PHOTO ALERT: This post has ton of Holiday photos, don’t look if you don’t want to feel the spirit of Christmas.

Ekenäs Castle in Linköping, Sweden

You may have heard the name Ekenäs before, but do not confuse the IKEA furniture named Ekenäs with the real deal. The Ekenäs Castle (Ekenäs slott in Swedish) is one of the best preserved renaissance castles in Sweden with its three impressive shingled towers and annual jousting tournament and Medieval festival where you can still feel like in the medieval times. The Ekenäs castle is located outside city of Linköping in Östergötland, in South-East Sweden, only 20 minute drive from our home.

The Ekenäs castle is a privately owned castle, but visitors are welcome year-round, however, the castle itself is only open during the summer and the guided tours are only held during the summer visiting hours.

Christmas market at Ekenäs Castle

During Christmas time, the Ekenäs castle hosts a Christmas market, and bus-loads of people from all around Sweden gather to shop for Holiday foods, handmade Christmas gifts and drink hot mulled wine, glögg, and enjoy Christmas music and horse rides. There is around 11 dollar entrance fee to get to the Christmas market (children are free), but it is so worth it. This year the snow hadn’t come yet, and the weather was nice and crisp for walking around the castle grounds and shopping for artisan products and eating the Holiday treats.

Christmas Market Foods

Speaking of the holiday treats, let’s get down to the Holiday foods found at the market right on the start. You typically find roasted nuts, preserves and jelly and assortments of holiday candy like fudge in every Christmas market. The Swedish Christmas markets are bountiful in their food assortments and in addition you can find fresh artisan bread, smoked salmon, sausages and ham, and mustard to accompany your Holiday ham. In addition to the best fudge you’ve ever had you can find handmade peppermint sticks, marzipan and licorice.

The best about all this food: you will get to try it all. All food vendors give out food samples and you can get teased by these amazing flavors and then stuff your shopping bags with the Holiday treats.

In addition to the food vendors who were selling their goods at the booths set up in the castle barn, they had several different locations for coffee and cake, or for other lunch options like fish hamburgers or hot dogs. Scandinavian Christmas isn’t complete without mulled wine, glögg, and you can buy that too in several flavors (like chocolate, pear, berries and whiskey). In the castle cellar you can get glögg tasting and try the different glöggs with saffron biscotti.

Christmas Market Goods

There are some handmade craft markets where I feel shame for the sellers for the products they sell… and then there are European craft markets. You could find gifts for everyone in your list at the Ekenäs Christmas market. There were of course plenty of traditional Scandinavian Christmas ornaments made out of straw and elves and trolls in all shape and material. The quality of the handcrafted cutting boards or fruit bowls was amazing, and the wooden toys were still made like decades ago. Lamb skins and slippers made out of felt, knitted socks and gloves and crocheted scarves. And the gorgeous candles made in unbelievable shapes. Booth after booth handmade artisan products.

The craft booths were set inside a dark barn or inside the castle’s dark interiors, where there was no electricity and the light was set up with the help of generators. You really felt like you were transported back in time when shopping in the dark.

Christmas in Swedish Countryside

If the foods and the goods didn’t get you hooked yet – the ambiance in the castle and the beauty of Swedish countryside does. You can smell the burning wood in the fire pits mixed with the scent of roasted nuts while you watch children horseback riding and listen to live Christmas music. The Christmas market in the countryside is equally a romantic Saturday date destination as well a family attraction. Simply said – you can’t help but feel the spirit of Scandinavian Christmas.

Santa is already in town

What we learned this year – Linköping has it’s own Santa. We saw this same white bearded Santa playing music in every single Christmas market we visited this year, and at the mall and the town center. I literally felt the past 6 weeks that this IS the real Santa and he just keeps following us.

This is just one part of Scandinavian Christmas magic, I hope you visit us the next year and come and see it yourself.

Christmas Markets in Sweden

The best about Swedish Christmas markets: you don’t have to go far to find one. Most communities here in Sweden have their own Christmas market, and they are held in castles, schools, churches and even in barns in the countryside. In fact, my favorite ones are the ones held in the countryside inside the red barns and full of handmade goodies and ideas for crafts and DIY gifts. The Christmas markets start early in November, and we have been in a different Christmas market each weekend. Some are held only for a few days, and what we learned pretty fast, the same merchants travel around the country selling their products in various Christmas markets. So if you forgot to buy the specialty mustard for your Holiday ham, or want more of the fresh bread, the chances are you will find the same or something very similar again the next weekend from a different Christmas market.

Our first Christmas market this winter was Hantverksgården in Linköping, where all of these photos are from. We didn’t have snow yet, but as I am typing this we have a around a foot of fresh snow outside. Christmas time in Sweden is pretty magical, and it’s a great time of the year to come for a visit.

Hantverksgården in Ledberg, Linköping Sweden

Enjoy a virtual tour of the Hantverksgården, and share in the comments what’s your local favorite thing to do during the Holidays in your corner of the world. Often we find gems right around the corner, if we just want to look.

I love how the market welcomes you and the outside is almost prettier than the inside!

Christmas DIY Ideas from Sweden

I feel like I have a new hobby: it’s scouting for different Christmas markets every weekend. The first Christmas markets opened here in Sweden already three weeks ago, and it’s been market after market ever since. It’s been quite inspiring more than anything else. I love handmade things.. but feel like I should be making them myself, and not buying them. So the good news is that kids and I finally put the new sewing machine in good use, and have been making our own Christmas gifts and decorations. The Christmas markets have been great for inspiration, and they have really sparked the craft side of us. I might share some of the things we have been making – after Christmas – but here is some crafty inspiration for you too from the Swedish Christmas markets.

It’s dark and cold… Christmas decorating is all about the candles and making them pretty. We also light up a candle for each advent, each week in December, leading to Christmas, so seeing the 4-candle settings is pretty common here.

If you want a better idea how to make these decorated candles… here are some pictures of homemade craft supplies like dried apples and limes.

Christmas Pillows

Pillows are probably the easiest thing to make if you want to start sewing. Or I’m not going to tell anyone if you cheat and buy a store-bought pillow and use some of these pillow DIY-tricks to give a handmade touch to your pillows.

If you can do needle point – do a Holiday inspired text on a pillow to instantly make it a cuddly Holiday decoration or a gift. The next one is even easier… wrap a solid-colored pillow like a gift with some ribbon and you have a “Christmas gift” pillow.

Gifts from Kitchen

Another gift idea anyone can do – a recipe in a bottle or jar. Measure + add a lid on it and create a pretty card with the recipe and the instructions. If recipe is too much – hot cocoa and marshmallows always works too. The entire idea here is that you are making something with love. It doesn’t have to be rocket science nor take days for you to make it.

Read all of the Holiday Gift Guide posts and stay tuned for more from all of our writers.

This post is brought to you by Breville.

Secrets to super easy Holiday Entertaining

I like big parties and I can not lie: sometimes I tend to overdo it, and when I do, I am stressed, overwhelmed and hope that people would just leave!
There I said it. Isn’t it horrible?

The best parties are the ones where I call my husband at lunch time “hey, invite everyone over, let’s have a little party tonight.” Of course it’s not the most polite way to invite guests over, but with the live-in-the-moment invitations also come zero expectations of a party well-planned and the emphasis is always on having fun, like ANY party should be. Whether you are hosting a very well planned party, or an impromptu Holiday soiree, read these tips how to make it a success with a very little effort. For example I created this quick Holiday afternoon coffee pictured in an hour, including the baking time.

1. Know your party tip resources.
Also known as “join Pinterest”. I share everything I love on Pinterest, and find everything needed for hosting great parties. I have one board for party food and cocktails, another one where there are several of my friends too collecting the best cocktails, another one for party decorating, and one just for table settings. When I want to host a party – I typically immediately know which board to go to get the recipes or ideas needed. If you like it old school – have a binder with recipe and idea cutouts from your favorite magazines, or have a well-stocked cookbook library.

2. Learn to use what you have.
Hosting parties can be expensive, especially if you include the decorating as well. Learn to use what you have in hand, and learn to make easy centerpieces, like using edible things as part of the decorating (candy in bowls, fruit on a tray..). Choose a theme or color scheme and stick to it, and making it pretty in 15 minutes or less is easy.

For my afternoon coffee I used two large candle holders as my centerpiece but instead of candles I used Christmas ornaments inside them to give it a quick festive look. I chose blue, white and silver as my decorating colors and mixed old and new dishes that fit the color scheme. It’s OK to mix modern design and vintage finds!

3. Have a well-stocked kitchen.
While yes.. learn to use what you have, but also have a well-stocked kitchen and know how to use what you have. Let’s say you never use a specific kitchen gadget you have, but choose a recipe for your party that requires using the gadget, chances are you will need extra time just to learn to use the gadget. I recommend having simple white dinnerware and serving dishes that you can use in any themed party and easily mix with colors. I don’t believe in disposable plates or cups, but I do stock different colored paper napkins to easily set a colorful table. Entertaining is so much easier when you have the basics.

4. Have a well-stocked pantry
You probably have a few favorite party recipes, or have favorite Holiday time treats you like to offer for guests? Keep ingredients stocked for the entire Holiday season so you don’t have to worry about the basics when you plan your party. My basics during the Holidays are gingerbread cookies, chocolate pralines, assorted nuts and mulled wine, or what we call glögi in Finland, also ready to be warmed up and kept in a thermos for guests. I typically like keeping the spiced wine in the thermos when entertaining and brew the coffee nice and fresh. In addition you can never go wrong with crackers & cheese, and having a few puffy pastry sheets in the freezer for fast treats like the Toblerone Pastries.

5. Add music.
Holiday music has a mysterious way to put anyone into Holiday cheer, make sure you have some Holiday music that makes everyone in your party feel cheery whether it’s smooth Holiday jazz, or jingle bells, add some music to your party. To get you started… check out the Skimbaco Holiday Mix on Spotify.

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I’ve always loved blue Holiday décor and love these pictures by Danish Anders Schønnemann. You can really bring the season in your home with a few simple decorations and elements.

I recognized the paper ornaments in these pictures, they are made by Rie Elise Larsen.

Beautiful, serene, white, Scandinavian.
I’m inspired by these photos by Louise Svensson & Jonny Lindh.

Check out Land’s End’s Friends & Family sale and get 30% off everything. The sale ends on Monday, November 15 so hurry up! Some of our favorite picks for the Holidays are the cable knit stocking and the personalized table clothe & napkins, and the deer pillow. And of course; how could we forget about their peppermint cookies and the ear muffs are a must this winter!

I love all of the invitation only sale sites – as you already probably know.

Check out HauteLook this week, they have a great A&B Home sale that ends on Thursday morning. So many great products for amazing sale prices.

The framed rustic pictures are $29, Hexagon mirror $39.99, crystal candle holders starting at $7.99 and the ball lamps at $55 – and this is just a small look what they have!

The winter storm is still visiting most of you across the nation, and it sure is cold here in New York. In fact so cold that today we decided to skip skiing, and stay home and watch Olympics instead. And what’s more romantic than cuddle up on the couch with your Valentine..?

Some ideas how to create a romantic fireside picnic or cozy up in the front of TV to watch the Olympics.

Stay Warm
Plaid blanket brings on the Canadian log house charm, and makes a perfect indoor picnic blanket on the floor. The ones pictured: top one from Roots, the one in the box from The Scottish Weaver. Felt slippers by Pia Wallen keep your toes warm.

Bring Snacks
Whether it’s champagne and strawberries or hot cocoa and marshmallows, you will need some snacks. The tea kettle is by OXO from Crate and Barrel and the cute twig forks are from 3 Events.

Lit up the Candles
Light up the fireplace – or if your don’t have fun, fill the room with candles. I also love lanterns to bring the cozy log cabin feel into my living room. The one pictured is from Pottery Barn – and they look great indoors during winter and outdoors during summer.