Level-up your festive season: Go Swedish!

A gentle Christmas pivot

Swedish Christmases are recognizably rich, celebratory and abundant – and even come with some familiar flavors – but are distinctive enough to be refreshing.

Just like the Julbord, or ‘Christmas table,’ being planned at Stockholm Stadshotell. (Jul = ‘Yule’, got it?) It’s the ultimate Swedish Christmas menu: a no-holds-barred feast of full-flavored classics, for four weeks from November 25.

It’s all courtesy of Jesper Karlsson, formerly head chef at Fäviken, a once-stellar restaurant in a remote part of Sweden which epitomized the country’s take on new Nordic cuisine. When it closed, in 2019, it had been included in The World’s 50 Best Restaurants for five consecutive years, and was named one of the top ten restaurants in the world by the Zagat guide, in 2013.

Flavors of the Swedish wilderness

For 2026, Chef Karlsson’s Julbord brings back the flavors of Jämtland, Fävekin’s wilderness home. It starts with cured salmon and herring, alongside vendace roe (a prized, bright orange caviar), then follows up with Christmas ham and a creamy, layered potato and sprat gratin called Jansson's Temptation.

Entrées get a little wilder: cured elk tongue, wild boar, saddle of deer, red deer sausage, elk meatballs and roe deer. All a world apart from the usual Christmas staples, yet nothing so alien that it feels like an obscure culinary challenge.

…and Donald Duck

Consider a few other Swedish Jul traditions too. There are Christmas markets to visit, candlelit processions, and–this feels strangely familiar–a 3pm Christmas Eve ritual that sees families gather round the TV to watch a Donald Duck festive special that first aired in 1959.

All unmistakably Christmassy, but just a little bit different.

Julbord at Matsalen, Stockholm Stadshotell, runs November 25 to December 20, 2026 and costs SEK 2,300// $230 per person.

Wednesdays and Thursdays: dinner from 6pm
Fridays and Saturdays: lunch from 12pm and dinner from 6pm
Sundays: lunch from 12pm