Home for Christmas in packed Christmas trains
The Christmas traffic with the trains has been a test of strength for over 100 years. It has generally gone very well, as in 1956 when 13 extra trains from the Eastern Railway and 10 from the Western Railway were sent out of Oslo with a max. 10 minute delay.
We're cheering on the Christmas trains this year too, with this mood report from Morgenbladet in 1893, from a gentleman who goes from being a little irritated and Christmas-crazed to finding the Christmas calm and the pleasantness of this particular train ride - home for Christmas:
"The doors are slammed down the long, crowded train, Tickets are pulled out to be marked, beeps are sounded, then there is a quick little jolt through the whole train, again, another and then pooh-pooh-pooh-pooh... The speed to the homes, grandparents and Christmas cheer begins across open fields with scattered farms and blue hills far away.
Oh yes - who doesn't know these Christmas trains, where you are crammed in the compartment until 8-10, and there is always one or the other covered in a thick coat that smells of both one and the other. It is terrible, how all people literally swell up and become fat in such a filled compartment. The elbows are embarrassing and the vis-a-vis's legs become so incredibly long and crooked that they get in the way, wherever you plant your own. But the worst thing to put in a well-filled Christmas bin is basically one's eyes! And one of the main disadvantages of the Christmas trains is the children! There are many of them, and they are very irritable.
But still: It's quite nice. There is a touch of anticipation over the compartments of the Christmas trains. Anticipation of Christmas balls and sleigh rides, longing to show off on the corner outside the pharmacy or post office and greet old acquaintances. Longing to sit in the old, familiar living rooms of childhood homes, and eat home-cooked food with the kind of grouse sauce that you never get in restaurants. And in order to reach all that, one finds oneself with patience in the sufferings of the stowed compartments, in drafts and tumbles, in the long hours of skimming until the familiar aces and funnels of the home emerge."
By steamship in 1915: "Home for Christmas" became "Christmas on board"
Bitte lille Christmas Eve 1915, DS King Oscar II set out from Kristiania on its regular route all around Southern Norway to Bergen. But already in the Oslo Fjord, a powerful storm hit the proud schooner. Only late on Christmas Eve did it arrive at Kragerø, where it had to seek refuge in what had now become a full-on hurricane!
The next day the sailing continued. The wind was still so strong that all calls had to be canceled before it became weatherproof on Christmas Eve in Arendal. A Christmas tree that was going as cargo in the opposite direction stood untouched and frozen on the quay. It was taken down to the lounge and decorated with ornaments that were intended for the Christmas trees at home in Kristiansand, Stavanger and Bergen as decorative treasures from the capital, but which the stranded Christmas travelers found in their suitcases.
Now the decorations instead created a Christmas atmosphere on board for all those who did not make it home for Christmas, but celebrated together in the lounge in Arendal harbour, with Christmas carols and a "splendid Christmas dinner". The mood was high until well into the morning, the newspaper said. On the first day, the Christmas tree was stripped and put back in the snow on the quay, before the ship headed out into the storm again, a little calmer now, but bad enough that it was another two days in Kristiansand before finally sailing on and arriving in Bergen only on the third day of Christmas , five days after departure.
Do not drive in the city!
Anyone remember the traffic queues in central Oslo before all the tunnels? Everything wasn't better before... But one piece of advice applies just as much now as it did in 1956: Don't drive in the city during Christmas week!
Arbeiderbladet reported a 60% delay on trams and buses through the city center due to all the cars on 20 December. The next day there was a queue from Bekkelaget to Karl Johan - it still does occasionally, but in 1956 almost nobody had cars!
And everyone who was there had to drive via Jernbanetorget, which was the biggest bottleneck in Oslo, according to the legendary UP boss Feiring. "After many years of experience, people should know that Christmas week means the peak of traffic intensity," he said - so the advice was: Don't take your car to the city center today and tomorrow!
"Flykaos" - the modern Christmas and the fear of being stranded at an airport...
What we associate most with "home for Christmas" now are the Christmas flights and the fear of chaos and being stuck blindly in an airport. Here, the crisis stories live long and well in the memories!
Judging from the newspapers, there is much less chaos than we might think - fortunately. Even if the Christmas trip takes place during a risky time of year, weather-wise. The word flight chaos appeared in the newspapers in 1969 - peaking violently in 2006-2007, so violently that the echo still rings in our ears, perhaps, even though in reality there has not been any flight chaos in the last ten to fifteen years - at least nothing to write in the papers about. And if it is in the newspaper, it may not arouse as much sympathy or understanding of the crisis, as in 2006 when it was reported "Airline chaos in London fog - Norwegian Christmas shoppers in London risk being stuck at Heathrow for Christmas!"
But some Christmas times have actually been a little extra tough for those flying home for Christmas. "Home after 63 hours on the road" doesn't sound good, of course. But Northerners who are going home for Christmas can't be stopped - even if it requires a 70-mile taxi ride from Trondheim, which a couple and five random fellow passengers spliced on. They had only one wish: To come home for Christmas! In any case, don't stay in a hotel in Trondheim!
In the same newspaper, a girl who was going home to her mother in Bodø from her school in Sweden told about a "nightmare trip" that started with the plane being canceled due to storms and flight chaos throughout Scandinavia. Then there was a bus from Stockholm to Gardermoen, and queues and chaos at a still closed main airport. Again it was a bus for flights, now to Trondheim, before Hurtigruta took her all the way to Bodø - but in time for Christmas Eve, and without much worse consequences than one Missed hairdressing lesson. In any case, she avoided the worst-case scenario, which was having to celebrate Christmas Eve at Gardermoen!
We're keeping our fingers crossed for a nice trip home for Christmas, too, for those who are going to fly! And finds encouragement in the fact that things are going well mostly all the time...
