Christmas Customs of the Land of the Midnight Sun

In Norway there is a peculiar Christmas way of offering a lady a brooch or a pair of earrings in a truss of hay. The house door of the person complimented is pushed open, and there is thrown into the house a truss of hay or straw, a sheaf of corn or a bag of chaff. In some part of the "bottle of hay" envelope there is a needle of a present to be hunted for.

 

Feeding the Birds at Christmas

A favorite way for a lover to send a present to his mistress is to make a large brown paper bundle, which on being opened reveals a second parcel, with a loving motto on the cover, and so on, parcel within parcel, motto within motto, until the kernel of the paper husk is arrived at, which, opened, contains some delicate and valuable ornament.

 

One of the prettiest Norwegian customs at Christmas in the practice of giving on that day a dinner to the birds. On Christmas morning, every gable, gateway or barn door is decorated with a sheaf of corn fixed on a tall pole, where from it is intended that the birds shall make a Christmas dinner.

 

Even the poorest peasant will contrive to have a handful set aside for this purpose, and what the birds do not eat on Christmas day remains for them to finish at their leisure through the winter. The caroling of these birds about these poles makes a Norwegian Christmas cheery.

 

On New Year's day, friends and acquaintances always call upon each other, exchanging calls and good wishes. In a corner of each reception room stats a little table, which is kept furnished all day with wine, cakes and sweetmeats for the visitors, who talk, flirt, compliment and sip wine and nibble cake from house to house with great perseverance.

 

Christmas brings its cheer and joy year after year to the little ones of the household, but the time comes when they are supposed to be grown up beyond the desire for the Christmas tree, with its rich fruit of surprises. One of the jolliest Christmas celebrations possible, however, is to have a Christmas tree for the grown up folk.

 

- Semi-Weekly Iowa State Reporter, December 21, 1900, Waterloo, Iowa

Perhaps an update to an earlier version that appeared almost fifty-years before.

 

Christmas Customs in Norway

At Christiana, and other Norwegian towns, there is a delicate Christmas way of offering to a lady a brooch or a pair of earrings in a truss of hay. The house-door of the person complimented is pushed open and there is thrown into the house a truss of hay, or straw, a sheaf of corn, or a bag of chaff.

 

In some part of this bundle of hay envelope, there is a "needle" of a present to be hunted for. A friend of the writer received from her betrothed, according to this Christmas custom, an exceedingly large brown paper parcel, which, on being opened, revealed a second parcel with a loving motto on the cover. And so on, parcel after parcel, motto after motto, till the kernel of this paper bank -- which was at length discovered to be a delicate piece of minute jewelry -- was arrived at.

 

On of the prettiest Christmas customs in the Norwegian practice of giving, on that day, a dinner to the birds. On Christmas morning, every gable, gateway, or barn door is decorated with a sheaf of corn fixed on the top of a tall pole, where from it is intended that the birds shall make their Christmas dinner. Even the peasant will contrive to have a handful set by for this purpose, and what the birds do not eat on Christmas day, remains for them to finish at their leisure through the winter. The caroling of birds about these poles make a Norwegian Christmas in the fields quite holy to me.

 

On New Years day, in Norway, friends and acquaintances exchange calls and good wishes. In the corner of each reception room there stands a little table, furnished all through the day, with wine and cakes, and due refreshments, and they flirt, and sip wine, and nibble cake from house to house, with great perseverance.

 

Source: The Star and Banner, February 25, 1853, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania

 
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