In this episode of the How to Live in Denmark podcast, host Kay Zander Melish shares a comprehensive guide for international residents who find themselves alone in Denmark during the Christmas‑New Year period. She begins by describing the stark holiday closures—stores shut after December 23, buses pause on December 24, and most services resume only on January 2—highlighting how these affect daily life. She advises listeners to prepare in advance by tackling a personal project (e.g., watching the Danish series Matador), handling practical tasks such as pension contributions (deadline December 28) and tax paperwork, and understanding workplace expectations, noting that junior staff may be required to work while others are on leave. Melish stresses the cultural importance of “time off” for Danes and warns against expecting business responses during the holidays. To combat isolation, she recommends getting outdoors for walks in parks or forests, visiting museums, taking day trips to nearby towns, attending church services (avoiding Christmas Eve), playing board games in cafés, visiting traditional brown bars (værtshus), and even going to the zoo, which stays open on Christmas Day. Throughout, she emphasizes the risk of feeling excluded from Danish hygge and encourages proactive social engagement. The episode concludes with calls to her website, social media, and her books and presentations for further support.
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Hello and welcome to the How to Live in Denmark podcast. I'm Kay Zander Melish. We've talked on the podcast about what to do. If you're spending your Christmas holiday with family and friends. But what if you're not? What if you're an international who is alone in Denmark during the holiday season? This is a topic that is near to my heart because it was what happened to me when I first arrived in Denmark. It wasn't Christmas time; it was spring, when the Danish holidays come one after the other. I didn't know anybody, I didn't speak the language, and back then all the stores were closed on holidays. I had to live off of hot dogs from the hot dog wagons, so I know what it's like. These days supermarkets are open for at least limited hours during the holidays, but not much else is, particularly on the big 3 days: December 24th, December 25th, and December 26th. On December 24th, the buses even stop running for a few hours so the drivers can be with their families. So if you're all alone here, what do you do? Well, the first thing to do is to prepare in advance. Basically, there is not much going on in Denmark between December 23rd, which is when the stores close after the last of the Christmas shopping, and January 2nd, when normal working hours resume. That's about 10 days. So it's good to prepare a project. A big video box set is good. I recommend the Danish TV series Matador, which is about a rivalry between 2 families. Danes will tell you that it totally explains Danish culture and thinking. Other big projects are good too, like cleaning off your computer or getting your taxes in order. One of the Danes' favorite ways to shield their income from taxes is by making contributions to a pension fund, and December 28th is the last day this year that you can do that. If you've got a job, you can work during the week between Christmas and New Year's. You might even be forced to. Sometimes if you're the most junior person in the office, you get stuck there during the holidays because everyone else is taking time off. Sometimes that means you're overwhelmed doing everybody's job at once, and sometimes there's nothing going on and you end up just cleaning off your office computer. One thing you should not do is expect an answer from anybody on business questions during this period. For Danes, holiday time off is kind of a sacred space. It's a time when you put family first. In one of my How to Work in Denmark presentations, I tell the story of a foreign boss who was expecting a big deal to go through before the end of the year. So he asked his Danish workers to just keep their laptops on in case they were needed. That did not go over well. People were furious. For Danes, time off is really time off, especially around the holidays. If you're not working, if you're home alone, get out of the house. Even if it's cold and gray and soupy outside, you'll go crazy if you spend the entire holiday season indoors. Go for a walk in nature, in a park or a forest. You won't be the only one. You'll see a lot of Danish families walking through the woods, looking at the icicles on the branches or the winter berries in the snow, or seeing how the forest animals are dealing with the cold. If you have a friend with a dog, take the dog for a walk and enjoy that unique Scandinavian winter light. You can also go to a local museum— you know, the one you've been meaning to get around to but never quite did— or do a day trip to a tourist town you've always wanted to see. You know, if you're in Esbjerg, go to Ribe. If you're in Copenhagen, go to Køge. Or now here comes a controversial suggestion: You can go to church. Denmark has some beautiful churches, and if you're like me, you rarely get to see the inside of them. For example, Jorn Utzon, the Danish architect who built the Sydney Opera House, also built a church in Copenhagen, and it's open to everyone. I would say don't go on Christmas Eve. That's the only day of the year when Danish churches are really crowded. But there are tons of other services during the Christmas period, and they'll be happy to see you, even if you're not a church member, even if you're not a Christian. You know, just don't take selfies during the service, and you'll be fine. Don't worry, no one will try to convert you. This is Denmark. Just sit quietly and enjoy the beautiful music. Another option is to find a local café that has board games and people who want to play them, or visit a værtshus, otherwise known as a bodega or a brown bar. These are one of those old-fashioned Danish pubs with wooden walls and stained glass windows. Some of them are hundreds of years old. They're most popular with older Danes, often less wealthy Danes, and someone there is also going to be alone at Christmas and very happy to chat with you. Actually, these bars are endangered because the beer is cheap and they don't make much money. So try one out while you still can. Some hipsters actually made an app to help you find brown bars. You can get the link on my website, howtoliveindenmark.com. It's just really important not to get too isolated. That's one of the downsides of Danish hygge. People who are not inside the hygge circle can feel shut out and very alone. Don't let that happen to you. Even on Christmas Day itself, there's one place that's always open, and that's the zoo. I've been to the zoo on Christmas Day, and it's very nice. The animals don't know it's Christmas. They're just doing their thing. And so should you. The holiday period will be over soon enough, and it'll be back to the daily grind. So make sure you have some fun. Even if you're on your own, and that's the How to Live in Denmark podcast for this week. You can come leave a comment at howtoliveindenmark.com or follow us on Facebook, on Twitter at How to Live in DK, or on Instagram at How to Live in Denmark. Feel free to book me, Kajander Melish, for a presentation in 2019, or you can always buy our books: How to Live in Denmark, How to Work in Denmark, or Top 35 Mistakes Danes Make in English. They're all available on Amazon. Amazon, Google Play, and iTunes. See you next time.
