# Norwegian: Holiday Greetings



## B's Garden

How do you wish an internet contact a Joyous Christmas and Happy Hollidays?
B's Garden


----------



## B's Garden

I neglected to mention that she lives in Norway when asking about Holiday greetings. Thank you,
B's Garden


----------



## Grefsen

B's Garden said:


> I neglected to mention that she lives in Norway when asking about Holiday greetings. Thank you,
> B's Garden


Welcome to the Nordic Language Forum *B's Garden.* 

One of the holiday greetings most commonly used in Norway is *"God Jul og Godt Nyttår!"* This is Norwegian for "Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!"


----------



## basslop

Remember that upper case letters are not used as frequently in Norwegian as in English. ... so:"God jul og godt nyttår".


----------



## Grefsen

basslop said:


> Remember that upper case letters are not used as frequently in Norwegian as in English. ... so:"God jul og godt nyttår".


Tusen takk for det basslop. 

I noticed that most of my friends in Norway have been using mostly lower case letters in their Christmas greetings.  However,  I thought I would mention too that during the past several days some of my native Norwegian speaking friends have used "God Jul!" in their holiday greetings.

Two other greetings I received today were "Glædelig Lille Jule Aften!" (Merry Little Christmas Eve!) and "Gledelig Jul!" (Merry Christmas!).  Several years ago I learned that Norwegians sometimes refer to December 23rd as "Little Christmas Eve."


----------



## basslop

Grefsen said:


> Tusen takk for det basslop.
> 
> I noticed that most of my friends in Norway have been using mostly lower case letters in their Christmas greetings.  However,  I thought I would mention too that during the past several days some of my native Norwegian speaking friends have used "God Jul!" in their holiday greetings.



Yes, the use of upper case letters is increasing. It is probably a result of the heavy influence from English, especially among the young people. The rules are clear though - lower case letters.  



Grefsen said:


> Two other greetings I received today were "Glædelig Lille Jule Aften!" (Merry Little Christmas Eve!) and "Gledelig Jul!" (Merry Christmas!).  Several years ago I learned that Norwegians sometimes refer to December 23rd as "Little Christmas Eve."



Yes we call the 23. "lille julaften". "Glædelig Lille Jule Aften". ... hm ... Glædelig is Danish or old fashioned Norwegian (before 1917 or something). In today's Norwegian: "Gledelig lille julaften".


----------



## basslop

Litterally translated: "Gledelig jul og lykkelig ferie". The last part sounds a bit odd, though. It should rather be: "Gledellig jul og god ferie". Even more common would be: "Ha en god/fin juleferie".


----------



## hanne

How about lillejulaften in one word? (In Danish it can be either one or two words, but I strongly prefer one )


----------



## Grefsen

hanne said:


> How about lillejulaften in one word? (In Danish it can be either one or two words, but I strongly prefer one )


Er denne hilsenen korrekt?

Is this greeting correct?

Gledelig julaften alle sammen!  Jeg håper du hadde en kjempefin lillejulaften og vil ha en riktig god jul også!

Joyous Christmas Eve everyone! I hope you had a great little Christmas Eve and will have a very Merry Christmas too!


----------



## cevita

> Gledelig julaften alle sammen! Jeg håper du hadde en kjempefin lillejulaften og vil ha en riktig god jul også!



First part of the sentence looks good. All though i have never heard anyone say gledelig julaften before, it sounds ok.

For the second part of the sentence I'd say:
Gledelig julaften alle sammen! Jeg håper du hadde en kjempefin lille julaften og at du får en riktig god jul også.


----------



## Grefsen

cevita said:


> First part of the sentence looks good. All though i have never heard anyone say gledelig julaften before, it sounds ok.


I just did some google searches and received only 5 results for *"gledelig julaften"* and 923 for *"god julaften."* However, for *"gledelig jul" *there were over 30,000 results. 



cevita said:


> For the second part of the sentence I'd say:
> Gledelig julaften alle sammen! Jeg håper du hadde en kjempefin lille julaften og at du får en riktig god jul også.


As a compromise I think I'll go with the following:

God julaften alle sammen! Jeg håper du hadde en kjempefin lille julaften og at du får en gledelig jul også.


----------



## cevita

^That is perfect 

I think your choice is excellent. "God" means "good" and "gledelig" "joyous", I always say "gledelig" as it sounds more special for the season. We use the word "god" all the time, but "gledelig" is reserved for christmas


----------



## vestfoldlilja

I just want to add that some might use the term romjul after the 24th. Romjul are the days after the 24th and between New Years Eve.


----------



## Cerb

Grefsen said:


> I just did some google searches and received only 5 results for *"gledelig julaften"* and 923 for *"god julaften."* However, for *"gledelig jul" *there were over 30,000 results.
> 
> As a compromise I think I'll go with the following:
> 
> God julaften alle sammen! Jeg håper du hadde en kjempefin lille julaften og at du får en gledelig jul også.


We don't wish each other a "god/gledelig juleaften" in Norway, we just use "jul" for this seasonal greeting. "God" can be used for any seasonal greeting and a number of other things, but usually for the holiday as a whole ("god påske", "god pinse").


----------



## Grefsen

vestfoldlilja said:


> I just want to add that some might use the term romjul after the 24th. Romjul are the days after the 24th and between New Years Eve.


Tusen takk for det vestfoldlilja og god romjul! 

In the past I've been a bit uncertain about the proper use of the term *"romjul"* and whether or not it included Christmas Day, Boxing Day (December 26th), as well as New Year's eve.  Just to be safe,  I typically only used *"romjul"* for December 27-30. 

I guess today was my lucky day because I was invited to two Norwegian *"romjul"* parties this coming week.   I wanted to mention this to some friends in Norway and was wondering if a party held during *"romjul"* is typically called a *"romjul fest"  **p**å norsk* or is there another expression more commonly used?


----------



## Grefsen

Grefsen said:


> I guess today was my lucky day because I was invited to two Norwegian *"romjul"* parties this coming week.   I wanted to mention this to some friends in Norway and was wondering if a party held during *"romjul"* is typically called a *"romjul fest"  **p**å norsk* or is there another expression more commonly used?


I just learned in the following post that the compound word I should use for a *"romjul"* party is *"romjulsfest."*

http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?p=8270390&highlight=romjulsfest#post8270390

Would the plural of *"romjulsfest"* be *"romjulsfester"*?

Here is an example:

I have been to two "romjul" parties during the past two days.

Jeg har vært til to romjulsfester i løpet av de siste to dagene.


----------



## vestfoldlilja

Yes, that's correct, though it needs to be *på * and not *til.*


----------



## Grefsen

vestfoldlilja said:


> Yes, that's correct, though it needs to be *på * and not *til.*


*Tusen takk for hjelpen! * 

Unfortunately I seem to have a mental block wrt. using *på *to mean "to" as in *"jeg har **vært **på" *(I have been to).   Hopefully the next time I start to write *"til" *instead of* "**på," *I'll remember your correction in this thread and get if right.* *


----------

