TIME TO LOOT THE TREE!
by Sienna Wildfield

St. Knut’s Day is fast approaching (Tuesday), which means it’s time to let the kids loot the Christmas Tree! Traditionally in Sweden, Christmas Trees might have been decorated with edible decorations, including gingerbread ornaments, candy canes, crackers and sweets. On St. Knut’s Day (the 13th day of January), kids were allowed to loot the tree and munch on all the edible (albeit stale) ornaments. In our case, the only sweet we have left hanging on our tree is one lonely candy cane.

I’m fond of this holiday not because I’m of Swedish descent (because I’m not), but because it gives me a cultural nudge to take down my tree, otherwise “O Tannenbaum” would be left standing through Valentine’s Day! So on Tuesday our daughter gets to gorge on ONE WHOLE candy cane!

But then what do we do with our Christmas Tree once we’ve taken down the ornaments? I like Kara’s idea… her family takes their tree outside in the yard and props it up in the snow. Then she and her twin boys decorate the tree with stale bread, popcorn, birdseed pine cones and cranberries, thus creating a holiday tree for the birds and other wildlife. Clever!

Originally published 2008