Old-Fashioned Christmas

Begin a new family tradition with us!  On the first Saturday of December, join us as we celebrate an Old-Fashioned Christmas complete with traditional Norwegian food and goodies, family crafts, heritage skills demonstrations, and maybe even a visit from Santa!  Other activities could include horse-drawn wagon rides, a yule log hunt, craft and gift vendors, and a bell choir concert in our historic chapel!

For 2023, Old Fashioned Christmas has a few new details; all your favorites will be there, of course, but we’re adding to the excitement of the day!

Every year, we hear guests say they wish they could have brought a friend or family member with them, as they would have LOVED our traditional meatball dinner, but this person wasn’t able to join them at Old Fashioned Christmas for any number o f reasons.  This year, we are making our beloved meatball dinner ready for you to take home and serve whenever it works for you!   Purchase a holiday bag complete with 4 servings of meatballs, lefse, corn and cookies, ready for your freezer!  You’ll be able to have a fabulous holiday dinner whenever it works for you.  These dinners will be available on a first-come, first-served basis at Old Fashioned Christmas.  

A Norwegian-American dinner will be served at the event: lefse, lefse-polsa, rømmegøt, homemade pie, and a mac-n-cheese bar.  

Along with our fabulous bake sale, you can also place an order for our Made-to-Order Bake Sale!  If you’re pretty sure that krumkake you just bought for Christmas dessert isn’t going to last until Christmas, just place an order with our Made-to-Order Bake Sale, and we’ll have fresh baked goods ready for you to pick up the week before Christmas!

Add to all of this a silent auction filled with Christmas collectibles and artwork, family-crafted ornaments, and more, and you won’t want to miss Old Fashioned Christmas with us!

Here’s a rough outline of the day: 

10:00 a.m.: Norskedalen opens for Old Fashioned Christmas!  Start with crafts in the Shelter, or begin in the Visitors’ Center to be the first in line for the bake sale and Made-to-Order Bake Sale.  Perhaps enjoy some homemade donuts and hot cider before heading out to the Homestead.  The choice is yours!  Just check out the Old Fashioned Christmas brochure to see all your options!

11:00 a.m.: The Buffet line opens for the Norwegian-American dinner.  You can also purchase the holiday bag filled with 4 servings of a meatball dinner; these dinners will go on a first-com-first-served basis so don’t wait too long if you’re counting on this for your holiday dinner!

Noon: Live music in the Visitors’ Center as GrassRun Band shares their gifts with us until 2 p.m.  Rumor has it that there will be live piano music following GrassRun’s set too.

2:00 p.m.: Bell Choir Concert in the Benrud Chapel.

So much more is happening around these events and throughout the day – we’ll look forward to seeing you at Old Fashioned Christmas!