The best time to throw a St. Lucia Day party is immediately after a procession, but if there is no procession in your area, just schedule it for the evening of December 13th. You can host a party in your home, a restaurant, a church, or your local Swedish cultural association--it’s up to you and your budget! If you are outside Sweden, it would be appropriate to invite members of the local Swedish community, especially if they are participating in a local procession. Otherwise, you can simply invite your own family and friends. Since St. Lucia Day is so close to Christmas, it would be a good idea to send out invitations several weeks in advance to be sure people can come. St. Lucia’s colors are red and white, but you could also decorate with the Swedish flag. You can use crepe paper, bunting, and tablecloths in red and white. Most Christmas decorations would also be appropriate for St. Lucia Day, especially decorations with evergreens or candles. On St. Lucia Day, it’s traditional to serve a St. Lucia Crown Cake--usually a round coffee cake with seven candles placed in a circle on it. Adults traditionally drink glögg, a type of mulled wine, and you can serve coffee or lingonberry juice for non-drinkers. You can also serve traditional Swedish foods like meatballs, gingerbread cookies, and buns. If there is a St. Lucia procession in your area, it is traditional for participants to sing St. Lucia Day songs at parties afterwards. If not, you can play recordings of St. Lucia Day songs and other traditional Swedish music.

Summary: Choose a time and location. Invite your guests. Decorate for the holiday. Serve traditional Swedish foods. Arrange traditional entertainment.


Breaking down the word into syllables through exaggerated pronunciation, reviewing your phonics knowledge, studying spelling conventions and patterns, and keeping a word list for repetitious practice can greatly benefit adult learners.  Keep your own spelling notebook on hand. Particularly if you are a visual learner, identifying new words to spell and practicing during free time will help you better remember how to spell the word. Consistent practice spelling your chosen words will etch the spelling into your memory. Review the “rules” of spelling to help you become a more proficient speller. For example, did you remember that the letter ‘c’ represents the sound /k/ when followed by an ‘a’, ‘o’, or ‘u’ (think cat, cot, cut), but represents the sound /s/ when followed by an ‘e’, ‘i’ or ‘y’ (think center, city, cycle)? Utilize online resources that are designed to improve spelling ability. Websites can be a helpful tool for practicing spelling in your spare time. There are also mobile apps that can help you drill spelling. Mnemonics can be helpful to memorize the spelling of tricky words. While these memory aids are probably not effective for memorizing the spelling of a large number of words, they can be extremely helpful for memorizing a small number of complex words. You can use common mnemonics, or make up your own.  Develop short phrases for complicated words. For example, “Necessary = 1 collar and 2 socks (to remember one ‘c’ and two ‘s’s).” Try spelling mnemonics that use a phrase. For example, “Rhythm = Rhythm Helps Your Two Hips Move.”   Make up rhymes. For example, “‘I’ before ‘E’, except after ‘C’, or when sounded ‘A’, as in neighbor and weigh.” Compose nonsense stories. “In order to remember that ‘cemetery’ is spelled with three ‘e’s’, think of a lady shrieking “e-e-e!” as she walks past a cemetery.” Many commonly used words have roots in other languages, and understanding these roots can be helpful in both improving your vocabulary and memorizing the spelling of words. Because different languages abide by different spelling conventions, knowing the origin of a word can sometimes provide assistance in spelling it. Recognizing that long words often have a base which carries a specific meaning and remains constant despite the sound we hear can help with spelling.   Learn some common Greek roots to help with spelling. For example, the Greek ‘ped’, meaning ‘foot’, is present in the words peddle, pedal, pedicure, and pedestrian, and the Greek ‘poli’, meaning ‘city’, can be found in metropolis, police, cosmopolitan, and political. Learn simple Latin roots to help with spelling. The Latin ‘ject’, meaning ‘to throw’, can be found in reject, eject, injection, and projectile, while the Latin ‘cred’, meaning ‘to believe’, can be found in incredible, credit, credible, incredulous, and credo.

Summary: Go back to the basics. Try memory aids known as mnemonics. Explore the origin of words.


It takes deer take 2-4 weeks to adjust to a new diet, so start feeding them gradually. Slowly introducing new types of food into a deer's diet will help their digestive system learn to process it. Deer typically eat woody vegetation that is found in forests, so feeding them foods that are rich in fats and carbohydrates can be extremely harmful. Begin introducing new foods by combining supplemental foods with deer's natural diet. Start by including a small amount of the new food, and gradually incorporate more and more, ultimately replacing their natural diet. In winter, their natural food supply will decrease significantly (if not completely), so it is recommended to begin this transition before winter hits. These mixes can typically be found at feed mills or pet supply stores. Deer feed mixes are usually a mix of alfalfa, oats, soybeans, molasses and several vitamins and minerals. This type of food is easiest for deer to digest, which is what makes it ideal for supplemental feeding. You must be careful when feeding deer supplemental foods, as they have a sensitive digestive system. If formulated deer food mixtures are unavailable, oats are the next best supplemental food for deer. Oats provide deer with a healthy mixture of fiber and carbohydrates without disrupting their digestive system.  A wide variety of fruits and vegetables – including apples, grapes, cherries, pears, carrots, and snap peas – are eaten in nature by deer. Therefore, it is safe to feed deer these fruits. Acorns are another safe food source. A deer's digestive system is complex, and corn happens to be one of the worst types of food for them. Unfortunately, many deer end up extremely sick or dead because animal lovers believe that corn is good for deer. When deer are offered a sudden supply of corn, they aren't able to adjust to the high carbohydrate diet, and they end up dying. In nature, deer eat twigs and other natural forest vegetation. To provide them with more of their natural food source, cut down branches that are out of their reach. This is one of the safest and most natural ways to keep deer fed throughout the year.
Summary: Introduce deer to a new diet slowly. Purchase formulated deer food mixes. Feed deer the right foods if you cannot find formulated deer mixture. Do not feed deer a corn diet. Cut down tree branches to feed deer.