Sweden’s Christmas feast is built around the julbord. It’s a buffet-style meal that families serve on Christmas Eve and many restaurants offer throughout December. You eat it in rounds with a fresh plate each time. Start with herring, move on to other fish, then cold cuts, hot dishes, and finally desserts and sweets. It’s simple once you know the flow, and it helps you taste a little of everything without getting overwhelmed. Here’s what you can expect at a Swedish Christmas buffet (julbord).
Glögg, Sweden’s version of mulled wine, usually starts the meal. People drink it hot from small cups and often add raisins and blanched almonds. Later, guests raise shots of snaps (such as aquavit) for toasts, and many choose beer or wine to go with the food.
For a non-alcoholic option, try julmust – a spiced, malty soft drink that Swedes mainly enjoy at Christmas and has been a holiday staple since 1910.
On the cold fish round you’ll meet pickled herring (sill) in a few flavors, plus salmon in different forms. Cured salmon (gravad lax) with a mild dill-mustard sauce is the classic. Some spreads also include smoked eel, especially in southern Sweden, but it’s not common throughout all of Sweden.
Christmas ham (julskinka) anchors the cold cuts and Swedes typically serve it sliced with strong mustard. You might also find liver pâté (leverpastej), brawn (sylta/pressylta), beetroot salad, and sometimes a selection of firm cheeses to go with crispbread (knäckebröd) and vörtbröd, a dark, malty Christmas loaf. These are the “plate builders” before you move to the warm dishes.
Warm foods are hearty and familiar. Meatballs (köttbullar) and small sausages (prinskorv) are near-universal. Janssons frestelse is the dish locals will nudge you to try: a creamy potato-and-onion casserole made with Swedish spiced brine sprats (confusingly labeled ansjovis in Swedish), not Mediterranean anchovies. It became a Christmastime staple during the 20th century.
You’ll also see sides that hint at older farm traditions, like brunkål (slow-braised brown cabbage, especially common in Skåne) and glazed ribs (revbensspjäll). Another old custom is dopp i grytan – dipping bread in the broth from boiling the ham. Fewer people do it now, but it survives on some tables and in a few buffets.
Lutfisk shows up more in stories than in buffets. It’s not as common nowadays. It’s dried whitefish reconstituted using lye, then rinsed and cooked until silky. Some love it; many pass. These days, most places serve it to order instead of laying it out on the julbord, though it’s still part of the Christmas tradition.
Desserts and fika-style sweets close things out. Rice porridge (risgrynsgröt) comes dusted with cinnamon and traditionally hides a single blanched almond – whoever finds it wins a small prize or, depending on the tradition, “will marry within the year”. The almond custom became common in Sweden in the late 1800s and is still going strong. A fluffier cousin, Ris à la Malta, mixes cooled rice pudding with whipped cream and vanilla.
Alongside that you’ll find gingersnap cookies (pepparkakor), saffron buns (lussekatter), brittle-style toffee (knäck), and cocoa-butter chocolates (ischoklad), a chocolate treat that melt quickly on the tongue. To drink with the food, restaurants often offer Christmas beer (julöl). Traditional svagdricka, a sweet, very low-alcohol malt drink, peaks at Christmas and Easter but is much rarer today.
A few practical tips help if you try a julbord in Stockholm. Start with small portions and stick to the order – fish before meats, hot food before sweets – so flavors don’t clash. Keep a fresh plate each round. If you don’t drink alcohol, you won’t be out of place; non-alcoholic beer is often really good nowadays and is getting more common at restaurants. And glögg comes in non-alcoholic versions, and julmust is everywhere in December.
If you’d like to try a julbord in Stockholm, see our guide to reliable venues and how to book: Best Julbord in Stockholm.
