Christmas

Norwegians traditionally put up their Christmas tree on December 23rd.  The year we lived in Norway, 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 the three of us, we skipped that tradition, as we couldn’t fit around the tree and we didn’t know the songs we were to sing.  We also skipped the tradition of lighting real candles clamped onto the branches, as my fears of a house fire won out.  We opted for the more modern electrical version of the clamp on candles and they worked just fine, without all the worries.

  

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

There is a bit of a mad dash Christmas Eve morning as people drive around dropping off gifts at different houses.  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.  

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 at home follows immediately afterwards.

In our part of Norway, everyone eats the same traditional meal of steamed lamb ribs, sausages, boiled root vegetables and sauerkraut - with nary a green thing on the plate.  Rice pudding is always 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, but how the pig became part of their Christmas traditions remains a mystery.

After dinner, the gifts start flowing. Most parents give just one gift to each family member and everyone watches as each one is 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.”  This Norwegian Santa wears a Halloween type face mask, along with a red and white suit, but he’s far from believable, if not a bit scary looking.

We held to some of our own American traditions that year, 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.