We may not have been able to light the candles on a Saint Lucia Braided Bread crown this year, but we did light real candles on the crown our daughter wore as she passed out the Lussekatter!
It was beautiful!
Santa Lucia
Night walks with a heavy step round yard and hearth,
As the sun departs from earth, shadows are brooding.
There in our dark house, walking with lit candles,
Santa Lucia, Santa Lucia!
(Every year we give our daughter a little nameday gift to celebrate this special feast of one of her patron saints. This year it was a Santa Lucia Mug!)
"Early in the morning of December 13th, the oldest daughter in the family in Sweden has the privilege of being the Lucia, wearing a long white gown sashed in red, with a wreath of lingonberry leaves on her hair. Candles - now usually run on batteries - are set into the wreath. Her sisters wear white gowns with tinsel in their hair and around their waists. Boys in the family wear tall pointed hats with stars on them. The "Starboys" traditionally are associated with the three wise men. The children awaken their parents and offer them coffee, saffron-flavored buns called Lussekatter and ginger snaps, called pepparkakor." - Lucia Morning in Sweden
Lussekatter recipe from Lucia Morning in Sweden
Santa Lucia, ora pro nobis!