Christmas Traditions

Norwegians traditionally put up their Christmas tree on December 23rd.  When we lived there, it was hard for me to get into the Christmas spirit without the tree dominating our living room the entire month of December.  Once the tree is up, they delight in setting it in the center of the room, joining hands, then dancing around it, singing traditional songs.  Since there were only three of us in our house, we skipped that tradition, as well as the one where real candles burn on the tree.

  

The Norwegian Christmas Eve is well scripted, and I dare say, there are not many variations on the theme. Men and boys wear suits and ties, women and girls wear their finest, fanciest dresses. It is the height of formality and it would be a serious sign of disrespect to be in anything less.

Every church has a Christmas Eve service, sometime between one and three in the afternoon. Stores close by one o’clock so as not to compete with church attendance.  The big Christmas dinner follows immediately afterwards.

In our part of Norway, everyone eats the same traditional meal of steamed lamb ribs, sausages, boiled root vegetables and sauerkraut (there wasn’t a green thing on the plate).  Rice pudding is served afterwards.  Whoever gets dished up the one almond hiding in the pudding gets a special prize (usually a marzipan candy pig). That tradition goes way back.

After dinner, the gifts start flowing. There is a bit of a mad dash in the daytime to drop off gifts to different houses because no one opens any gift from anyone until after dinner. To me, it was weird they don’t open it in front of the person who gave it to them, but they don’t.  

Most parents give just one gift to each family member so everyone watches as each gift is being opened.  Since big gatherings are common that night, it’s a long evening. After a few hours, there is a break for coffee and dessert, then back to the gifts. At some point, Julenissen comes knocking on the door with a bag of little treats for “all the good boys and girls.” The Norwegian Santa wears a Halloween type face mask, along with his red and white suit, so he’s far from believable.

We held to some of our own American traditions so I was a bit worried the Christmas police might show up at our house the next morning since we waited to open our gifts until then, and there were not one, but ten gifts with Kaleb’s name on them.  It’s how we Americans do the “merry” part of Christmas.