The annual Nordic Christmas Dinner is coming up at the Vining Community Center on Tuesday, Dec. 7 at 5:30 p.m.
The dinner will include lutefisk with butter or gravy, meatballs, mashed potatoes and gravy, a vegetable and a dessert crafted and served by Chef Hans and his team from Hans Hus of Elbow Lake. Coffee, lemonade and iced water will also be served.
Following the dinner, Nordic Christmas songs, tunes and dances will be presented by the ‘Swedish Trio’ of singer and instrumentalist Ross Sutter, pianist Marya Hart and nyckelharpist Cheryl Paschke. The nyckelharpa is a Swedish keyed string instrument.
The Swedish Trio entertains around Minnesota and beyond. For the past 20 years, the trio has performed a popular Christmas show called Julglädje at the American Swedish Institute in Minneapolis, a rollicking collection of Scandinavian and American holiday tunes that evoke the feeling of standing around the family piano. Their show will culminate with a singalong featuring familiar Scandinavian Christmas songs and a carol or two led by the musicians.
Special guest performers will be instrumentalist and comedy singer Art Bjorngjeld along with his wife, Mary Bjorngjeld, as his Nordic dance partner. Art grew up playing Norwegian dance tunes, plays fiddle and accordion, and is well-known for his comic songs sung with a Norwegian accent. He and Mary will perform many of the lovely turning dances that Scandinavians love, and will invite others to join them on the dance floor.
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Leif Erikson, Sons of Norway of Vining, hosts the Nordic Christmas Dinner each year as the culmination of the year’s programs and events. The evening is made possible by grants from the Sons of Norway Foundation.
Cost for the dinner is $20, due at the time of the dinner. Leif Erikson’s tradition for sharing the Christmas spirit is to collect donations of cash or checks in small bags at the dinner tables. This year’s donations will go to the Fargo-Moorhead Haiti Mission, for which volunteer doctors and nurses travel to Haiti each year to perform surgeries on children born with cleft palates.
Reservations are required by Dec. 1. For more information or to make a reservation, call Chuck or Barbara Olson at 218-282-0332 or 218-282-0406 and leave a message with your name and phone number.
The event is limited to 90 guests. If the limit is reached, names will be placed on a waiting list.
