Xmas hearts for everyone

Christmas is known as the “festival of hearts”, and in Aabenraa this concept has an extra dimension. Here, several voluntary initiatives make sure that Christmas carries with it a little extra warm-heartedness for those that need it most.

In the middle of Aabenraa you’ll find a so-called “town of Christmas hearts” during the month of Christmas. It was started in 2009 on the initiative of Malene Bruhn, who’s also on the board of charity association “A heart for everyone”. In 2018 the town of Christmas hearts celebrated its 10th anniversary.

The idea of the town of Christmas hearts was to create a place in Aabenraa in which people can experience Christmas in a historic setting as it was in the year 1850. The town of Christmas hearts consists of wooden houses that are replicas of a number of the town’s old buildings such as the town hall, the church, the inn Sdr. Hostrup Kro, the church of Sct. Jørgens Kirke, the Folkehjemmet meeting house and the railway station.

The town of Christmas hearts is located by the old railway station at Jernbanegade 2. Traditional Danish Christmas fare such as doughnuts and rice pudding are made on old-fashioned wood-burning stoves and given out free of charge in order to warm the hearts of visitors.

All the ingredients are donated by the town’s business community, and the activities are run by several hundred unpaid volunteers.

The town of Christmas hearts has a number of ceramic hearts that act as collecting boxes in which you can make a contribution to a good cause. The money collected is distributed via “A heart for everyone”. Malene Bruhn is proud of the happiness that the town of Christmas hearts creates in Aabenraa, and her hope is that the project will one day be copied in other parts of the world.