Christmas preparation in Norway

My Christmas written by Sofie

For me Christmas starts the morning of December 1st. Then I wake up to see that my Mom has wrapped in one present for each day of December until the 24th. It is called advent presents, and it makes the 24 days a bit more fun!

It is said that you should bake seven different kinds of cookies for Christmas. But in my family we bake Chocolate chip cookies, ginger biscuits, and two or three other types. After years of experience on this area we have come to the conclusion that we have to make them the weekend before the holiday. Otherwise they would have been eaten up before the big evening. Especially the chocolate chip cookies are very popular in my house.

Every year I stress around trying to find the perfect presents for my family and to my friends. But it is nice too. I love it when I find something that screams at me with one of their personalities. I don’t think that price matters, it is not important if the present is expensive or inexpensive. It is the meaning of it that counts. All the gifts are opened on Christmas Eve after a lovely meal.

Some days before Christmas Eve my family and I, or mostly my dad goes up on the attic to find all of our indoor Christmas decoration. The outdoor decorations, like some Christmas light and the little Santa, made of wood, which is holding a torch has been set up in the beginning of December.
When my Dad comes down from the attic, my mother, sister and I eager to start decorate our house for Christmas. We sing along to Christmas songs as we are really getting in the mood for our favourite holiday! After some time, you can not look in any direction without spotting a little Santa or a beautiful angel. In my house we decorate our Christmas tree the day before Christmas Eve, and that is Christmas!

When I wake up on the 24th I put some wool-socks on and run upstairs to open my last advent present, and then you can find me sitting in front of the television for some time. I always watch the Czech version of “three nuts to Cinderella.” When that is finished I have to get dressed. Every year my whole family on my father’s side gathers at his parent’s house to eat Christmas porridge, and exchange gifts. It is a tradition I have been born into.
Then we come home, and my parents start preparing the Christmas meal. When we are celebrating the holiday at home in Bergen we have salted ribs of mutton with potatoes and mashed Swedes to eat. If we are with my mother’s family in Oslo, we are always served ribs of pork.

We eat around 6 o’clock, followed with a great dessert. I always overeat on Christmas Eve. Sometimes I have trouble walking afterwards, but it is so tasteful, delicious, and I can not stop myself.

When the food has been eaten up, we start to open the gifts, it depends on how many we are, but mostly we are not finished unwrapping gifts until some hours have past. We have a system, so each person opens one gift, and then it is someone else’s turn to open their gift. In this way, we can all see what the other is getting as well as the excitement is not over within a few minutes.

And then Christmas Eve is over. Now days of relaxing are coming up, and that is not so bad either!