 Christmas lights are already going up and recipes are coming off the shelf in preparation for the holiday season. Clayton Castle tells us about a new book that celebrates Minnesotans Scandinavian holiday traditions. Stories were told and cookies were baked, which means they were talking holidays at the Brainer Public Library today, but specifically Swedish holidays. Thanks to the new book, Yule, Swedish American Holiday Traditions by Patrice Johnson. Yule is the word from Scandinavian. That means Christmas or the Christmas holidays. It actually comes from the word wheel. So you think about solstice and the holidays being part of the wheel of seasons. A lot of the discussion today circled around food, but Johnson says you can find a little bit of everything in her book. It's a little bit memoir. It's a lot history and stories from people who celebrate with Swedish American traditions in our area and again recipes and photography. Minnesota is known for having a large Scandinavian population and the book brings together those people and shared food, stories and traditions. Specific to Minnesota, I think a lot of us who have that Scandinavian heritage are really proud of how our ancestors came to the state 150 years ago and really made a difference in the landscape and architecture and politics. You can see that tradition really remains and for a lot of those historical, historically Scandinavian things. The celebration of Scandinavian diversity is one of the many things that Johnson hopes people take away from her book. I'm really hoping that this book celebrates not only the Swedish American traditions of the region, but the traditions that we share with other folks who live here. A lot of the food in this book, especially my recipes, highlight ingredients from new immigrants and other ethnicities and not just the Scandinavian ones. Reporting in Brainerd, Clayton Castle, Lakeland News. Now there are over 11 million people in Minnesota who identify as Scandinavian American. If you've enjoyed this segment of Lakeland News, please consider making a tax-deductible contribution to Lakeland Public Television.