I haven't been able to share as much international Christmas music this year as I would like, though I do still have a few things to share before time runs out. This one was an automatic purchase based on the cover alone, I mean, how could you resist puppies! This record comes to us all the way from Norway, and is on the label that brought The Beatles to the world, though I'm sure it's a slightly different arm of the company. There's nothing else about this album that's going to bring The Beatles to mind, but it will give you a good idea of the sound of Christmas in Norway in the early Seventies. I'm not certain about the date, but I think that's what I got from Discogs. Could be this is a little earlier, but you never can tell. The LP is split among two different artists,
Sølvguttene and
Olav Werner, and the title is
Glade Jul (Odeon/Parlophone (Norway) SMOCN 1001, Stereo, 1974).
1. Jeg Er Så Glad Hver Julekveld
2. Kimer, I Klokker
3. Et Barn Er Født I Betlehem
4. Jeg Synger Julekvad
5. Her Kommer Dine Arme Små
6. Du Grønne Glitrende Tre Goddag
7. Glade Jul
8. Deilig Er Den Himmel Blå
9. O Jul Med Din Glede
10. Deilig Er Jorden
11. Det Kimer Nu Til Julefest
12. O, Du Herlige
MEGA
The tree appears to be decorated with Rubik's Cubes. Or maybe they are potholders. Hard to tell.
ReplyDeleteAnd flags, lots of flags!
ReplyDeleteYou know, I was in the store not long ago and they didn't have any of the Glade Jul. I had to settle for the Febreze Pine (which actually smells more like licorice). Just sayin'.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Ernie.
ReplyDeleteRich
Haha I'd buy that for the cover alone myself - those rubik's cubes are braided "christmas baskets". We used to make them with colored paper strips at school in the 80's too. And yeah I remember all those tiny flags on our christmas trees as well. Now I'd like our tree too look exactly like that again. And I miss the pine walls, pine furniture... pine everywhere. It really looked like we were all living in cabins.
ReplyDeleteSølvguttene (the silver boys) still "sings christmas in" for everyone at the government-owned television channel at five o' clock every christmas eve (which is to us what christmas day is to you) as they've done for over 50 years.
they use the same paper to wrap every gift in norway? that’s more economical and efficient i suppose. years ago, i was helping a chinese immigrant family “become american”, and this included instructions on how to celebrate christmas. seems easy, right? well, when you’ve grown up communist and atheist and have never heard of santa claus or the sweet baby jesus, it’s all rather mysterious. (“he walked on what?) somehow, amid the details of gift-giving, i neglected to mention that it’s customary to use different wrapping paper for different gifts… at least, it was customary in my family. (it helped that we had an attic to store all those roles for the rest of the year.) as i was mr christmas, i made it a point to wrap my dozen gifts in a dozen different papers. when i showed up to see their christmas handiwork, everything was perfectly typical, except that every present under their tree was in the same pattern paper. even one or two others would have been a vast improvement. and in later years, improvements they made.
ReplyDeletebut maybe one is enough. (the french say one egg is enough.) now that i live in an eensy teensy little apartment, i devote no space to storing gift paper… a practice i could have learned from the norwegians. for that matter, i’ve never put little flags on my tree… or pot holders or rubik’s cubes. improvements i must make.
I guess its not common to wrap each and every gift in unique paper (it depends on who you are, I don't really think about it much and let the shop wrap the few gifts I buy gifts for me), but this still appears to be the result of a lazy set designer. The presents would be from more than one person, so there would always be a wide variety wrapping paper.
ReplyDeleteCharming story about the chinese immigrant family. Its really no wonder they found our Santa Claus and the sweet baby Jesus-celebration a bit of a head scratcher.
you see. somebody believes my stories.
ReplyDeleteIs that popcorn on string? My mother always used to tell about the year our family strung popcorn to hang on the tree and how the popcorn all disappeared up to the height my two youngest sisters could reach.
ReplyDelete