On all the high and cross-roads, you see sleighs filled with travelers.  One will contain a daughter married at a distance from home, who at this time of universal enjoyment wishes to visit the old hearth-side, The other contains a son, who comes from the University, or from the city where he is employed, to kiss his mother.  The soldier who all the year has borne in patience the severity of garrison duty, is satisfied with his profession, if he can at that season obtain a leave of absence for a few weeks.  The sailor returned from a distant voyage, looks anxiously at the sea and sky, and increases his zeal and activity, to be enabled to reach Sweden by Christmas.  The houses everywhere are open, and the table is always spread.  All is made scrupulously clean, for at this season, every housewife loves to display her order and carefulness.  The rich display damask and rich hangings.  The poor strew pine branches on the floor, and white curtains newly bleached, deck the windows.  You reach the family-hearth.  One of the servants takes your horse to the stable, another hangs your valise before the fire to dry it.  The mistress of the house, while dinner is being prepared, offers you a glass of brandy, or of beer prepared expressly for Christmas, and called JULAEL.  The young women bring you cakes prepared by themselves.  Your hands are shaken cordially, presents are made, it matters not whether trifling or rich, they are Christmas remembrances and a pledge of love.

In many of the peasants’ houses, all the shoes of the family are, as a sign of this union, placed side by side of each other.  In many also before and after meals, a hymn is sung.  Then when dinner is over, old men, women and children dance together.  Servants and masters mingle together, and even the mendicant is kindly received.  On that day the God of mercy descended to save indiscriminately the rich and the poor, and to teach the proud and the humble the brotherhood of the Gospel.  At this season of universal sympathy, even the animals are not forgotten, a larger ration of grain and hay is carried to the stable, and barley is strewn on the snow for the birds, who are then unable to glean in the fields, and who, delighted by this unexpected provender, in their cries seem to warble forth a Christmas hymn.  In some villages the little tomtegubbar or invisible genii, protecting the household, are yet remembered, and vases of milk are placed on the floor for them.  Other superstitions are also joined to this religious festival.  Thus in many peasant houses, a straw-bed is made on the floor, and on it the children and servants sleep during the night.  On the next day, this bed is taken to the court-yard, or barn, and it is thought to preserve the fowls from birds of prey, and the cattle from disease.  This straw is also strewn on the fields around fruit trees, which it is thought to make healthy.  At evening, two torches are lit to burn all night; if one of them becomes extinguished or is burned out before day,