Jólabókaflóð

It’s Christmas time again and with that comes so many wonderful cozy traditions. Here in the Tomasino house we have built a number of our own special family moments from setting up the tree to our Christmas buffet dinner. Several of these traditions are things we’ve adopted from the locals since moving to Iceland.

One of the most famous of these is called Jólabókaflóð (Yo-la-bokh-ah-floth), or “Christmas Book Flood.” You may have heard of this one in social media from posts like this:

People like to ask me if this is a real thing all the time. And the answer is, yeah… sorta.

• Do Icelanders give books as gifts? Often, yes.
• Do Icelanders open these books on Christmas eve? Yes.
• Do they read and have chocolate? Yes.
• Do they isolate themselves doing so? No. That would be very rude.

But the story is a bit more complex.

First of all, Icelanders celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve! It’s not a midnight thing, either. A lot of families get together, dress nice, have dinner, and then open gifts. So “giving gifts of books on Christmas Eve” is actually just giving books as Christmas gifts. This is also why it would be weird and rude for people to wander off and read alone all night. This is a family occasion. Will grandma pick up her new book at some point? Probably. But it’s not really accurate to call it part of tradition.

Chocolates are also a common Christmas treat, whether gifted or not. So why not enjoy your new book with some chocolates.

Now that might make it seem like this isn’t really a special tradition at all. Lots of people give books for Christmas. Is this just a meme after-all?

Well, no… sorta.

Following Iceland’s independence in 1944 and wartime rationing, books became a popular gift. They were still being produced abundantly and were affordable, and Iceland has a long literacy tradition. The publishing industry noted this habit and arranged a season of newly published works to “flood” the market for the holiday. There’s even a seasonal catalog called Bókatíðindi every year highlighting all the new books.

This was the original Jólabókaflóð, an industry term.

So where did the meme come from then? It looks like it was picked up in the UK around 2015 as an expansion of the industry book flood idea, but then encouraged as a new model tradition through a series of blog posts. The thing is, the idea isn’t far off from reality, it’s mostly just the context and framing.

So where does that leave us?

Well, at the Tomasino house we fell in love with the idea. Not the reality, per se, since we celebrate Christmas on Christmas morning, and we don’t have an extended family to join here with a fancy dinner. Instead, we take the meme at face value and embrace it because it’s fun! We each exchange one special book gift for each other and some chocolate, and then we settle in and start our books while we listen to Christmas records. It’s intensely cozy and we all look forward to it.

So there you have it. It’s celebrated per the meme in at least one house in Iceland. You can share on social media with confidence.