A Norwegian Christmas is filled with many celebrations and traditions, old and new. As the snow falls, the white landscape is the first sign of Christmas and Norway starts to prepare for their long season of juletid.
November: As the snow comes, Norway enters the Christmas season early with a series of Christmas parties. Work, clubs, schools and every other organisation hold their Christmas parties throughout November. It is very usual for Norwegians to attend several parties over this time.
City Lights: Every year, usually at the end of November when the dark season has set in, each city has a lighting of the City Lights ceremony, complete with parade and an honorary person pulling the big switch to light up the city streets.
Advent: Advent means ‘coming’ and is a preparation time for Christians to celebrate the birth of Christ. Advent starts on Advent Sunday which marks four Sundays before Christmas. A candelabra that holds four candles is used to commemorate each Sunday. On the first Sunday the first candle is lit. On the second Sunday the first two candles are lit. and so forth. At each lighting of the candles special song is recited.
Song: The Advent Song – in Norwegian with English translation
It is also typical for Norwegian homes to have Advent calendars or Christmas calendars to count down the days to Christmas. These are filled with presents and lollies. Advent starts the Christmas concert season. In every city, every choir, band and music group have their annual Christmas performances in churches throughout the city.