Youngblog

Christmas in Norway

On Thursday, December 10th, the company put together a great Christmas party for all employees and their families. They set up a large sealed pavilion for everyone to mingle in, and provided "gløgg,"

a drink kind of like wassail (the name reminds me of "grog" in English), beer, fruit juice, soda and other beverages, along with "pepperkaker,"

gingerbread cookies. Seems like gløgg and gingerbread cookies accompany almost every holiday gathering here. On the cookie you can read the way Norwegians say "Merry Christmas" to each other. It sounds kind of like "Go Yule." Here is one of my colleagues at Tandberg, Rune Schumann, enjoying himself at the party.

They also provided live music and other activities.

I have really been surprised by how big of a deal Christmas is here in Norway. I expected them to celebrate it, but I almost think they celebrate it more than we do. Pretty much everyone here has advent candles burning at dinner time, and they all get dressed up in Sunday best on Christmas Eve, go to church, and dance around the Christmas tree while singing songs, among other things. Besides department stores, they even play Christmas music on the bus, where I happened to hear an especially cheesy rendition of "All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth" the other day. It really has been fun to see how excited everyone is for the holiday. I will be spending Christmas this year in Bergen with a dear friend from high school and his family. I'm really going to miss Kami and the kids, but it has helped to be able to do video chats with each other on Skype.

Today I am in Bergen for "Lillejulaften," which is the word they use for Christmas Eve Eve. Christmas Eve is called Julaften, so it literally means "little Christmas Eve."