Published December 15, 2018
In Iceland, Christmas is a little wacky. Instead of one Santa, we have thirteen. And rather than being a jolly old white-bearded fellow who lets children sit on his on his lap in a shopping mall and showers them with presents, our Jólasveinar—or “Yule Lads,” in English—are a tribe of mischievous little weirdos.
Starting on December 12th, the Yule Lads come down from the mountains one by one, each day until Christmas. If you’ve behaved well, they’ll put a gift in your shoe; if not, you get a potato. In honour of this harrowing game of cat and mouse, we present: the Thirteen Days Of Grapemas, where every day, a Yule Lads will deliver one of you—our beloved readers—a special Icelandic gift.
So what’s a girl gotta do to get some cool stuff in her shoe? Just tag the friends or loved ones you think are most deserving on this Facebook status, along with a damn good reason that they should win. Remember: If you don’t enter in this life, you sure won’t win. #JÓLÓ
What’s In The Shoe Today?
What’s that sound? Is your kitty giving himself a bath, or is it your roommate making an experimental film project? Wait, it’s neither… Yule Lad Pottaskefill—”Pot-Scraper” in English—has snuck into your house to scrape the leftovers out of your saucepan.
‘Scrapey’—as his friends call him—sports the must-have gift of the holiday season for any Iceland football fan: one of our limited-edition, one-in-a-lifetime Iceland Smites t-shirts, sewn with wolf hair and pre-shrunk in Ronaldo tears. While Iceland didn’t win the World Cup on their first try, Euro 2020 will be a shoo-in, with the qualifiers starting next spring. So prepare yourself with this shirt and be blessed by the Norse gods in all your endeavours by wearing a certified dragon-proof #SmiteShirt. HÚH! (If you wanna bag one for a present rather than trying your hand in the contest, you can also buy one here.)
Tag the person you think should win here—and if you don’t win today, check out our page tomorrow and get tagging for the next gift.
A note: The winner of yesterday’s Skellfiskmarkaðurinn prize was Francesca Ciarmatori, who was graciously tagged by her friend Kristel Kreisveld. Both are working as volunteers for good causes here in Iceland, and we’re happy to reward their hard work with some fancy seafood. Keep on keeping on… and stay tuned for tomorrow’s winner. It could be you!
