Smorgasbord is an anglification of the Swedish word Smörgåsbord. It is a buffet style table in a restaurant, or at home served at a holiday, prepared with many small dishes. For a fixed amount of money, you are allowed to eat as many of these as you wish. In an extended meaning, it is used to refer to any situation which invites you to select as many as you wish among several pleasant things, such as the smorgasbord of university courses, books in a book store etc.
Christmas Smorgasbord
Julbord is the name of the traditional Smorgasbord served at Christmas in Sweden. Like an ordinary smorgasbord it contains many different dishes, but most of them are typical for the season. The main dish is a large Christmas ham, which is eaten with mustard or bread along with the other dishes.
Ethymology
The Swedish word "smörgåsbord" comes from smörgås = sandwich and bord = table. "Smörgås" (sandwich) in turn comes from smör = butter and gås = pieces of butter formed on top of cream when churning butter. Jul is the word for Christmas in Swedish, and it has the same root as yule in the English language.
See also: Swedish cuisine