The Christmas Season.

Christmas season is one of the holidays that people look forward to it for the whole year. This was my first time celebrating Christmas outside my country and I'm glad it happened because I will never look at Christmas the same again. From late November, it started feeling like Christmas and I have been feeling Christmassy for a long long time till early January.

Most of us are used to celebrate Christmas on 25th December but here in Norway they celebrate on 24th December but from my experience, I think we have celebrated Christmas the whole of December. They have so many traditions for the Christmas season I'm going to try to explain some.

Advent calendar 

It is a special calendar used to count the days of Advent in anticipation of Christmas. Small gifts are given on each day of December leading to Christmas so you open gifts every day.

Dancing around the tree

Dancing around the Christmas tree, here the family hold hands and dance around the Christmas tree while singing carols.

Traditional Norwegian food

They eat Norwegian traditional Christmas food which includes pork ribs, dried lamb ribs, rice porridge, and fish. They have a special Christmas soda and beer called Julebrus and Juleøl. Gingerbread is eaten a lot during this time.

Decorations

The cities and malls are decorated with Christmas trees and decorations. Also during the Christmas season, they try to decorate lights outside of the houses may be because December is one of the darkest months or just to spice up the Christmas mood.

Roll the dice Christmas exchange game

In this game when you roll the dice and get one or six then you choose a gift from the pile of gifts on the table. The dice go around in the circle of people who are playing the game.

The dice in my hand as it was my turn to roll

One time going around the shops I found a book section that has Christmas quiz books.

Jule means Christmas in the Norwegian language

During Christmas, most people visit their family to spend time together maybe because its one of the celebrations that Norwegians take it to heart.

What surprised me the most is that the time between Christmas and New year most of the shops are not open or are closed earlier and not many transport buses. While in my country Tanzania at that period people open shops and the transport buses make a lot of money since the holiday season means a lot of movement. I tried asking people around and checking the internet then I came to know that it is like a time where they use just to stay indoors, going on trips and reflecting about the ending year and plan about the new year.
The Christmas season was the most amazing experience I have ever had and I got a lot of Christmas gifts for the first time. I'm so glad I got this chance to come to Norway and do things I used to read in Novels.

Book
One of the many gifts I got