It’s appropriate that I’m writing the entry about Santa Lucia Day two days after the holiday. That’s how it usually went with us. At the beginning of December, when we were hauling out the Advent calendars and planning how we would spend our holiday season, we would always have enthusiastic intentions to celebrate Santa Lucia Day. However, it would usually be two days after Santa Lucia Day that any of us would give it a second thought.
There were a few rare occasions when we actually pulled it off. Santa Lucia is celebrated in Sweden with a procession led by an older girl who dresses as the patron saint in a white dress and wearing a crown of evergreens with candles in it. Some families will celebrate the holiday by having the oldest daughter dress as Santa Lucia and deliver a cardamom flavored sweet roll to their neighbors.
The first time that we managed to remember this holiday, Emma was already about 9 and was our family’s designated Lucia. This did not bother Sarah who, at the time, did not speak to anyone who was bigger than she was. The visit to the neighbors by Santa Lucia is supposed to be done after nightfall, so the girls and I had time to bake the sweets in the afternoon after school. Instead of the traditional cardamom roll, we made a coffee cake. It was easier to make and I thought it might be more appealing to the American palate. Emma got all dressed up in her white dress and we constructed a crown for her from some artificial greens and Hanukkah candles.
We let her make the deliveries on her own, but watched from the window, trying to imagine the conversations she was having along the route. And, of course, each of our neighbors had a precious story to tell us later of their visit from Santa Lucia.
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