Celebrate Christmas at the American Swedish Institute in Minneapolis

Last updated on June 11th, 2026

Looking to catch a bit of Christmas spirit? Head to the American Swedish Institute in Minneapolis to celebrate Christmas with a Scandinavian flair.

The American Swedish Institute (ASI) was established to preserve and celebrate Swedish culture. And, at Christmas, you’ll find the historic Turnblad mansion decked out for the holidays to represent the traditions of Sweden and other Nordic countries. But the holiday display usually finds space for a few other traditions whether from across the globe or right down the street. Wherever your ancestors came from, you’re sure to catch the holiday spirt at the Swedish Institute this winter!

The 2025 holiday celebration (the 75th one!) “Tomte Tales: Legends of Winter” runs from November 9 – January 6.

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Decorating the Turnblad mansion for the holidays

Since the 1950s, the Swedish Institute celebrates Christmas by decking the halls (and tables, walls, windows, fireplaces, etc.) with decorations that bring a bit of Swedish holiday spirit to the city.

But it’s not just Swedish, or even Nordic, culture on display these days.

After beginning as a strictly Swedish Christmas celebration, ASI has slowly expanded to embrace the traditions of other cultures.

They began by adding rooms featuring Christmas in Sweden’s immediate neighbors, Denmark and Norway. In the 1970s Finland and Iceland were added to include all Nordic nations in the celebration. Recently, Sami traditions from the far north also became a permanent part of the mix.

However, over the past decade, a variety of non-Nordic countries have also been invited to the party. These change every year and have included holiday traditions from a diverse range of cultures, including Estonian, Russian, Mexican, Hmong, and more.

The earliest Christmas exhibits were mostly table settings representing each country. Now each cultural display usually gets a full room with a table set for the holidays along with Christmas trees, art, traditional crafts, and other decorative items that make each display look more like a room in someone’s (very big and fancy) home than a museum exhibit. And it isn’t often isn’t an old-fashioned Christmas scene.

Nor is it exclusively focused exclusively on Christmas either, as other winter celebrations are also included in an ever-changing and expanding mix. As the Swedish Institute increasingly recognizes Swedish immigration as part of a larger story of immigration past and present, it’s also incorporating different holiday celebrations into their own festivities..

Celebrating a Swedish Christmas

Fittingly, since the American Swedish Institute is housed in the mansion of a successful Swedish immigrant, Sweden gets the place of honor in the house: The formal dining room.

Sometimes the table is set with the Turnblad’s finest china, as if awaiting the arrival of an honored guest. But sometimes it’s set for a more casual, contemporary gathering of family or friends.

While the dining room is the focal point for the season’s Swedish Christmas celebration, you’ll find Swedish decorations scattered throughout the mansion.

Celebrating other Nordic Christmas traditions

These days the American Swedish Institute always recognizes its Nordic neighbors at Christmas. Most years, each Nordic country (Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Iceland, and Finland) gets a room with a holiday table setting and seasonal decorations.

Here are a few examples from various years.

Celebrating a Danish Christmas

Celebrating the traditions of many cultures

At some point in the last decade or so, ASI also began including traditions and celebrations from other cultures in the annual Christmas exhibit. Some of the ones I recall include the following:

• Mexico was part of the 2013 celebration focused on contemporary holiday traditions and seasonal farm-to-table cuisine.
• Russian traditions were included in the 2015 “Christmas Myths, Legends and Fairytales” exhibit.
• Jewish traditions were part of ASI’s 2016 “Celebrations of Light.”
• Christmas in Romania was part of the 2017 Christmas display.
• Czech holiday traditions were part of 2018’s celebration of “Handmade Holidays,” which included many beautiful handmade items in the holiday decorations.

In the past few years, rooms are still dedicated to each of the Nordic countries (Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, and Iceland) and Sápmi (Lappland). However, there’s more of a mix in the rest of the house.

More cultures at the table, but less of each

In 2021 ASI did something very different. Instead of decorating rooms throughout the entire mansion, they created one enormous oval table with place settings that represented many cultures from all around the world.

This replaced most, but not all, of the usual Christmas displays representing individual countries. The dining room table was set with a beautiful Swedish Christmas table suitable for entertaining Sweden’s king and queen. Hmong culture was the featured guest, and one large room was used for that exhibit. And small displays from other Nordic countries were scattered around the mansion, but nothing like the usual extravaganza.

But this was probably largely a still coming out of covid thing. The celebration was back to normal in 2022, with spaces dedicated to the five Nordic countries and the Sami people of the far north. And it appears this is what you’ll see again in 2023.

Every room is decorated for the holidays

Generally, every room in the Turnblad mansion that’s open to visitors has at least some holiday decorations and other items. That means you’ll find Christmas and other seasonal decorations in even the most unlikely places. That includes hallways, children’s play areas, the kitchen, pantry, and even bathrooms!

The Swedish Institute has several play areas for children – all of which are decorated for the holidays.

Even the historic kitchen is decorated for the holidays!

Tomte, a type of elf or gnome, is a big part of Christmas in Scandinavia. You’ll find them all over the mansion. But some seem to have made themselves more at home than others!

And don’t forget the basement, where walls serve as galleries displaying holiday artwork and memorabilia.

If you want to see it all, don’t skip any area thinking it won’t be decorated for the holidays!

Plan your holiday visit to the American Swedish Institute

As we move into the 2025 holiday season, ASI has a full schedule of Christmas, New Year’s, and other seasonal events planned. Holiday decorations will be up between November 8 – January 25.

Start planning on the ASI visitor’s page. It will links to all the information you need to plan a visit this Christmas, or any time. But here are a few basics:

• Hours: The Swedish Institute is open Tuesday-Sunday from 10-4 or until 8 pm on Thursdays.
• Admission: A regular adult admission is $17, with a great variety of discounts and even free admission options available. And, as always, entry is free for members.
• Parking: Free parking is available on-site. However, on busy days you may find the lot completely filled. There is some street parking available.

To see more photos and learn more about ASI, the Turnblad mansion, or past events and art exhibitions, take a look at The American Swedish Institute (History, culture, and contemporary art in Minneapolis, Minnesota).

Holiday events and activities at ASI

The Christmas rooms aren’t the only way the Swedish Institute celebrates the holiday season.

A schedule that once revolved around Santa Lucia, baked goods, and a lutefisk dinner with old-time Swedish music, now also includes a handicrafts market, children’s events, a Kubb tournament, and lots of other opportunities to eat and drink, play, and party at ASI. There’s even a New Year’s and solstice celebration. These activities begin in November each year and run through the end of the holiday season in early January.

Of course, ASI classes continue through the holiday season, so you can learn to make your own Scandinavian-inspired Christmas decorations and food.

An outline of holiday events is  available on ASI’s website. To see what is going on by date, check the event calendar.

Holiday shopping at ASI

The Swedish Institute always has a shop filled with variety of interesting items, including unique handmade pieces from Sweden, Swedish-style home goods, and books about Sweden and/or from Sweden.

For Christmas, the usual gift shop is greatly expanded to create a separate Christmas shop. In addition, a few of outdoor craft shops are open on weekends.

(You’re likely to find all sorts of Scandinavian goodies at ASI that make great gifts for yourself and others, but if there’s something in particular that you’re looking for that you can’t find, Ingebretsen’s Nordic Markplace is still nearby. I usually visit both shops when I’m looking for Scandinavian items.)

Julmarknad Handicraft Market and Festival

Following a long-standing Swedish tradition, ASI invites local handicraft artists to sell their work at an outdoor Christmas market. The big festival is held over the first weekend of December, when classic red market sheds pop up outdoors to sell all sorts of items. But a few of those sheds are open every weekend during the holidays.

The Julmarknad Handicraft Market and Festival requires purchasing a separate entry ticket even if you are an ASI member. Check the Julmarknad page for more information and to purchase tickets.

Holiday dining at FIKA Café

FIKA Café is the contemporary casual Swedish café located just inside the entrance to the Swedish Institute.

You can either walk up to the window and get something to take with you, or get seated and have regular table service.

Seating is limited and they don’t take reservations, so expect at least a short wait at almost any time of day – especially during the holidays. (In summer you can sit at tables outside, so you usually don’t have to wait unless it is really busy.) Usually, they’ll have a table for you by the time you’ve finished browsing the gift shop or galleries near the café. However, at Christmas the wait is likely to be long enough that you’ll have time to see a lot of the decorations in the mansion before getting seated!

“Fika” in Sweden is what we would call a coffee break, but a more relaxed one that usually includes a cinnamon of cardamom bun, cookie, pastry, or another sweet – or even a savory – snack. FIKA Café offers both traditional sweets as well as savory snacks and light meals. Besides the regular (very limited) food menu, there’s a wide selection of Scandinavian cookies, buns (the cardamom buns are wonderful), and other pastries and desserts. Wine beer and specialty cocktails are also available.

It’s a great place for a seasonally-inspired lunch, coffee break, or light dinner.

And you can pre-order lunch and dinner meals to pick up and take away. And that includes ordering their yummy baked goods in advance or to go while you are visiting.

None of it is cheap and some of the combinations are unexpected, but it’s all usually really delicious.  When I took classes over here, there were seasonal dishes on the menu that I made sure to have a second time before the menu changed!

(FIKA shows up now and then on the Star Tribune’s “5 best things our food writers ate in the Twin Cities area this week.” One of the most amazing seasonal lunches I’ve had there showed up on that list a few days later.)