05 December 2009

Advent: Chocolate

As you will be able to read here this month, Christmas in Sweden is not only about giving presents but a lot about food. And there is a lot of food that is special to the Christmas time (ham, bear, bread, cookies...).

Swedes are very proud of their traditions and are keeping them year after year and I love that. Unfortunately in France, we are loosing these traditions and it seems now, nothing is happening during the whole month and people are waking up on the 23rd and are forced to go and buy all the presents at once and because everyone is doing the same, it results in a nightmare with overcrowded shops. When it comes to the food, turkey is a traditional meal for Christmas in France but not everyone is cooking it. Some families are just buying "expensive" food, things you may not be able to afford during the year: smoked salmon, foie gras, oysters, lobster, etc...



But Chocolate is equally important in Sweden and in France I think. In both countries you have several kinds of boxes but with some favourites.


In Sweden, people's favourite chocolates are without a doubt, Aladdin. It was created in 1939 and is now so popular that it sells a box per household during the Christmas time. That's around 6 millions boxes for 9.3 millions inhabitants. It is distributed by Marabou/Kraft foods.





This year they have a campaign called "Rädda julen", Save Christmas. They are planning to introduce a new pralin next year and therefore they have to take away one existing, one in = one out. And instead of chosing themselves, they ask the Swedish people to go and vote for the ones they want to keep. And of course, they are doing it right now, a way to advertise both for this year and for next year. Smart!



In France we also have many sorts of chocolate boxes such as the escargots de Lanvin, belgian chocolates (shaped as sea food) and more but my favourites are the Pyrénéens by Lindt. I admit it's a bit chauvinistic as it comes from my region and the factory is only a couple of kms from where I grew up (was about to write from where I live).

2 comments:

  1. Haha, va roligt! Din blogg är ju bästa historielektionen!! Kul!
    Hoppas allt är bra med dig, kram!

    ReplyDelete