Assignment 14 - Pedersen

My family has quite a few unique holiday traditions due to my father being Danish. In Denmark, Christmas is widely celebrated, but there are some additional traditions which aren't common in the United States. For example, instead of having joyful elves as Santa's helpers, the Danish belief is that there are little "Nisser"(elves) which are extremely mischievous and cause disturbances in the North Pole. My family decorates our house with these "Nisser" by putting up cutouts of them in random places. It's always fun to look around the house and find elves hanging from the chandelier or sitting on dressers and bookshelves. Another similar Danish tradition is to make cutout hearts for ornaments on the Christmas tree. These hearts are cutout and weaved through each other to make a basket of sorts. Our family doesn't do this, but my dad informed me that in the original tradition, candy and chocolate would be put into the heart ornaments similarly to stockings. These traditions always brighten up the holiday and make it much more interesting.