My Father is a Swede, and every year since well before I was born, he or one of his other two brothers would host traditional Swedish Xmas gathering with many Family members in attendance.
There would always be a round of songs sung in Swedish, which nobody but he or his two brothers could really contribute to, but it was always enjoyable to see them hoist their Aquavit high and Sing loudly, and when I was older and was allowed to hoist the Aquavit, I Did so.
More recently the second wife of my Dad's eldest brother got a huge bug up her butt about my Father, so It was down to two brothers on the Xmas gatherings, and sadly these two brothers/ best friends rarely get to see each other anymore in their final years because of her need to be the eternal victim. But my Old man also has no intentions of spending any time in the same room as her either, so it is not all on her. BS really, but old people are cantankerous.
Anyway, those songs they sung together, which I had assumed were Xmas songs, turned out to simply be drinking songs, much to my embarrassment when I tried to hook up with a Swedish girl when in my late teens.
Since the eldest of 3 brothers and his family no longer attends the Xmas gatherings, and my Dad was prone to getting grumpy, My sister decided she'd rather go to her future X boyfriend's family house in the mid west, and last year It was only me and my parents and the one younger brother, and it was kind of boring. A quick going through the motions. Little singing, little drinking, Little merriment.
This Year, My dad wanted the whole family together, but my sister wanted to go elsewhere again for Xmas, So we gathered for Thanksgiving instead, and I stayed out west for this Xmas as I can't afford to travel X country twice in so short a timespan, and My old man had neither of his children there this Xmas when he was due to be the Host.
So When we spoke tonight, at 7PM EST, I had just finished acquiring the ingredients for the traditional beer we would drink which is kind of like a black and tan with a splash of Port Wine we called Yule Ale. I saw Some Aquavit at BevMo, but passed, as that stuff is...... an Acquired taste.
Some Friends invited me over for Dinner, and I mixed what we called the Jule ale, using Stella Artois, Guinness Stout and some Tawny port, and at one point they humored me When I pulled up this song on my phone that my Father and his Brothers would always sing at Christmas while taking shots of Aquavit and the rest of us would be chasing with Yule Ale.
One is supposed to drink their shot of Aquavit, at the pause at 19 seconds.
We always sung a 'HEY' at the end of the song which signaled a refilling of the shot glasses with more Aquavit and a short time before another 'Xmas' song would ensue, but 'Helan Gar' was always the goto song that most could at least contribute somewhat to.
Makes me sad that the two best friends/ brothers cannot spend Christmas together anymore in their final years. Makes me sad as I was not there either to spend Xmas time with my 79 year old father.
I would much rather fly cross country for Xmas, rather than Thanksgiving.
This is another one that they loved to sing:
The lyrics roughly translate to:
Life is hard and short, so let's get drunk.
This one we would all hold hands and kind of travel around every room in the house, and afterwards pass out the presents:
A dozen years back or so we had some Swedish Relatives visiting from Sweden, and they were surprised that my father and brothers continued the tradition, The eldest relative said he barely remembered doing so when he was really young and the tradition was not continued among the branch of the family who stayed in Sweden.
This one brings tears to my eyes just from the beauty of the voices.
