ContentsChristmas Traditions in Norway . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . v

A Grandma for Christmas

1. Christmas Plans at Roland Farm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

2. A Christmas Fishing Trip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

3. Company for Christmas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

Discussion Questions and Activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

Traditional Norwegian Recipes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

Norwegian Christmas Crafts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

Christmas Traditions in Norway

Winter in Norway is cold and dark. The days are short, the nights are long, and the air is icy. Christmas-time, or jul, comes when the darkness is greatest, when everyone longs for the coming of the Light.

AdventThe time leading up to

Christmas is known as Advent. It is a time filled with lights, food, preparation, and anticipation. The Advent season begins on the fourth Sunday before Christmas, when families gather together with food and song to light the first candle of Advent. On the second Sunday, two candles are lit; the third, three candles; and on the fourth, the Sunday before Christmas, all candles are lit.

During Advent, one way that families prepare for Christmas is by making gifts and decorations. Christmas workshops are held across Norway where people gather to create festive crafts and enjoy the company of friends.

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BakingIn Norway, food is an

essential part of their Christmas traditions and celebrations. Many families bake several different types of sweets

to give as gifts and to enjoy during the Advent season. The tradition is to bake at least “seven sorts” of treats. Homes are filled with the sweet and spicy heavenly scent of Christmas as families bake “good advice” waffles (Goro), sugary sand cakes (sandkake), syrup snaps (sirupsnipper), “Berlin wreath” butter cookies (berlinerkranser), doughnut-like rings (smultringer), ginger nuts (ingefærnøtter), and, not to be forgotten, gingerbread cookies (pepperkaker).

Gingerbread cookies aren’t just for eating in Norway. Some are beautifuly crafted using molds that have been handed down through generations and then iced to create simple yet beautiful decorations, ornaments, and gifts.

Santa Lucia DaySanta Lucia Day is celebrated across Scandanavian

countries, including Norway, on the thirteenth of December. To celebrate, the children of the family dress in white and wake early to bring their parents or

1Christmas Plans at Roland Farm

Gunnuf was running home from school as fast as he could go through the snowy dusk. Darkness set in early these December days in the Norwegian mountains where Gunnuf lived, but he didn’t mind in the least, for the summer days were long enough to make up for it. Besides, the short days meant that it was getting on toward Christmas time; and Christmas on Roland Farm, where Gunnuf lived, in the picturesque land of Telemarken, was the very jolliest season of the year and the one he liked best of all.

There was a fresh snowfall today, and that always made him feel as frisky as the lambs in spring

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frolicking about his father’s high mountain pastures. Of course it had meant that he must stop to throw snowballs at the boys and dodge the ones thrown at him, and also to pretend he was going to put snow down the necks of his sisters Aaslaug and Ragnhild and Cousin Signe and any other little girls he could capture. They had squealed and scolded, but he knew they liked it, for though they pretended to run away, they generally managed to scamper right across his path.

All this delayed Gunnuf, and he had important business on hand, so at last he had broken away from the others and started to run home very fast. He had promised to help his sister Helga after school. They would thread the Christmas flatbread through the round hole in the middle of each cake onto long poles and hang them high for safekeeping. And not only

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was he looking forward to the crisp, delicious bits Helga would give him in return for his services, but he hoped to enlist her help in a Christmas project of his own.

To Gunnuf, the little log bakehouse was always one of the most attractive buildings on the farm, but at Christmas time it was doubly so. Sister Helga was in charge out there, for Mother was too busy with the Christmas spinning and weaving to have time for anything else. But the other girls helped too—Margot and Kristina and even Aaslaug and little Ragnhild.

This afternoon the bakehouse looked very cozy with the firelight gleaming through the little window on the dancing snowflakes, and he pelted down the path and threw open the door to find Kristina kneeling on the hearth, baking the lefse which Helga was rolling out,

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while great stacks of flatbread stood, freshly baked, on one corner of the well-scrubbed hearth.

“It’s about time, young man!” said Helga. “Shut that door and come in here and get to work.” But though she sounded severe, her brown eyes smiled, and she pointed to a little heap of fresh, broken bits of flatbread which she had saved for him.

Gunnuf had hoped to find Helga alone, and now he offered to tend the baking if Kristina had something else to do in the main house, but the girls only laughed at him. “A fine mess you’d make of it,” said Kristina, turning her cakes with care. “You’d burn these up, and then where would our Christmas baking be?”

So he drank the mug of good, cold sour milk Helga had ready for him, smacked his lips of the bits of flatbread, and set to work stringing the large, crisp disks on their poles.

Helga finished rolling out the lefse and started to

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make the delicious rosettes, Gunnuf ’s favorite of all the Christmas goodies. She must make a batter for these, dip the rosette iron into it, and fry the cakes, one by one, in a deep kettle of fat on the hearth. It was a mouth-watering business, but a slow one, and Kristina had her work finished while Helga was still in the very midst of frying rosettes.

To Gunnuf ’s great satisfaction, Kristina went away then, and he prepared to unfold his project to Helga. But he only had time to begin, “Helga, I want to see if you’ll help me with something, and it’s a secret,” when Brother Ole came into the room, sniffed the air with pleasure, and helped himself to a rosette. It would

KRINGLER

Th ese traditional cookies are slightly sweet, fragrant, and soft . Th ey’re shaped in fi gure eights (like the infi nity sign) to symbolize Christ’s gift of everlasting life.

1 cup sugar½ cup butter½ cup cream4 egg yolksCardamon or other fl avoring to tasteAbout 2 cups fl our2 teaspoons baking powder

1. Cream butter, sugar, and eggs. Add cream and baking powder.

2. Mix in fl our. 3. Form into rolls about ¾ inch in diameter. Cut

into 4-inch lengths.4. Shape into circles or fi gure eights. Sprinkle with

sugar and chopped nuts. 5. Bake at 350°F for 8–10 minutes.

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ORANGE-CLOVE POMANDERS

Th ese make beautiful decorations hung from ribbons, grouped together in a bowl, or even with a portion of the orange removed to fi t a tea light. Th ey are simple to create and fi ll the home with a sweet, spicy scent. Th ese, as well as dried fruit slices, are common additions to mantles and evergreen decorations in Norway.

Supplies:Oranges (any size)Whole clovesToothpicksRibbon, traditionally red (about 20”)

Directions:1. Wrap orange with ribbon, twist, and bring back

up to the top to make a fi rm knot (like wrapping ribbon around a package). Don’t cut the excess;

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