Sweden's queen of crime fiction, Camilla Läckberg, likes to provoke. On December 4, 2022, on her Instagram account (320,000 followers), the writer and mother of four put her foot down. "Lucia [Saint Lucia, celebrated on December 13], Christmas, yes all these fucking holidays cause a huge amount of stress for women," she observed, claiming herself to "feel the pressure, as a woman and a mother, not only to provide, but to over-provide." She recalled the incident that earned her a wave of criticism a few years ago when she had the misfortune of posting a photo of her daughter in a crumpled white Saint Lucia dress: Couldn't she iron?
In Swedish, there's a word for this state of tension caused by the holidays: It's called julstress. "The key" to escaping it, said Läckberg, is to do "well enough" without aiming for "perfection." You also have to choose your battles: "Never, never," for example, would she let an elf move into her home – a reference to the latest trend that's giving parents anxiety. From December 1 to December 24, they're meant to imagine the daily pranks of an invisible elf residing behind a tiny door fixed to their wall.
In Sweden, celebrations start at the beginning of December and continue right through to Christmas Eve, following a well-established ritual. Officially, the festivities kick off on the first Sunday of Advent, when the stars shine in the windows, the first of four Advent candles are lit and a bottle of glögg (mulled wine) is opened. The countdown begins.
To avoid "Christmas stress," Malmö resident Kristina Ekberg, a psychiatrist and mother of two daughters aged 13 and 15, gets organized. She looks weeks in advance for small gifts or activity ideas for the "Christmas treasure hunt" she concocts every year for her daughters, who find a clue every morning when they wake up. "I grew up with this tradition, but in the 1970s and 1980s, we only received a package on Sundays," she said. At the end of November, she also prepares the ginger dough that will be used to make pepparkakor, the little tree-, heart- or pig-shaped cookies that Swedes enjoy on every occasion during the last month of the year.
For Helena Lindstedt, an IKEA employee and mother of a 14-year-old daughter, preparations also start early. She and her daughter hunt out the best Christmas calendar. "When she was little, I used to do it myself. I bought barrettes, stickers, pralines… But in recent years, calendars from the big beauty brands have become very popular with teenagers," said Lindstedt. You have to get in early: "Some YouTubers rate them as early as September, and the best ones are sold out within minutes." Their price: between 1,500 and 2,000 kroner (€130 and €175), bearing in mind that, on average, Swedes spent €570 per person on Christmas in 2022 (of which 57% went to gifts), according to a survey by Nordea Bank.
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