Swedish Christmas Food 2026: The Julbord, Treats and Where to Eat Them in Stockholm

Five to Seven Rounds

A julbord is eaten in five to seven buffet courses, and the first three are usually fish. You go back to the table once per round, which keeps the meal long and orderly. The table below shows the rounds in the order Swedes eat them, from the first herring plate to the dessert table.

Christmas Eve Is the Main Day

Swedes celebrate on 24 December, not the 25th. The julbord is eaten at home, and the gifts come out the same day. Restaurants, hotels and boats serve their own julbord in the weeks before, mostly from late November to 23 December.

Julskinka and Dopp i Grytan

The centrepiece of the julbord is the julskinka, the Christmas ham. It is boiled or broiled and finished with a glaze of egg, breadcrumbs and mustard, then presented whole and sliced. It is eaten cold, usually with mustard on the side.

Dopp i grytan means dip in the pot: bread is dipped in the stock the ham was cooked in.

Herring, Gravlax and Lutfisk

Herring opens the meal. Several pickled varieties arrive with sour cream and chives. Gravlax is raw salmon cured in salt, sugar and dill.

Lutfisk is lyed stockfish, and many families now eat it as a separate dinner near Christmas Eve instead of putting it on the julbord.

Meatballs, Prinskorv and Janssons Frestelse

The warm round brings köttbullar, the small Swedish meatballs, and prinskorv, small Christmas sausages. Janssons frestelse is a baked gratin of potatoes, onions, pickled sprats and cream. All three are on the buffet on the Archipelago Christmas Buffet Lunch Cruise.

Outside the season you meet several of these plates on Swedish dishes on a Stockholm food tour.

Plant-Based Julbord

Today's julbord increasingly has plant-based options, including vegetarian meatballs and a plant-based Christmas ham, so guests who skip meat get more than herring and potatoes. Ask for the vegetarian julbord when you book a sitting.

Rice Pudding and Ris à la Malta

Rice pudding closes the julbord. The best-known version is Ris à la Malta, a vanilla rice pudding folded with whipped cream and served with orange slices. An almond is hidden inside, and whoever finds it wins a small prize.

In some versions of the tradition the finder is said to be the next to marry.

Knäck and Ischoklad

Homemade sweets fill bowls around the table. Knäck is Swedish Christmas toffee made from cream, sugar, golden syrup and butter, often with chopped almonds. Ischoklad is melt-in-the-mouth chocolate set in small foil cups.

Both are simple to make and appear on almost every Swedish Christmas sweet table.

Lussekatter, Saffransbulle and Lucia

Lussekatter are saffron buns shaped into an S and studded with raisins. They are eaten especially around Lucia on 13 December, when candlelit processions move through Stockholm. In December bakeries also sell the saffransbulle, a richer almond-filled saffron bun that replaces the cinnamon bun as the go-to fika bun.

You taste saffron buns on the Christmas food walk.

Pepparkakor and the Gingerbread Houses at ArkDes

Pepparkakor are thin ginger biscuits spiced with cloves, cinnamon and cardamom, traditionally cut as hearts, pigs, women and men. Families bake houses from them before Christmas. ArkDes, the national centre for architecture and design in Stockholm, holds a Gingerbread House competition and exhibition from 27 November to 10 January.

Glögg and pepparkakor are also sold together at the Christmas markets.

Glögg

Glögg is mulled wine spiced with cloves, cinnamon, cardamom and ginger. It is served with almonds and raisins on top, alongside gingerbread and saffron buns. Alcohol-free glögg is included on the lights, market and tastings walk and on the winter cruise with a tasting board.

Julmust, Julöl and Snaps

Julmust is an alcohol-free soft drink that tastes like a cross between cola and root beer, first made in 1910. It accounts for about 50 percent of December soft drink volume in Sweden, and Coca-Cola reportedly loses up to 50 percent of its December sales to it. At the julbord adults also pour julöl, a dark seasonal beer, and snaps.

Where to Buy Glögg

Supermarkets sell alcohol-free glögg and spice mixes. Alcoholic glögg is sold only at Systembolaget, the state alcohol retailer. Systembolaget is closed 24, 25 and 26 December and open until 15:00 on 31 December, so buy your bottles before Christmas Eve.

Julbord Dates and Prices

The table compares the julbord options with published dates and prices, from a buffet served on a historic boat to hotel tables and a classic Djurgården restaurant. The cruise price is the 2026 card price, and the restaurant prices come from their own booking pages.

Book Ahead and Mind 23 December

The julbord season runs from late November to 23 December, and most restaurants stop after that date because Swedes eat at home on Christmas Eve. Grand Hôtel is an exception and serves through 24 to 26 December, though no price for those dates is published. Hasselbacken on Djurgården is closed for renovation and has no julbord this season.

Grand Hôtel offers free cancellation up to 48 hours before your sitting, which makes booking early low risk. Outside the season, the Stockholm food tours compared on this site run all year.

Skansen Christmas Market Dates

Skansen has run its Christmas market since 1903, when it began as a charity-bazaar-style market. The 2026 market runs Friday to Sunday on the four weekends before Christmas, 27 November to 20 December. The table shows each weekend and the opening hours for Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

What to Eat at Skansen

The market stalls sell waffles, glögg and roasted almonds, alongside sweets, handicrafts, home-made candles and Christmas gifts among the old farmsteads. Children aged 0-15 enter Skansen free, so a family only pays for the adults. The official day ticket is the Skansen Christmas Market Entry Ticket at $33, sold by Skansen itself, and food and stall purchases cost extra.

On Christmas Eve Skansen is open 10:00-14:00.

Getting to Skansen

Tram 7 runs from T-Centralen to Djurgården and bus 67 runs from Odenplan to Skansen. Ferry line 82 runs from Slussen via Skeppsholmen to Djurgården, and the stop is about 400 m from Skansen. From Djurgårdsbron the walk is about 950 m, roughly 10 minutes.

The address is Djurgårdsslätten 49-51, 115 21 Stockholm.

Stortorget, Kungsträdgården and the Lights

The Old Town market on Stortorget sells straw Christmas goats, wooden ornaments, paper Advent stars and wreaths, with glögg and pepparkakor to drink and eat. The Christmas food walk starts at the Nobel Prize Museum on that square. In the city centre, the Stockholmsjul lights switch on in Kungsträdgården on 14 November at 4:30 pm, and more than 40 streets and squares in central Stockholm stay lit until 16 January. There is a free outdoor rink at Kungsträdgården.

Short Hours and Early Dark

Many venues keep limited hours on 24, 25 and 26 December, so plan restaurant meals for the days before. The dark matters too. The sun sets as early as 2:48 pm on 16 December, and 21 December gives only 6 hours 8 minutes of daylight.

A lunch julbord or the 12:00 cruise puts your Christmas meal in daylight.

Plan Around the Calendar

Julbord sittings at Grand Hôtel Verandan run at 12:00, 15:30 and 19:30, and the earliest sitting gives you the most light. Systembolaget closes 24, 25 and 26 December, so buy glögg and snaps before Christmas Eve. The markets keep running through the dark: Skansen trades until 20 December and the city lights stay on until 16 January.