Celebrate the holidays with a Norwegian Christmas event at Vesterheim Museum Campus Saturday, Dec. 2, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., with free admission to the museum and it’s special exhibitions for youth 17 and under. The event will be a day filled with joy, music and Norwegian holiday traditions.
In Heritage Park behind the museum, find goats from the Lost Pine Farm in Decorah and the giant wooden nisse. Watch for the julebukker, costumed folk who roam the museum campus scaring away evil spirits, or the young julenisse, Christmas elves playing tricks throughout campus.
Refreshments will be offered on the patio behind the Commons. Decorah’s Nordic Dancers will also have a fundraiser Christmas cookie sale that day.
Indoors, join Juletrefest (Norwegian Christmas tree party of singing around a decorated tree) with live music and the julenisse at 11:30 a.m., and 1 p.m., in the new Vesterheim Commons building.
Musical performances will be held in the museum’s Bethania Church: Northern Lights at 10:30 a.m.; Decorah Chorale at 11 a.m.; DHS Madrigal Singers at 11:30 a.m.; and Luren Singing Society at 1 p.m. A Touch of Brass will perform in the ship gallery in the Main Building at 12 p.m. Eden Ehm will wander through campus, playing Hardanger fiddle.
The museum’s Main Building will be decorated for the holidays and visitors will have a chance to make their own craft decorations or see many demonstrations. Find many craft stations throughout the Main Building and the first floor of the Commons. Ruth Green, Sally Stromseth and Lea Vestecka will demonstrate rosemaling in the Main Building. Kim Glock, Bob Lake, Darlene Fossum-Martin, Rebecca Hanna and Steph Hughes will demonstrate woodworking. Beverly Schrandt will make straw wheat ornaments; Jane Addams will knit; Renee Thoreson will show Hardangersøm embroidery; Oneota Weavers Guild members will demonstrate weaving and spinning, Mary Lake will show how to make lucet braids, and Sharon Christensen will demonstrate watercolor painting.
For more information, connect at vesterheim.org or call 563-382-9681.
Rolf Svanoe book signing will be 1:30-3:30 p.m. in the gift shop to sign his new book “The Rømmegrøt Diet: Reflections on the Norwegian Immigrant Story.”
The Norman Borlaug Foundation (NBHF) will sell julenek, sheaves of wheat, grown from Borlaug wheat, which was developed in the 1960s by Howard County’s Dr. Norman Borlaug in an effort to address world hunger. In Norway on Christmas Eve, julenek are hung outside to feed the birds. NBHF uses the proceeds of the julenek sales to support supplies for their food program that packages meals for people in areas of the world with food scarcity.
This celebration is also a great opportunity to see Vesterheim’s special exhibitions, including “Embellishment;” “Herbjørn Gausta, 1854-1924;” “Seven Summers;” and “A New York Minute: City Scenes by Bernhard Berntsen.”
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