Vi hadde en kjempe fin dag i dag…. I mean, we had a really great day today. We slept too long and then got quite busy with the last minute details as there were packages to wrap and clothes to iron. It also dawned on me that I hadn’t sent out any cards to the Norwegian cousins, so I whipped some up on the computer, printed them out, addressed them and ran to the post office just before they closed. Nothing like a little last minute stress to make the holiday feel right. I’m so off my mark this year. I need my own traditions to keep me on task. Oi! (The new way Norwegians say “uff da.”)
The Norwegian Christmas Eve is well scripted and I dare say there are not many variations on the theme. In this part of Norway anyway, I’d bet that the morning of Christmas Eve every house is as clean as it will be the entire year. All the finest clothes one has will be neatly pressed and ready for wear as everyone dresses to the hilt. Men wear suits and ties, women wear their finest, fanciest dresses, little girls wear the cutest little frilly things and many boys even have on a suit and tie or at least a vest and dress shirt. This day is the height of formality and most adults wear black. It would be a serious sign of disrespect to be in anything but your finest threads today.
Every church has a Christmas service, sometime between one and three in the afternoon. All the stores are closed by one o’clock so as not to compete with church attendance. Before we went to the three o’clock service at Filadelfia Church, we stopped by for a visit with Tante Ruth. She could not be convinced to come join any of the festivities today as she just wanted to be alone. She had a stash of gifts from all the nieces and nephews displayed in the living room, waiting to be opened sometime this evening after she had eaten the traditional Christmas Eve meal. She gave me a quick cooking lesson on how to make the food, since she had it all prepared and sitting in pans on the stove. All that was required was the twist of a knob and dinner would soon be ready. In one pan were peeled potatoes, carrots and rutabagas, which would be boiled, drained and then mashed all together. In another pan sat pieces of dried lamb ribs that had been rehydrated yesterday (soaked in water for two days). They were sitting in a steamer, as no water should touch them when they cook. Some of the water from that lamb steaming can be added to the potato mixture to give it more flavor, and she licked her lips when she was telling me that hot tip. In another pan sat some pieces of sausage that needed to be boiled, and a foil package that contained boiled cabbage cooked with sugar and caraway seeds (a little like sauerkraut). There wasn’t a green thing in the meal. All she needed to do was start the burners and she’d have herself the finest Christmas meal there is to be had in Sunnmøre. I’m positive that every person in this entire region ate that meal tonight. I guess this is some kind of bonding moment for the Norsk population around here – that they all eat the same food about the same time on Christmas Eve. (Dinner is served promptly after the church service finishes, which always leaves at least one person per household home to heat things up.)
After our cozy little visit with Tante Ruth (where she gave us all exceedingly long hugs and thank yous for all we have done for her), we went to church for an hour, then off to cousin Axel and Kari’s house just down the street from where we live. And sure enough, Kari served exactly what Aunt Ruth was having for dinner, except Kari also served a special type of pork that is also common to have with the lamb if there is a large gathering for dinner. Which reminds me of something funny they say here: Kari had 14 for dinner (her and Axel and 12 guests). In English we would use the words “guests” or “people” to talk about how many are coming for dinner. They have those words here too, (gjester, mennesker), but when talking about how many they are having over for dinner, they say 14 “stykker,” which means “pieces.” The word stykker is the word used for puzzle pieces, or pieces of wood, or pieces of anything, so I find it most amusing that they use that word when referring to how many people they are feeding. I can only imagine it came from counting how many pieces of meat they needed for the meal, or something like that, but it’s an old expression and everyone uses it without even giving it any thought, but it cracks me up every time I hear it. (“I have 14 pieces coming for dinner.”)
So we ate the traditional meal (I passed on the “little lamb” again but the pork was great). Immediately afterwards we were served rice pudding. In the bowl of pudding was an almond and whoever got the almond in their bowl, got a special prize (a marzipan candy pig). That tradition also goes way back. So after the table was cleared, the gifts started flowing. I can’t get over the fact they open every single gift on Christmas Eve. There is a bit of a mad dash in the daytime to drop off all the gifts to everyone’s house before dinnertime and NO ONE opens ANY gifts from ANYONE before dinner. It’s so weird they don’t open the gift in front of the person who gave it to them, like we do in America. If friends exchange gifts they often open them then and there, but that’s NOT how they do it here. You must hold all your gifts and open them only on Christmas Eve after dinner. And everyone just gives ONE gift to each person – even parents to children – they just give ONE gift on Christmas Eve. I’m sure the Christmas police will show up at our house tomorrow morning as we held back the bulk of our gifts for our traditional American Christmas morning. (At last count I think Kaleb had ten gifts under the tree, which is only excusable because we ARE American, I’m sure, as they expect we are full of excessive indulgences.) So tonight, everyone watched as each gift was opened and after about two hours, we took a break for coffee and dessert (cakes, cookies, fruit and vanilla sauce and lots of candy), then went back to it. At some point, Jule Nisse came knocking on the door with a bag of goodies for everyone (another standard Norsk tradition). Kaleb gave me the evil eye as he is still wanting to believe in Santa, but there was no doubt this one was a fake since his pillow was spilling out of his robe and the mask that all Norwegians Santas wear was far from believable (see photo). I had no answers for his thousand questions. We went back to opening gifts and by 11:00 we were done. I’m sure the celebration will go until the wee hours of the morning, but when Kaleb started to fall asleep on the couch by 11:45, we had to leave since he’s getting too big to carry.
The newspaper this week asked a bunch of people what their favorite part of Christmas was and almost everyone said “the food.” But I’m sure if they thought about that a bit more they’d agree with a quote from W.S. Gilbert that says, “It’s not so much what’s on the table that matters, as what’s on the chairs.” As being with such a wonderful family makes any day a great day. God Jul til alle….
The Norwegian Christmas Eve is well scripted and I dare say there are not many variations on the theme. In this part of Norway anyway, I’d bet that the morning of Christmas Eve every house is as clean as it will be the entire year. All the finest clothes one has will be neatly pressed and ready for wear as everyone dresses to the hilt. Men wear suits and ties, women wear their finest, fanciest dresses, little girls wear the cutest little frilly things and many boys even have on a suit and tie or at least a vest and dress shirt. This day is the height of formality and most adults wear black. It would be a serious sign of disrespect to be in anything but your finest threads today.
Every church has a Christmas service, sometime between one and three in the afternoon. All the stores are closed by one o’clock so as not to compete with church attendance. Before we went to the three o’clock service at Filadelfia Church, we stopped by for a visit with Tante Ruth. She could not be convinced to come join any of the festivities today as she just wanted to be alone. She had a stash of gifts from all the nieces and nephews displayed in the living room, waiting to be opened sometime this evening after she had eaten the traditional Christmas Eve meal. She gave me a quick cooking lesson on how to make the food, since she had it all prepared and sitting in pans on the stove. All that was required was the twist of a knob and dinner would soon be ready. In one pan were peeled potatoes, carrots and rutabagas, which would be boiled, drained and then mashed all together. In another pan sat pieces of dried lamb ribs that had been rehydrated yesterday (soaked in water for two days). They were sitting in a steamer, as no water should touch them when they cook. Some of the water from that lamb steaming can be added to the potato mixture to give it more flavor, and she licked her lips when she was telling me that hot tip. In another pan sat some pieces of sausage that needed to be boiled, and a foil package that contained boiled cabbage cooked with sugar and caraway seeds (a little like sauerkraut). There wasn’t a green thing in the meal. All she needed to do was start the burners and she’d have herself the finest Christmas meal there is to be had in Sunnmøre. I’m positive that every person in this entire region ate that meal tonight. I guess this is some kind of bonding moment for the Norsk population around here – that they all eat the same food about the same time on Christmas Eve. (Dinner is served promptly after the church service finishes, which always leaves at least one person per household home to heat things up.)
After our cozy little visit with Tante Ruth (where she gave us all exceedingly long hugs and thank yous for all we have done for her), we went to church for an hour, then off to cousin Axel and Kari’s house just down the street from where we live. And sure enough, Kari served exactly what Aunt Ruth was having for dinner, except Kari also served a special type of pork that is also common to have with the lamb if there is a large gathering for dinner. Which reminds me of something funny they say here: Kari had 14 for dinner (her and Axel and 12 guests). In English we would use the words “guests” or “people” to talk about how many are coming for dinner. They have those words here too, (gjester, mennesker), but when talking about how many they are having over for dinner, they say 14 “stykker,” which means “pieces.” The word stykker is the word used for puzzle pieces, or pieces of wood, or pieces of anything, so I find it most amusing that they use that word when referring to how many people they are feeding. I can only imagine it came from counting how many pieces of meat they needed for the meal, or something like that, but it’s an old expression and everyone uses it without even giving it any thought, but it cracks me up every time I hear it. (“I have 14 pieces coming for dinner.”)
So we ate the traditional meal (I passed on the “little lamb” again but the pork was great). Immediately afterwards we were served rice pudding. In the bowl of pudding was an almond and whoever got the almond in their bowl, got a special prize (a marzipan candy pig). That tradition also goes way back. So after the table was cleared, the gifts started flowing. I can’t get over the fact they open every single gift on Christmas Eve. There is a bit of a mad dash in the daytime to drop off all the gifts to everyone’s house before dinnertime and NO ONE opens ANY gifts from ANYONE before dinner. It’s so weird they don’t open the gift in front of the person who gave it to them, like we do in America. If friends exchange gifts they often open them then and there, but that’s NOT how they do it here. You must hold all your gifts and open them only on Christmas Eve after dinner. And everyone just gives ONE gift to each person – even parents to children – they just give ONE gift on Christmas Eve. I’m sure the Christmas police will show up at our house tomorrow morning as we held back the bulk of our gifts for our traditional American Christmas morning. (At last count I think Kaleb had ten gifts under the tree, which is only excusable because we ARE American, I’m sure, as they expect we are full of excessive indulgences.) So tonight, everyone watched as each gift was opened and after about two hours, we took a break for coffee and dessert (cakes, cookies, fruit and vanilla sauce and lots of candy), then went back to it. At some point, Jule Nisse came knocking on the door with a bag of goodies for everyone (another standard Norsk tradition). Kaleb gave me the evil eye as he is still wanting to believe in Santa, but there was no doubt this one was a fake since his pillow was spilling out of his robe and the mask that all Norwegians Santas wear was far from believable (see photo). I had no answers for his thousand questions. We went back to opening gifts and by 11:00 we were done. I’m sure the celebration will go until the wee hours of the morning, but when Kaleb started to fall asleep on the couch by 11:45, we had to leave since he’s getting too big to carry.
The newspaper this week asked a bunch of people what their favorite part of Christmas was and almost everyone said “the food.” But I’m sure if they thought about that a bit more they’d agree with a quote from W.S. Gilbert that says, “It’s not so much what’s on the table that matters, as what’s on the chairs.” As being with such a wonderful family makes any day a great day. God Jul til alle….
2 comments:
I had quite the cultural experience when I married Rod. His family is all Norweigan decent. I had never heard of opening gifts on Christmas Eve, and they did ALL of theirs on Christmas Eve.
We've worked out our traditions... but it's extremely interesting to me to have someone else experience some of the Norweigan traditions that I have become aware of... and that they are still observed three generations since his family came to the states. Merry Christmas!
I am half Norwegian so we grew up with the same tradition.... ALL the gifts opened on Christmas Eve. Of course Kory did the same. But growing up in America, I always felt a little ripped off that we didn't have that Christmas morning thrill of all the presents from Santa under the tree waiting to be opened like we saw in the movies. (We got a few things in a stocking, but that was it.) So our tradition since Kaleb's been born is that we we open just a few gifts on Christmas Eve when we have a houseful of people and Santa comes for a visit (a Norwegian tradition - so we have a huge neighbor come in a Santa suit, riding his Harley, and he's usually a little tipsy... it's a little Americanized there but really a hoot.) Then Christmas morning when it's just the three of us, we open everything else and let Kaleb spend the day playing with what he got. Kaleb likes it this way and didn't want to change it this year (I asked him if we could do it the TOTALLY Norwegian way, and he loudly protested.) So there you go, he has a nice mix of both cultures.
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