Baltic Christmas Day 18 - A Window to a Latvian Christmas

Welcome to 24 Days of a Baltic Christmas and Day 18!

Today I am proud to present the Latvian web series Lodziņš uz Latviju (“A Little Window to Latvia”) with a December episode! From the (currently snow-less) streets of Rīga adorned with Christmas lights and holiday decorations, to their cozy kitchen filled with the smell of kanēļmaizītes, Lodziņš uz Latviju brings us to Latvia and introduces us to Latvian traditions and customs still alive today!

To our Lithuanian, Estonian and English-speaking readers, I suggest enjoying the first portion of the episode as it takes you on a visual journey through the welcoming, magical streets of Vecrīga. It finishes with the band ImantaDimanta and their Latvian-infused rendition of Jingle Bells – both parts of the episode can be enjoyed without the ability to understand Latvian. (And if you enjoy listening to Mežus pārklāj sniegs then you’ll want to check out Day 4 of the series, when ImantaDimanta released their US Centennial Tour dates and dropped an exclusive holiday track, Kas pie Rīgas dumpējās!)

For those viewing on a mobile device/through email, the above video can be found here.

Lodziņš uz Latviju is a ‘window to Latvia’ for Latvians living in the US! The monthly episodes incorporate political and historic information with fun facts and familiar faces, bringing a little bit of Latvia into your home. Musical accompaniment for Lodziņš uz Latviju is provided by Imanta Nīgale and Katrīna Dimanta, otherwise known as dynamic folk duo ImantaDimanta. A few new tour dates have been added to the ImantaDimanta ALA Centennial Tour in honor of LV100, so please be sure to check back here to see if they’ll be coming to your town! (And ImantaDimanta makes a nice Christmas gift, hint hint…)

The Lodziņš uz Latviju cinnamon buns are super-easy to make, as demonstrated by the 7 year-old. If you would like a full recipe that includes dough, please see Day 13, kanēļmaizītes! 

You can find the Lodziņš uz Latviju YouTube channel here.

You can also follow them on Facebook for outtakes, live videos, links to interesting articles and alerts on new episodes.

Stay up to date with ImantaDimanta on Spotify, Facebook and on bandcamp!

Please join us tomorrow for Day 19 of the series, High on Christmas!