Christmas in Norway (God Jul!)
For many, the prospect of spending Christmas alone in a foreign country a mere 4 weeks after disembarking is somewhat scary. Especially when this country happens only to have around 4 hours of daylight at this time of year. Thanks to the disappearance of my residence card and despite having friends and family elsewhere in Europe, I was fated to stay here for the holiday so I decided to embrace it!
There was lots of festive spirit leading up to Christmas — Julebords (Christmas tables), Julemarkeds (Christmas markets), advent calendars, Julelys (Christmas lights), a Händel concert in Nidaros cathedral, gløgg (spiced mulled wine) and of course, loads of shopping — which is just as well as there was disappointingly little snow. Apparently December has half tax so that Norwegians can buy more presents for Christmas. Shops already start closing early on 23 December (lille Julaften) and this was my last day of work until 4 January!
Norwegians celebrate on Christmas Eve (Julaften), which is quite a big family event, and I was fortunate enough to be invited over for a traditional Norwegian Christmas. There was Julebrus (Christmas soda), Julaquavit (pretty strong Scandinavian liquor), traditional Norwegian Christmas food, dancing around a real tree with home made decorations holding hands and singing (adults included), several hours of opening pakker (packages or gifts) and all this while being surrounded by 10 people speaking Norwegian most of the time! For the first skål (cheers), I nearly downed my aquavit, which is apparently not a requirement. The delicious food required several hours of preparation and was comprised of rødkol (red cabbage), potatoes, ribbe, sausages and meatballs, much like the Christmas dinner at my first Julebord (but luckily minus the Lutefisk). For dessert there was riskrem (rice in cream) with jordbær (strawberries) and some Julekaffe (Christmas coffee) to end off the feast. I took Amarula along to add some South African flavour to the event — unfortunately not as much of a novelty as I hoped it would be.
On Christmas Day I had dinner with some friends that I had met on my meetup trip to Røros Julemarked. Storm warnings were issued for Trondheim with gale force winds predicted just at the time that I had to make the commute to the other side of town. Thankfully I survived — after living in the windy Cape, it really wasn’t so bad— and I made it safely to the party. Guests representing many countries (including Norway) and continents gathered around a table and shared delicious sweet and savoury treats. It was all very koselig.
All in all, I have had a lovely festive Christmas in my new home, despite the lack of snow. I couldn’t be more grateful for this new journey I have embarked on and all the wonderful people I have met along the way.
And lastly, my favourite thing about Norwegian Christmas? Julenissen (Christmas Father)! At first I thought he was just an adorable dwarf from Norwegian fairy tales. He’s much cuter and less creepy than the usual Santa Claus I’m used to.
