Juletræ

That time we got a coach to the forest, a tractor to the trees, grabbed a saw and chopped down our own juletræ (Christmas tree).

Last year (2019) was our third Christmas in Denmark but the first where we invested in a Christmas tree.

Due to the fact we always spent around three weeks in the U.K. during December/January and we didn’t take our Christmas decorations to Denmark, we could never justify spending money on a tree plus accessories for such a short amount of time. But last year we were invited by some friends to this very Danish experience and we couldn’t resist. We also had in the back of our minds that 2019 might be our last Christmas in Copenhagen.

So during the first weekend of December, we got up early to join our friends on a coach from Frederiksberg, which was organised by Naturvejlederne, that took us out to Herstedhøje Naturcenter in Albertslund.

Inside the nature centre, the children got to take part in nature-inspired crafts like making up bird feed, designing wooden Christmas decorations and making candle holders from wood, clay and lots of leaves, pine cones and twigs.

                          

Outside, there were tents to eat food. And what we ate was….!

There were rows of ducks and pheasants left on tables for children to pluck. We then cooked the meat and ate it.

                         

Later came a demonstration on how to skin a deer. I won’t include photos here for those who are squeamish. But it was done in a very no-nonsense, Danish way and the children all got to help. Lydia, aged 4 at the time wasn’t phased in the slightest. Sofia was asleep in the pram for it all.

It was æbleskiver for desert – a Danish Christmas snack which are like pancake balls and often had with sugar (sukker) and jam (syltetøj). They don’t have any apples in them, despite the word æble in the description.

After this, it was time to go and find our juletræ. 

We got a tractor ride to take us to where all the juletræer were planted, then chose a saw and went hunting for the perfect tree. We then chopped it down ourselves before carrying it back to the tractor, where it was wrapped for us to take home.

   

So that journey home included the tractor ride, the coach back to Frederiksberg, a metro from Frederiksberg to Poul Henningsen Plads in Østerbro and then a cargo bike ride to our apartment – with a pram, 18-month and 4 year old in tow!

Once we got it back to our apartment, we realised we had no tree stand to put it in, on top of the non existent lights and decorations. But we eventually gave our tree a home, despite it being sparsely decorated with supermarket baubles. Definitely a juletræ experience we’ll never forget.