These are the main days of celebration for the “House of Denmark”

December nights

During the first weekend in December(fri&sat), the House of Denmark participates in Balboa Park’s huge annual Holiday festival known as December Nights. For two days, the International Village becomes home to an international food mecca where all sorts of specialties from around the world are offered.At the House of Denmark, we make “æbleskiver”, which resemble spherical pancakes. We also serve homemade hot mulled wine in the adjacent spirit garden.

Danish ‘juletræsfest’ Christmas Party

Traditional Danish community holiday celebration with dinner, a present for the lucky guest who finds a whole almond in his or her dessert, singing, dancing around the tree, and a visit from julemanden (Santa).

Juleklip Christmas crafts…

We are kicking off the holiday season by offering some Danish aebleskiver along with an opportunity to make traditional paper hearts, origami stars, and other holiday decorations in time to display them in December. The Cottage will filled with “julehygge”…

Danish constitution day, called grundlovsdag.

Danes often mark it with political speeches and picnics. At the House of Denmark, we have traditionally hosted the entertainment on the lawn in the International Village on the Sunday closest to grundlovsdag. This is our chance to perform for the guests at the park. We also serve traditional Danish foods that day.

Sankt Hans and the celebration of the summer solstice.

The height of Danish summer is celebrated on the evening of June 23 under the name Sankt Hans (Saint Hans), who is known in English as John the Baptist. The festival of Sankt Hans and the celebration of the summer solstice have pagan roots and date back to the days before Christianity came to Denmark. Tradition calls for an effigy of a witch to be placed on top of the bonfire, and as it burns the community sings the song “Midsommervisen”, written by the Danish poet Holger Drachmann in 1885. The effigy of the witch symbolises all the misery that Denmark as a nation wants to avoid, and the song celebrates the hope that peace will prevail.

And also we have a big party with all the houses called “The ethnic food fair”.

Ethnic food fair in the International Village.

We turn the Cottage into a great Danish bake sale as do the other houses in the international village. There is music, dancing and of course “GREAT Food”

You can get a snapshot of these events by clicking on the past events link at the top of the page.