My colleague found 10 of these on her desk...hehehe
As Christmas is only a few weeks away, I have been enjoying learning more about Christmas traditions here in Norway. (As some of you may recall, I was not allowed back to Norway last December because I was an illegal alien). If my fellow Americans are looking to spice up their Christmas with any Norwegian traditions, or learn that not all Christmas traditions are universal, read on.
Stores began their holiday displays mid-November and now have extended opening hours and are EVEN OPEN ON SUNDAY! That fact alone makes me wish Christmas was year-round.
Homes are decorated quite modestly with perhaps a single strand of white lights on a porch or balcony. The colored lights are for the foreigners. I may buy some just to make a point.
One decoration that I can’t seem to escape is the hybrid Santa Clause/ creepy gnome called Julenisse. He hand delivers Christmas presents to the nice children. His close relative, Fjøsnisse, lives in barns and likes to play tricks on people such as moving animals around to different stalls and blowing candles out in the barn unless you leave him a large portion of porridge on Christmas Eve. I think I like him the best.
Christmas trees are normally brought into homes a day before Christmas; mind you Christmas is celebrated December 24 here, and decorated with the family. At a julebord (Christmas party) it is not uncommon for guests to gather around the tree, hold hands and sing Norwegian Christmas carols. I have two julebord parties this weekend- wish me luck. It is also quite common for children to sing carols, julebukk, door-to-door for candy. This now makes sense to me as when I was explaining the concept of trick-or-treating to co-workers, this is what they related the tradition to for themselves.
There are many choices for Christmas dinner depending upon the region you live in Norway. The most popular dishes are pinnekjøtt (salted & dried lamb ribs served with sausage & boiled potatoes), lutefisk (fish lying in water forever, then cooked in oven served with potatoes, bacon & mushy peas) and torsk (fresh cod boiled in salt water and served, naturally, with potatoes). Chocolate covered marzipan, sometimes in the shape of a pig, is a treat found everywhere this time of the year.
Christmas in the language Norwegian derives from a pre-Christian Viking drinking festival called “Jul”. It seems not much has changed as there are Christmas versions of every beverage. Christmas beer, juleøl, Christmas soda that is essentially Big Red but called julebrus, mulled wine known as gløgg and who can forget (or remember anything thereafter) drinking aquavit, a potato-based spirit flavored with herbs, dill and coriander served with dinner.
Hopefully you learned something, as it is quite rare that my blog is educational. Hopefully if you are not Norwegian you will try a new, Norwegian tradition. And hopefully if you are Norwegian you will now consider me an expert on juletid 
Merry Christmas & God Jul!
It was very interesting, even for me as a Norwegian!
Keep up the blogging, you are a very good one!!
So for the Norwegian’s can you write a blog about American Christmas. If not I can provide a spoiler….Lots of LED lights+Christmas trees up before Thanksgiving+gluttony+debt from shopping too much=Merry Christmas! That was cool, where can I get that stuff that you forget everything!?!
Ok. The gnome/santa & the food are a bit questionable to me (you know how I like fish!) but everything else sounds fantastic and a bit more laid back than the States. What about gifts? Is it crazy there too?