Den 24. december fejrer vi jul hos mine forældre.

In Danish, den + ordinal date + month is a very common way to say a calendar date.

So:

• den 24. december = the 24th of December / December 24th

The den is part of the date expression here. You will often see:

• den 1. maj
• den 5. juni
• den 24. december

In writing, the number usually has a full stop after it: 24. This shows it is ordinal: 24th.

In Danish, dates are usually written with a period after the number:

• 24. december
• 3. marts
• 17. januar

That period marks the number as an ordinal, like 24th, 3rd, 17th in English.

So 24. december is not 24 decimal december or anything mathematical; it simply means the 24th of December.

This is because Danish follows the V2 rule in main clauses: the finite verb usually comes in the second position.

Here, the sentence starts with the time expression:

• Den 24. december = first position

So the verb must come next:

• fejrer = second position

Then the subject follows:

• vi

So:

• Den 24. december fejrer vi jul hos mine forældre.

If you started with the subject instead, you would get:

• Vi fejrer jul hos mine forældre den 24. december.

Both are correct. The first version emphasizes the date more.

Fejrer means celebrate or are celebrating here.

Its infinitive (base form) is at fejre = to celebrate.

Examples:

• Vi fejrer jul. = We celebrate Christmas.
• De fejrer fødselsdag. = They are celebrating a birthday.

In this sentence, fejrer is present tense.

Here jul refers to the holiday Christmas in a general sense, so Danish normally uses it without an article.

• Vi fejrer jul. = We celebrate Christmas.

This is similar to English, where you usually say celebrate Christmas, not celebrate the Christmas.

You may see julen in other contexts, for example when meaning the Christmas period or when referring to it more specifically:

• Jeg elsker julen. = I love Christmas.

But after fejre, the bare form jul is very natural.

Hos means something like at, with, or at the home/place of, depending on context.

In this sentence:

• hos mine forældre = at my parents’ place / with my parents

It is commonly used when talking about being at someone’s home:

• Vi spiser hos Anna. = We’re eating at Anna’s place.
• Jeg bor hos mine venner. = I’m staying with my friends.

So hos is the natural word here, not a direct equivalent of every English at.

Because forældre is plural: parents.

Danish possessive words agree with number and gender:

• min for common-gender singular nouns
• mit for neuter singular nouns
• mine for plural nouns

So:

• min mor = my mother
• min far = my father
• mit hus = my house
• mine forældre = my parents

That is why mine is required here.

Forældre is plural and means parents.

The singular is:

• en forælder = a parent

So:

• min forælder = my parent
• mine forældre = my parents

A useful thing to remember is that forældre often refers to both parents together, just like English parents.

In Danish, months, days of the week, and most holidays are usually written with lowercase letters.

So:

• december, not December
• jul, not Jul

This is different from English, where December and Christmas are capitalized.

A very neutral version would be:

• Vi fejrer jul hos mine forældre den 24. december.

This starts with the subject vi, which is often the most straightforward order.

The original sentence:

• Den 24. december fejrer vi jul hos mine forældre.

puts extra focus on when it happens.

So the difference is mostly about emphasis, not basic meaning.

In this sentence, it most naturally means Christmas as the holiday being celebrated.

Because the sentence says den 24. december, it reflects an important cultural fact: in Denmark, the main Christmas celebration is traditionally on the evening of December 24th.

So for many Danes, fejre jul den 24. december is completely natural.

If someone wants to be more specific, they might say:

• juleaften = Christmas Eve

But fejre jul is the normal broad expression.

These words can be tricky for English speakers.

A rough guide:

• fejrer sounds roughly like FYE-rer, though the Danish r and vowel quality are different from English.
• forældre is harder; roughly fo-REL-druh or fo-EL-druh, depending on how clearly it is pronounced and the speaker’s accent.

A few pronunciation notes:

• æ is a front vowel somewhat like the vowel in English cat, but not exactly.
• Danish r often affects nearby vowels and may be much softer than in English.
• In everyday speech, forældre is often pronounced less clearly than its spelling suggests.

If you are learning pronunciation, it is best to listen to native audio for these two words, because Danish sound reduction is hard to guess from spelling alone.

No, not in this meaning.

When you mean at my parents’ place or with my parents, the natural preposition is hos:

• hos mine forældre

Using på or i here would sound wrong.

So this is a phrase worth learning as a chunk:

• hos mine forældre
• hos min ven
• hos os = at our place
• hos jer = at your place