Julekalender - the Nordic TV advent calendar

05 Dec, 2025

For the Grizzly Gazette advent calendar I want to write a bit about another unique kind of advent calendar, the Nordic Christmas calendar - or julekalender in Danish. It is basically a TV series in 24 episodes shown on national TV in December, and it has been a thing since the 1960s. Myself, my parents and now my kids have all grown up watching these, making them an integral part of Christmas and I believe that applies to a huge part of the Danish population. It is a very big part of our shared culture. Some catchphrases from popular ones have become part of the common vocabulary, and the popular songs play on the radio every December. Judging from the Wikipedia article, I think the julekalender are biggest in Denmark, with just the sheer number of titles produced over the years.

The shows themselves are usually aimed at children, often in the age range of 7 to 12. The narrative is of course about Christmas in some form or another, very often about a group of kids that needs to save Christmas from some threat. All coated in magic realism with nisser (Christmas elves) and the well known didactic morale of the spirit of Christmas on being kind to one another, and not be greedy about getting presents, but being together with your family. At least the traditional ones, as there over the years have been a great deal of variety and many that are aimed at adults as well.

To get an idea of what it is, I am going to link to some YouTube clips from some of the bigger well known Danish julekalendere that has been shown on reruns many times and that I personally remember best.

One of the earlier really big ones is Jullerup Færgeby¹: from 1974. It is a puppet show, slow paced by today's standard, and really quite repetitive with its song. But it is a classic and the song has a special place in the national treasure of cultural milestones.

From 1984 we have Nissebanden which follows a group of nisser on Greenland as they have to restore Santa Claus' mood before Christmas. Of course it comes with a catchy song.

Until 1988 we only had one national television station in Denmark, when TV2 came along. They had a new take on the julekalender-genre as they started making them aimed for adults and airing them late at night. They started with Jul i den gamle trædemølle) in 1990 which follows the married couple Flemming and Berit in their sort of miserable middle-class life in December. It plays out as a sort of sitcom and it is one of my favorites as I just love the two main actors.

In 1991 TV2 released what came to be by far the most popular, beloved, referenced and with the most reruns - The Julekalender². Made by the musical comedy group De Nattergale and is especially known for its satirical mix of Danish and English. It became insanely popular, exceeding expectations, and it continues to be popular to this day. They even liked it so much in Norway that they made their own version with the exact same script.

A few years later in 1994, TV2 managed to create a new original julekalender for kids with Alletiders Jul and it became a massive success with many followups in later years. This is also the one I remember most fondly from my childhood, though I had watched others. What sets it apart is that it had a longer cohesive story spanning all 24 episodes, it was faster paced (at least for the time) and it worked as a tour of Danish history as well, with the plot involving them going back in time to various historic moments to save Christmas.

The only julekalender for adults that can rival with The Julekalender is Jul på Vesterbro³ made by the most successful Danish standup comedian, Anders Matthesen. He plays all the roles himself, with a colorful cast of drug addicts, alcoholics and prostitutes.

Writing this post was a fun trip down memorylane, and I hope it was interesting for someone with a small insight into a very big part of Danish Christmas traditions.

#personal