5 odd and somewhat sinister Icelandic Christmas traditions

Throughout its millennium of near isolation from the rest of the world, Iceland developed some rather peculiar Christmas traditions that have very little to do with Christianity. Here are five Icelandic Christmas traditions that tend to surprise outsiders, ranging from mildly eccentric to genuinely baffling.

The gigantic Christmas Cat that eats people who don’t get new clothes

The Yule Cat (Jólakötturinn) is not cute. According to folklore, this enormous cat stalks homesteads at Christmas and devours anyone who fails to receive at least one new item of clothing. The story likely began as a way to pressure farm workers to finish autumn wool processing on time, but it survives today as a fully accepted seasonal menace. Children still grow up hearing about the cat, it appears on Christmas decorations and no one seriously questions why a carnivorous feline enforces textile-related moral discipline. It’s also the subject matter of one of the country’s best Christmas songs, below being performed by Björk.

There are 13 mischievous Yule Lads

Instead of one Santa Claus, Iceland has 13 Yule Lads, each arriving on consecutive nights before Christmas. Historically they were closer to trolls than gift-givers, known for stealing food, slamming doors, licking spoons, peeping through windows and generally behaving like a nuisance flat-share. Today they still leave small gifts in children’s shoes, but their names—like Sausage-Swiper and Door-Slammer—preserve their chaotic origins.

For one month a year, the entire country drinks the same soda

Every December, Iceland collectively agrees that Malt og Appelsín is the only acceptable soft drink. This mix of malty soda and orange soda is everywhere during Advent and Christmas, then almost completely disappears the rest of the year. People who would never touch it in July will drink liters of it in December, insisting it is essential to the holiday atmosphere. No one can quite explain why it tastes like Christmas, but everyone agrees that it does.

On December 23, people deliberately eat something that smells like death.

The night before Christmas Eve is Þorláksmessa and the traditional meal is fermented skate (skata). Skate has a high urea content and when fermented it releases ammonia so strong that the smell can linger in stairwells for days, much to the chagrin of non-skate eating neighbors. The taste is intense, the smell is worse and yet many Icelanders insist on eating it every year, often followed by strong spirits. Most acknowledged it to be unpleasant, which somehow makes it more important as a tradition.

Books are exchanged en masse, then everyone goes quiet

Iceland experiences the Christmas Book Flood (Jólabókaflóð), when most new books are released in the weeks before Christmas. Giving books on Christmas Eve is standard and the evening is often spent reading rather than socializing. This leads to the surreal but very real phenomenon of an entire country settling down with books at the same time. For a nation with a strong literary culture, it is considered the perfect holiday—calm, silent and slightly smug.