Wait, it’s already December 21? Forget blogging, I need to go downtown and buy some wrapping paper!
Then again, I still have a cup of hot chocolate to finish, so I guess I could stay for a bit. Plus, I have photos of Christmas cookies to share and Norwegian Christmas traditions to discuss. So you know, important stuff.
Christmas is a big deal in Norway, and everyone here appreciates that it comes during the darkest time of the year. No time to feel blue about the lack of sunlight when there are Christmas decorations to hang (though they’re quite a bit less elaborate than the ones in the U.S.), gifts to be bought, and Christmas parties to attend. Oh so many Christmas parties.
Julebord, or Christmas feasts, abound in the weeks leading up to Christmas – even Trondheim’s Arsenal fans held a formal julebord with traditional Norwegian Christmas food – but by far the best Christmas party must be the lutefisk party!
Doesn’t it look yummy? I don’t really see why lutefisk gets such a bad rap. It’s made from dried white fish that is first soaked in water for several days, then soaked in lye (which you’ll know as paint stripper or drain cleaner) for a couple days, and then soaked again in water for a few days so that it’s not poisonous. This gives it a lovely gelatinous texture and while there’s not much flavor left at this point, cover it in some bacon bits and serve it with potatoes and mushy peas and you’ve got yourself Christmas on a plate!
My grandmother kindly waited until I was in Bø to hold her lutefisk party. This was the first time at one of my grandmother’s parties where I actually understood everything people were saying, and I was relieved to find that my grandmother’s friends are so nice. And funny! I had no idea.
Read Also: An American in Rauland – Why?
And then there’s all the Christmas baking. Guys, I feel like I’ve been baking nonstop since I arrived in Bø. Apparently the hundreds of Christmas cookies we snack on each year aren’t made by magical little elves? Again, I’m learning so much this Christmas.
Now, Christmas cookies in Norway probably vary family to family, but I imagine everyone makes (or buys) the classic . Krumkaker are thin waffle-like cookies made in a special iron, and then rolled into a cone while they’re still piping hot. My fingertips are still a little swollen from the process, but they’re so worth it!
And a favorite in my family is the almond lace cookie, which also needs to be formed while hot. My grandmother unwisely left me to bake these, and since I’m such a slow mover only half of the cookies made it onto the foil-covered pole to shape, whoops (but really, does it really matter? Uh, apparently it does).
On the 23rd we’ll head up to my grandmother’s cabin in the mountains where we’ll decorate the Christmas tree and then we’ll celebrate Christmas on the 24th!
On Christmas Eve morning children wake up to stockings filled with sweets left by little elves, and then everyone eats rice porridge, which has an almond hidden in it. Whoever finds the almond wins a marzipan pig!
And then after dinner Santa will stop by and hand out Christmas presents.
What’s that you say, you have to wait until the morning of the 25th to open your presents, which Santa has dropped off in secret without so much as saying hello? Hm, it sounds like he doesn’t love you as much as he loves Norwegians!
Interested in Christmas in Norway? This year I’m doing Vlogmas, where I’ll be making videos everyday up until Christmas. Subscribe here if you want to follow along with life in a log cabin in the Norwegian mountains during Christmas!
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Elizabeth says
Yesterday in the grocery store I saw marzipan pigs in the Christmas section and was SO confused about what they were! But now I understand! 🙂
Silvia says
Oh that’s so funny! I wonder how many other cultures also include marzipan pigs in their Christmas traditions.
Zascha says
We have the rice pudding with the almond in it as well here in Denmark. It is soooo yummy. Could eat all year round.
Silvia says
Right? It’s such cozy food!
Kaelene @ Unlocking Kiki says
We do the rice pudding with the almond as well, such a fun tradition 🙂 Have a wonderful Christmas, your cabin sounds amazing!
Silvia says
I love the overlaps between our adopted countries!
Lauren Lalicon says
Those desserts look so YUMMY! Do you fill the krumkakers with anything? These traditions are so festive! My family doesn’t have any traditions, but we DO open our presents on Christmas Eve. I think it’s a common tradition among Filipinos too! Christmas Eve is a much more exciting holiday for us than Christmas haha
Silvia says
I was about to say that no, we don’t fill them with anything, but then I asked my grandmother and aunt and they said that yes, sometimes people fill them with cream and berries! Though they said usually if you’re going to do that you’ll form them into a little bowl instead of a cone, which you can do by placing if over a cup apparently.
Mary B says
I’ve never had a krumkaker but they look gorgeous! Perhaps it’s not traditional, but I’d be itching to fill them with some kind of delicious pastry cream… and/or dip them in chocolate.
In Honduras the big celebrations are on Christmas Eve, too – making tamales to share with neighbors, having a big family dinner, setting off fireworks (it always made Christmas Day feel a little anticlimactic, which was hard to wrap my American brain around). I wonder why some places celebrate on the day and others on the eve?
Happy Christmas!
Silvia says
Oooh krumkaker dipped in chocolate sounds wonderful! And yeah, I’m also curious why places celebrate on either the 24th or the 25th.
Monica says
Kromkake is a loong tradition. Both with or without filling 😀
Joella says
I love how every European country has a different take on Christmas- it’s so fun! I am a Trip Bitten fan and funnily enough, I realized recently that Yvonne and I were at the same event once at Bookworm ( a kind of bookstore/library/cafe/event space) in Beijing. She also has a blog in Dutch and she was talking about writing in Dutch (I always notice when people talk about Holland because my sister lives there)- I only realised it was her recently. It’s a shame I didn’t know then!
Silvia says
That’s so crazy that were in the same place as Yvonne and didn’t realize it! Sometimes it really is such a small world.
Lindsey says
I loved learning about your Christmas traditions. Both cookies looked delicious.
Silvia says
They are delicious!
nearandfaraz says
Great post! The dessert photos are beautiful. My dad was Norwegian, and he always loved his lutefisk at Christmas time. I can’t say that my sisters and I ever really embraced it, though. 🙂 Yours looks delicious, and your time with your grandmother sounds wonderful. I visited Norway once years ago, and I would so love to return.
BTW, I just checked out Trip Bitten, and it IS very interesting. A little different take on things, which is great! I always enjoy reading your posts, and your photos are spectacular. Keep up the good work!
Silvia says
Your comment made me so happy, I’m so glad you enjoy reading my posts!
Kelly says
I love learning about Christmas in other cultures! I just returned from Honduras last week, and even though the temperatures were sweltering and it was humid as heck, there were Christmas decorations EVERYWHERE, and they even put them up before Thanksgiving! It was weird seeing so many Christmas lights, wreaths and ornaments strung across palm trees and such, but I loved it. All of the restaurants and grocery stores were fully decorated too!
Silvia says
Oh wow, that’s crazy that they start with Christmas so early in Honduras!
Lauri Kelly says
All four of my grandparents immigrated from Norway. We have deep Norwegian traditions especially at Christmas. Mom would make many Norwegian cookies and our favorite was Krumkaker. (We never filled them). Mom always made rice cream and put a shaved AL in in and someone got a wrapped gift. My sister and I are carrying in the tradition of rice cream and lots of Norwegian cookies. We lost mom five years ago but love all the traditions she carried on.
Lauri
Silvia says
Ooh that sounds so wonderful! It’s really lovely that you and your sister are carrying on the traditions!
sharon ratzburg says
We also make lefsa, and I have been looking for somewhere to get the ingredients for klub (or better yet someplace that makes it), my gramma made it every fall and into the winter as pigs were butchered. I have not been able to get it since she passed.
Marisa Bo says
I married into a Norwegian family and love all the traditions that I now celebrate and carry onto my children. Someday (hopefully sooner than later) I would love to celebrate a Christmas in Norway.
Silvia says
They do have such wonderful traditions!
Christine says
My family often makes Krumkake and lefse, other Norwegian (I thought) cookies we make are sandbakkels and rosettes, do you see those in Norway also? Did my family lie to me about Scandinavian origins of our cookie traditions? 🙂
Silvia says
Oh yes, they’re all Norwegian!
Pauline says
My family is Norwegian also. We make krumkake and kringla (its what my grandmother called these figure 8 looking, soft and fluffy cookies) and …. wait for it…. LEFSE!!! I love them all! When I was a youngster, the whole family gathered at grandma and grandpas on New Year’s Eve for food (kjottkaker. lutefisk -even though grandma couldn’t get anyone other than grandpa to eat it- and all the yummy sweets I mentioned earlier) and presents. Then Santa came to give all us kids a present. I loved Christmas at grandma’s! I remember being a kid in school and thinking how weird it was that none of my classmates and friends had ever actually ever met Santa. I love being Norwegian 🙂
Ersula says
Where oh where can I find rice pudding bowls such as those?! They’re darling!
Kristine says
Tussen tak for the lovely post! I grew up with the same traditions … except the cookies on the pole. 🙂 I even made my own kransekakke for my wedding, and Christmases,.. just because I Love them and they are SO pretty…if they don’t crumble! 😘
Oma LC says
One word. Julekaka. Warm out of the oven. I’ve made up to 25 loaves at Christmas time. Always looked forward to.
Judy Peck says
my Dad and his family immigrated from Norway when he was ten. We had Christmas Eve at Grandma and Grandpa’s every year. lutefiske and boiled potatoes, . And Rumegrut?? A sour cream pudding served with melted butter and sugar.. We had Lefse and krumkaka. Plus another cookie that I really liked. Fattimon? It was tied in a knot. Yum.
The only thing I still make now are Norwegian pancakes.. My kids make them for their kids too. I used to make krumkaka, but when we moved and had a gas stove it melted the iron and I never got another one. I loved my Grandmas rolepolsa? Yummy sandwich meat. And her Christmas bread.
Karen says
My dad was Norwegian & we try to carry on his traditions, including yulekaga (can’t have Christmas without it), fattigmand, sandbakkels…I used to make him lefse too but drew the line at some of his delicacies – klub, sulte, head cheese). Now I make glögg too.
Suzanne says
This looks so good! What a great treat to make in the winter!