Jólabókaflóð

No, I did not do a “key smash” blog title or let one of my dogs type it for me. Jolabokaflod is an Icelandic word that roughly translates to “Christmas Book Flood.” Apparently there is a tradition in Iceland where people buy books for each other as Christmas gifts, and everyone opens them on Christmas Eve and reads books and drinks hot chocolate. I’m sure this has been idealized or romanticized since this is probably what many of us would like to be doing on Christmas Eve. However, a quick search will show that there are origins in history—the tradition started during rationing during WWII since paper wasn’t rationed—and that the likelihood of at least some Icelandic people participating in this tradition is high since Iceland has a higher percentage of writers per capita than a lot of other countries.

Regardless of how many Icelanders follow this tradition, it’s one that can be celebrated by people in other countries. I like to give books as gifts and I often receive books as gifts as well. This year was a mini Jolabokaflod for me, and I now have a larger TBR stack than I did before Christmas. This is a problem I’m always okay having.

Anyway, Merry Christmas to everyone! I hope your Christmas involved books in some manner.