Christmas in Poulsbo

Poulsbo is a small town in Western Washington. It is situated on one of the many bays of Puget Sound. It was settled by Norwegian fishermen early in the 1900's. In fact, some of the larger fishing boats from Poulsbo fished in the Alaska waters in the early days. Today, there are still many Norwegian families in Poulsbo. Each winter they have a festival to mark both Christmas and the winter solstice. The main character of this event is Santa Lucia. She is considered the Queen of Light. Yesterday we celebrated this festival.

Here is the band playing Norwegian music and Christmas carols.

The gazebo was decorated for the festival with Norwegian straw ornaments.

The townspeople got into the folk dancing.

We have a great harbor. The gazebo is in our waterfront park.

The Vikings(members of The Sons of Norway) are awaiting the Lucia Queen. It was so calm that their torches were reflected in the water.

The Princesses are also waiting for the boat that brings Santa Lucia.

Here's the boat. If you look carefully , you can see her crown of candles.

Here is Santa Lucia.

There was a processional to the bon fire where a "Viking" told the story of both the solstice celebrations in the old times and the Christian influence that brought the Santa Lucia.

The Princesses.

The lighting of the fire by Santa Lucia.

All the Vikings added their torches.

Now it was cold and this all took about an hour so the SBA didn't want to wait for Santa!!!! He knew our favorite waterfront restaurant would become very busy once Santa had come. So we skipped that. His reward for standing in the cold with me-a very tasty beer!!!! I hope you enjoyed seeing the way our small town celebrates the Christmas Holiday.