Winter in Stockholm, Sweden, December 2012.Stockholm is beautiful at any time of year, but in winter, with snow covering the ground, buildings and trees, it is just magical (if a little chilly... -15°C/5°F when we visited at the beginning of December). Despite visiting Stockholm a few times now, I have never managed to visit Skansen, an open-air historical museum on the beautiful island of Djurgarden. This time I did. And it was stunning.
During the lead up to Christmas, Skansen hosts a traditional Christmas market where you can buy Christmas decorations, handicrafts, children's toys, wreaths and traditional Swedish festive foods such as glogg (mulled wine), sweets, pastries, cheeses, sausages and reindeer elk burgers*. Wandering around was wonderfully atmospheric: glistening icicles hung from the traditional buildings, freshly-fallen snow crunched underfoot, families danced and sang to Swedish carols around a Christmas tree, horse-drawn buggies clip-clopped by carrying children bundled up against the cold... it was exactly the kind of white Christmas many Australians dream about experiencing at least once in their life. We are spending Christmas in rainy, grey, no-sign-of-snow London this year, so I feel especially fortunate to have experienced a few days in Stockholm: a magical, wintry wonderland.
 
*I had a little bite... and felt terribly guilty when I had to face the majestic reindeer in the Nordic animal enclosure.