Christmas in Denmark isn’t about Santa or the elves. It’s about the pixies.

Pixies live in each Danish home, according to fairy tales, and families decorate their walls and windows with Santa’s little helpers during the month of December.

For Iben Nielsen, a Denmark native and a graduate assistant at Brenau University, the Christmas season starts on Dec. 1, when the countdown begins until Dec. 24 — the day for opening presents.

“Starting Dec. 1, one of our two state channels shows a Christmas show for 24 days, and each day a new episode develops,” Nielsen said. “Pixies explain the Danish traditions and fairy tales, which kids know but don’t know the history.”

In this year’s show, a male and female “intern” pixie learn the tales from the head pixie who lives at the Danish National Archives. In the first episode, the male pixie mixes up all the stories, and the characters spend each episode sorting out the traditional tales.

“We all sit down at 8 p.m. to watch it every night,” Nielsen said with a laugh. “I’ve got it pulled up on YouTube here in America.”

The tree goes up on Dec. 23, the Christmas meal and presents take place Dec. 24, and families visit both sets of grandparents on Dec. 25 and 26.

“Danish Christmas isn’t as commercial, and we don’t do colored Christmas lights,” she said. “In fact, we usually do candles on our trees, which we only turn on for the few hours we’re looking at the tree Dec. 23-26.”

On a real tree, the Nielsens hang 24 candles — 12 white and 12 red — which are weighed down by handmade ornaments to keep the candles straight. All of the ornaments, which are beaded or knitted, are homemade except for the candle holders and a star on top of the tree.

In her apartment near the Brenau campus, Nielsen has pictures of pixies, which look like elves, on her windows and oranges with cloves hang in the doorways.

“It smells nice, and Danish people traditionally did this as a decoration when they didn’t have as much money,” said Nielsen, who wore snowman earrings as she baked Danish Christmas cookies Monday.

After decorating the tree on Dec. 23, Danish families cook rice pudding and eat it hot with cinnamon and sugar, leaving a little bit for the pixies. Pudding leftovers go into a dessert made on Dec. 24 with whip cream and almonds.

“It includes one whole almond, and whoever gets it in their dish gets another present,” Nielsen said with a smile. “It’s like a treasure hunt. Then we also have turkey or ham, potatoes and one vegetable.”

On Dec. 24, family members wake up late, go to church in the afternoon and then return home to cook as the presents gradually pile up under the tree. After dinner, the family sings from a book of psalms while holding hands and walking around the tree before opening presents.

“In my family, my little sister chooses a present, which she gives to me, and I read out who bought it for who, then she takes it to them, and we all watch as each person opens presents,” she said. “That usually takes between 8 to 11, and then everyone goes to bed.”

This year, Nielsen hopes the snow in Denmark will clear up so her 19-year-old sister can fly to Georgia and bring what she misses most — salty licorice.

“Then we’re going to have Christmas Day at my host family’s house here in Gainesville, where we can experience an American Christmas,” she said. “But they’ve also asked us to dance around the tree so they can see our tradition and hear the Danish songs.”

When Nielsen first came to the U.S. as an undergraduate student, she was intrigued to find Santa at the center of the holiday.

“To us, Santa lives in Greenland with reindeer, and pixies make the toys, not elves,” she said. “Santa also isn’t as big in Denmark.”

In recent years, Nielsen hasn’t been able to take part in some of her favorite family traditions, such as making beaded ornaments, and she’s asked for more practical presents, such as money for textbooks.

“It’s impossible for my family to ship items over from Denmark and then for me to take them back,” she said. “I need my expenses paid, so that’s what my parents and grandma help me do.”

Nielsen is also adapting to the commercial nature of Christmas in America, but she said she doesn’t mind the differences.

“At first I thought, I don’t have money for this. You’re bombarded with this message to buy for the ones you love,” she said. “But the lights on the houses along Green Street? That’s really pretty to see at night. Electricity is more expensive in Denmark, and people don’t usually have lights outside. Since it gets darker earlier, people stay inside in Denmark, but it’s really nice to look out and see the lights on here.”