Exactly one day per year I am awakened early in the morning by the sound of my children coming into my bedroom singing a Swedish song and bringing me coffee or tea and cookies in bed. It is sweet on so many levels. Actually, it probably has only happened to me three times - the previous three years. The other years, when the kids were younger, I was needed to help them carry the tray of hot drinks and cookies into the bedroom to wake my husband.

This is what we do on December 13 - Santa Lucia day. Because of the Scandinavian blood that courses through our veins, we can’t help but carry on the tradition. The oldest girl in the family is Santa Lucia, and she wears a wreath of candles on her head, bringing the light and feeding the hungry. Being in the Southern Hemisphere, where December is in summer and it gets light earlier than we wake up, the effect is less dramatic than it would be on a cold and dark Northern Hemisphere morning. But alas, tradition is tradition, and we carry it on.

Holding tightly to family traditions is important to me. Possibly more important than is practical. In this fast-paced time when the end of the school year, school plays, class camps, hayfever, and Christmas all collide, there’s a certain magic in sitting on the bed together early in the morning eating cookies for breakfast. Somehow though we have managed to keep this family tradition from falling over the precipice of ‘just one more thing.’

This year there’s a lovely Norwegian family visiting our school for a couple of terms. Our two families joined together to share Santa Lucia with the entire school, dressing up and going in procession to sing to each class and to bring them lussekatter and pepparkakkor. Such fun!

I even wore the crown for a bit just for fun.  

P.S.- I have just found the most beautiful Santa Lucia video by Jonna Jinton that delights my heart.  Check it out here... https://youtu.be/34xgG2q8KMQ