A Norwegian Christmas

My mormor (mother’s mother), morfar (mother’s father), and Onkel Stein-Inge all immigrated to America from Bergen in the late 1950s. Come 1963, my mother was born, the only American citizen in the bunch. She grew up traveling back and forth between Norway and North Dakota, speaking both Norwegian and English and absorbing many aspects from both cultures.

She has always had a strong sense of Norwegian pride, and that didn’t change when she grew up and married an American farm-boy. The Norwegian heritage has its strongest influence on how we celebrate Christmas- it impacts what foods we eat, how we decorate, and what superstitions we adhere to.

Growing up, I never realized how different Christmas was in my house versus other America households. For me, Norwegian flags on the Christmas tree were an absolute necessity. Things with bizarre and hard to pronounce names, like risengryn grott, pinnekjott, and vaniljesaus were the foods of my childhood. And, of course, the Yule Nisse was a much awaited guest every Christmas Eve.

Our house is covered in Norwegian paraphernalia, and if you thought I was kidding

about the flags on the tree, well… just take a look at the picture. In addition, we have lots of nissen (trolls) for good luck, and phrases like “God Jul” (Merry Christmas) are practically everywhere.

That in itself isn’t so unusual, but some of our Christmas foods looks very unusual from an outside perspective. We eat pinnekjott, which is salted and pressured cooked lamb ribs, cooked for so long that you can eat the bones (which we do). We have vaniljesaus (a family vanilla sauce recipe) over jello, and, most importantly, we have risengryn grott.

Risengryn grott literally translates to “rice porridge,” which is essentially what it is. Rice, milk, a few secret ingredients, and many hours of continuous stirring and adjustments on the stove, well, that’s

our Christmas Eve lunch. We serve it in bowls, and one or two of the bowls have a hidden almond sliver in them. Whoever finds the almond in their bowl gets to open the gift from the Jul Nisse, the Christmas troll.

Yep, the Christmas troll. Most households have something like elf on the shelf, but we have the Christmas troll. The Jul Nisse is a very good troll who sneaks into houses every year early on Christmas Eve, and if the family has been good, then he leaves an early Christmas gift for them. It’s normally something along the lines of a movie or a game that we can all play while waiting to open the rest of the gifts after dinner. We open our personal gifts on Christmas Eve in the evening, and then gifts from Santa on Christmas Day.

So, yes, my house is kind of weird when it comes to Christmas, but I wouldn’t change it for the world.