The celebration of the Christmas holiday starts in Sweden four Sundays before Christmas Eve. That period, up til December 24 ^th is called Advent. The first Advent, which is the first Sunday, is also the start of the church year, and that is when we light the first candle in our "Advent stake", which is a special candle stick, holding four candles, on every Advent Sunday a new candle is burned.

The big celebration in Scandinavia is on December 24^th, not on Christmas Day, as in America. Christmas Eve is a very warm and special day of the year, and every family has its special traditions, but three elements are always included:
1) A big dinner with many many kinds of different food, including christmas ham, potatoes, pickled herring and meatballs.
2) Santa Claus comes in the evening to hand out all the presents, of course, if you have been good you can expect more presents than others.
3) Strange as it may seem, it is a tradition to always watch an hour of clips from different Disney movies. The same program runs every Christmas Eve at 3 pm, including Donald Duck, Mickey Mouse, Pluto, Robin Hood, Cinderella, Snow White, and many more.