must go outside and observe the spectacle of thousands of fireworks exploding for miles in every direction. It is no exaggeration to describe Icelandic New Year's fireworks as possibly the best anywhere. It looks as though every home in every neighbourhood is sending sparks up into the night sky.

After the excitement, it is time to go to town. The experience could be likened to living out two Saturday nights in one: it will be messy and it will be fun. Why not take the opportunity to wear a different style of clothing from your normal attire and visit a different bunch of bars? Just a suggestion, but it could be fun. Failing that, just go with the flow and see where the night takes you.

I think that just about covers it for Xmas 101… so all that's left to say is "Gleðileg Jól og gott nýtt ár!"

Text by Alex Elliott