To procrastinate on homework I decided to review four advent calendars from Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Finland. These opinions are purely subjective and have a clear Norwegian bias.

Denmark - DR

Julestjerner: This is by far the most completely bonkers show I have ever seen. The episode begins with a teenager biking in outerspace with a much older romantic interest, before being woken up by her totally bonkers parents who are ALWAYS singing. When the main character is coming home from school there is some sort of tornado/wind storm thing that almost blows their apartment building down? Somehow during this event the parents sing around the christmas tree and try to save a designer lamp? And then they decide to move to Blomsterland? Insane.

Nissebanden i Grønland : This one is weirdly creepy. Santa lives in a research lab in Greenland and is looking for a stone by Christmas after what appears to be a nuclear explosion? There’s some side elves that sing and someone has a pet goose? The theme song is a BOP though.

Den Anden Verden: Kind of boring tbh. There whole episode is about a weirdly high budget school theater production involving unrequited love. Not very christmassy, but also just not very interesting. If there was a Shein version of a SKAM Christmas episode, this would be it.

Jul på slottet: Cozy eighties fairytale vibe. A bit bonkers still, and a lot of random singing. Danish humor as portrayed in DR christmas calendars is never funny.  Still boring, would not watch more.

 

DR overall: Weird, boring, and honestly reminds me that I have not once seen a good Danish tv production.

 

Sweden - SVT

Jul Miraklet- This seems like pandering to Gen Alpha or really young Gen Z. I literally cannot understand the concept of this one because it seems like they are reacting to a manga that viewers cannot see? I don’t really care what they thought of a manga that doesn’t appear to exist.

Panik i Tomteverkstan - This one seems to have potential. For some reason there's a knight of the round table style santa which I’m not fully understanding, but it’s already leagues above anything DR is producing.

En Hederlig Jul med Knyckertz -A criminal family steals a christmas tree from a retirement home. Honestly it seems kind of fun and would be good for a broad age range. Gizem Erodgan is in it, so there’s a weirdly high level cast for a Christmas calendar.

Mysteriet på Greveholm - This one focuses on a woman going through a midlife crisis and a divorce who decides to buy a castle on a whim. I assume the mystery starts later but I enjoyed what I saw so far.

 

SVT overall: Decently interesting calendars that most age groups could enjoy.

 

Finland - YLE

 

Tonttuakatemia - This seems more targeted towards younger kids, and the singing is annoying. Zero out of ten.

Talvipihan Joulu - Not terrible. My main issue with this calendar is how clean his clothes are after taking care of a farm and being around all these animals. Also, he doesn’t change his overalls when he comes inside from the farm which given how much cleaning he did, is kind of gross. But his clothes are magically clean so I guess it’s fine. It does seem to be for a younger audience since it’s just some guy talking to animals by himself all the time.

Aikuisen Naisen Joulukalenteri - This wasn’t what I expected it to be, but I think it’s a fun idea to have a calendar for middle aged women. I guess the title should’ve made it relatively obvious but I did not need to see the husband Roland kissing his wifes feet… It was still somewhat funny overall and I’d consider watching more.

Tonttu Toljanterin Tuhmaikä -  I’ve been informed that this one is beloved and frankly I don’t get it.  Why does the Tonttu sound so agitated? I don’t like that/This calendar stressed me out, decidedly not cozy.

 

YLE overall: I don’t love any of them but they aren’t completely bonkers like Denmark

 

Norway - NRK

Jul i Svingen - The icon. The legend. The coziest calendar there is, with an amazing soundtrack (I own the cd). It doesn’t seem like watching kids and their families in a small town would be nice, but it is. They weirdly overemphasize the fact that one of the kids doesn’t celebrate Christmas, but they do a relatively decent job with diversity for a Nordic show from 2004.

Snøfall - An orphan discovers that Santa is her grandpa? A weirdly depressing concept but honestly a good execution. Some parts are rather dark (Someone kidnaps, drugs, and tries to kill Santa to become him) but it's still good and has a wholesome resolution.

Snøfall 2 - The same characters come back, but there are new characters, a boy and his mom who has cancer. Once again somewhat dark for Christmas, but it’s potentially better than season one. They shouldn’t have ditched the Eva Weel Skram closing song.

Vertshuset Den Gyldne Hale - This calendar includes sign language which is cool to see. Other than that it isn’t very good. It would be cool to see a more interesting calendar that included sign language.

NRK overall: My personal favorite. Good variety, and good songs.