In addition to running House of Dagmar, the Swedish women’s wear line they founded with their sister Kristina Tjader, 54, 20 years ago, Sofia Wallenstam, 42, and Karin Soderlind, 58, have also become partners in putting on an annual Christmas get-together for their creative circle. Two years ago, it took the form of an outing to see the Royal Swedish Ballet. Last year, they threw a cocktail party at Wallenstam’s apartment on Djurgarden, an island and natural reserve in central Stockholm. This time, the women decided to host a Julbord, a traditional Swedish Christmas feast that combines cold and hot dishes, and whose history harks back to pre-Christian Viking times. (The Christmas ham is thought to be a descendant of the boar sacrificed during the Viking Yule festival.) All three sisters have fond childhood memories of Julbords, some of which they enjoyed at the home of their paternal grandmother, Dagmar. She was a tailor, and the inspiration behind the name of their brand, which recently opened a flagship store in Stockholm.

The setting for this dinner was once again Wallenstam’s apartment — one of three in a 1905 red-bricked house designed by the Swedish architects Isak Gustaf Clason and Albert Collett — which she shares with her husband and their two children. When guests started arriving, around 6 p.m., the sun had already been down for almost three hours, but lanterns lit the building’s front walkway, and paper stars and Advent candle arches glowed from the unit’s windows. “It’s so dark in Sweden right now,” said Wallenstam, “but Christmas is all about light.” Inside, the apartment was outfitted with taper and pillar candles, and a Nordmann fir strung with white lights.

Guests mingled there, listening to jazz renditions of Christmas songs, snacking on thin almond cookies topped with whipped blue cheese and sipping champagne, winter Negronis and glogg, a warm, spiked wine. Meanwhile, Albin Edberg, 31, a Swedish chef and the author of “Svensk Comfort Food” (2025), was in the kitchen, preparing his takes on Swedish classics and faithful reproductions of the sisters’ family recipes, including their grandmother Dagmar’s mustard-dill sauce. After a coursed buffet, the guests broke out first into Swedish snaps songs — Scandinavian drinking songs — and then Christmas standards. The last of them went back into the crisp, dark night just past midnight. “It’s so easy to stay at home and lock yourself in this time of year,” said Wallenstam. “But Christmas, at its best, brings everyone together.”

The attendees: Tjader, who’s the founder of the sustainable furniture brand Hyfer Objects, was there, as were 14 others. Among them were the couple behind the textile company Nordic Knots, Liza Laserow, 44, and Fabian Berglund, 43; the writer and podcaster Nadia Kandil, 36; the actresses Evin Ahmad, 35, Nanna Blondell, 39, and Gizem Erdogan, 38; Kina Zeidler, 51, a writer and the founder of Sibbjans, a farm stay on Gotland Island; Saman Amel, 32, who has a tailoring atelier; and the singer Mapei, 42. A number of the guests were wearing House of Dagmar. “I think Dagmar is very Scandinavian, very timeless and very sophisticated,” said Ahmed, who wore its long tailored blazer.

The table: “We were brought up to value quality over quantity, and we like things that can last for a long time,” said Tjader. This thinking, which has informed House of Dagmar from the start, was also evident in Wallenstam’s table, a custom piece by the Stockholm studio Louise Liljencrantz Designthat’smade of solid walnut and oxidized steel and weighs nearly 800 pounds. It was covered with a white linen tablecloth and had an evergreen garland running down its center, snaking around clusters of white taper candles. On top of the garland Wallenstam had put oven-dried slices of oranges and grapefruits to complement the abstract, orange-tinted photograph by the contemporary Swedish photographer Blaise Reutersward that anchors the dining space. Each place setting featured an evergreen sprig from the Stockholm florist Bruun, stoneware from the octogenarian Swedish ceramist Birgitta Watz and delicately etched glasses that were wedding gifts to Wallenstam’s husband’s grandparents.

The food: As is customary with a Julbord, the food was presented on a separate table, in this case on the limestone island in the open kitchen. The cold dishes included gravlax (raw salmon cured with salt, sugar and dill) and, with it, the mustard-dill sauce, along with three kinds of herring — mustard, onion and one that was the creation of a close family friend who lives on Asperö island. “Any fewer and it’s not Christmas,” Edberg said. There was also Vortbrod, a sweet and heavily spiced Christmas loaf, served with ham and mustard. “My first sandwich of the season is about when I start to think about turning religious,” said Edberg.

The chef and his team purposely waited until the guests were midway through the first course before pan frying meatballs in brown butter, so that the aroma would get the diners excited about what was to come. Apart from the meatballs: creamed kale with nutmeg, an omelet with white truffles and potato gratin with tinned allspice- and nutmeg-seasoned anchovies. For dessert, in addition to handmade chocolates and marshmallow Santas, there was a selection of cheeses as well as rice pudding, saffron panna cotta and the sisters’ maternal grandmother’s mandelmussor, an almond tart filled with cloudberry jam.

The drinks: Glogg is similar to mulled wine, but contains almonds and raisins, while the winter Negronis — by the local craft distillery Stockholms Branneri — were made of gin, the bittersweet aperitif Rod, Christmas bitters and cherry and black currant juices. During dinner, guests drank beer, wine or Julmust, a soda that tastes like a cross between root beer and Coke. Two flavors of snaps, which in Sweden refers to strong, clear distilled liquors infused with herbs and spices — elderflower and the caraway-inflected O.P. Anderson Aquavit — fueled the snapsvisor, or the evening’s initial bout of singing.

The music: It was Wallenstam who led the first of the snaps songs. “They’re so silly,” she said, initially hesitating to translate the lyrics, and then revealing them to be something like “the small herring in the ocean likes to drink and loves swimming amongst the mackerel — she drinks snaps whenever she wants.” Many of these ditties, it turns out, revolve around fish, and fish that drink. A highlight of the caroling portion of the night was the group’s rendition of the Swedish folk song “Staffan var en Stalledrang,” for which Ahmad acted as amateur choir director.

The conversation: Aside from talk of favorite holiday traditions and parenting, much of the conversation was about being an artist. While the specific challenges may differ from one field to another, Wallenstam said, the stages and emotional experience of working on a project are much alike: At one point, she joined a conversation with the writers in attendance, and they all agreed that, whether with the publication of a book or the release of a clothing collection, the maker must be ready to receive feedback.

An entertaining tip: If you’re thinking of hosting a Julbord, or at least incorporating its coursed buffet structure, Edberg advises, concentrate on the cold spread. “People are always super hungry when they arrive and feast on the first course, so by the time the meatballs arrive, they only have room to try one or two.” Put your energy into making the cold buffet “super nice,” he says — then pare your offerings back to just a few items for the warm buffet.