J-dag

Every year on the first Friday of November, Carlsberg releases their Christmas brew to the public. Known as "J-dag" (pronounced and translated as "J-day"), this annual celebration kicks off the holidays. This seasonal beer is only available for six weeks, so as you may guess, it's pretty popular in Denmark. Carlsberg employees drive around to cafes and bars passing out free beer and blue santa hats while singing Christmas carols.

My friends Katrin, Max, Ned, Matthias, James, Lucy and I went to Temple Bar to experience this holiday tradition. At 9pm sharp, the bar tenders opened the Julebryg tap and started selling the blue and white labelled beer. A couple hours later, a giant 18-wheeler truck pulled up and unloaded a dozen Carlsberg employees all wearing the signature blue and white Santa outfits (and drinking the Julebryg). They came inside with boxes of beer and a bunch of hats for people at the bar (the ones the employees were handing out were nearly identical to their own, but without the light-up ball on the end).

It was packed inside as they sang songs and handed out the Julebryg. To me, the beer just tasted like a stronger version of their pilsner with what I like to call a "hint of Christmas". Haha.  My mission for the night was to get one of those hats. Up until they were leaving, my head was still bare. However, when the Carlsberg employees were leaving the bar, I asked one woman if she had any more of those hats and luckily she did! She handed me one as she headed to the door and onto the truck (they had to continue their journey to the next bar/cafe in Copenhagen).

I wore that Santa hat for the rest of the night. The best part about it: it lights up!!

Here they come!

The Carlsberg employees singing Christmas tunes

And they're off to their next stop