Photo. Popular man in Karl Johansgate in the center of Oslo, Norway. © Travel Explorations.
People rush for their life in the main street. The shopping fever is hanging over the Norwegian, especially the women like to shop around, and they do iy in a high tempo.
The big, lighted Christmas trees in the squares, streets are decorated with garlands and lights, and big-eyed children look in the window where all sort of fancy thing are displayed.
Best party places are John`s Bar and Tordenskjold. At these places there are full packed with crazy Santa Claus men and women.
Not so far from Oslo, the building where Julenissen is said to live, Tregaarden’s Christmas House, occupies a prime location on Drøbak’s town square where strict preservation laws have maintained many original buildings from the town’s heyday as a major port during the 18th and 19th centuries.
The Christmas House has taken over one of these historic buildings, originally used as a religious meeting house, which owner Eva Johansen and her husband Willy purchased and restored in the 1980s. Through the years they have turned Julenissen’s home into a focal point for the Christmas spirit in Norway.
Open ten months a year, Eva’s own Julenissen and Christmas Mouse designs in the form of soft dolls and decorations are displayed and sold. In fact, the Julenissen persona has become so pervasive throughout Drøbak that the Christmas gnome even has his own official road crossing sign that warns: Danger – Watch Out for Julenissen!
Photo. A popular man in Karl Johansgate in the center of Oslo, Norway. © Travel Explorations. Not surprisingly, Julenissen receives mail from fans on every continent. To handle the huge volume, Julenissen’s Post Office was established in another historic building next to the Christmas House. Here 20,000 letters stream in every year with Christmas wishes, not only from children but from adults as well. |  |
Julenissen even has his own official postal address and postmark depicting the Julenissen figure, which is stamped onto each postcard. If you haven’t already done so, you can send your Christmas wish list to: Julenissen, N-1440 Drøbak, Norway. If you happen to be in Drøbak, you can also send your own Christmas greetings from Julenissen’s Post Office, and they will be stamped with the official insignia.
Although Julenissen has received visitors from practically every country, he seems to have a special relationship with the people of Japan. Young Japanese school children are sometimes given the assignment of writing a letter to Julenissen in Norway. Hundreds of multi-colored origami cranes, a Japanese symbol of hope for world peace, have been sent to Julenissen and now hang in the Tourist Information Office.
Photo. Karl Johansgate, the main street in Oslo. © Travel Explorations. The Norwegian keep up their Christmas spirit despite the totally lack of snow this year (2006). |  |
In November previous year giant images of Julenissen and a Norwegian Christmas tree were lighted on the facades of two Tokyo hotel skyscrapers in a special illumination ceremony to kick off the hotel chain’s Christmas season. Both Eva Johansen and the Norwegian ambassador to Japan participated as VIP guests and were joined by 3-year old Princess Aiko, daughter of the crown prince couple.
Two other Japanese corporate giants have recruited Julenissen to help with commercial and charitable activities such as passing out Norwegian candy to Japanese children, visiting children’s hospitals, and conducting competitions to win special Christmas books designed and produced in Drøbak. These activities began three years ago and have grown in size and popularity each year.
What makes this dumpy white-bearded gnome dressed in red stocking cap and knee breeches so appealing the world over? Eva Johansen thinks she knows the answer: “Everybody in this world wants peace. If you read the letters to Julenissen from so many different countries, you will see that the desire for peace is a common theme. This is true no matter what kind of society you come from or what religion you are. We receive letters from Muslims as well as Christians and from people in Asian countries without a Christmas tradition. All of them view Julenissen as a symbol of Norwegian Christmas, which translates into a symbol of peace.”
Photo. In the middle of Oslo there are opportunities for ice skating.
© Travel Explorations. With loud music on many like to dance on the dance. |  |
Julenissen also has many small relatives, called simply nisser, who live in places like barns and boathouses, but they tend to be rather shy around humans and they only emerge from their hiding places to play harmless tricks on people or eat the porridge left out for them as a special treat.
The nisse figure is not just a dusty old folk legend. It lives on today in the imaginations of both Norwegian children and adults as it continually adopts new forms. A few years ago the Norwegian national television produced an extraordinarily popular children’s Christmas series (Blåfjell) about nisser who wear blue stocking hats instead of the traditional red.
Stein Morten Lund, 11 December 2006
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