Danes, Swedes and Norwegians have different favorites when it comes to Christmas celebrations, according to a Norstat survey.While Danes prefer to cozy up indoors, Swedes hold on to their Christmas traditions.
A number of European countries participated in the survey, with around 1,000 people from each country naming their three favorite Christmas traditions. The survey was conducted between November 11 and 22 this year.
In Norway, 52 percent believe that Christmas dinner is the best part of the holiday season. Following that, Norwegians most appreciate Christmas traditions and the festive atmosphere.
About 35 percent of Swedes believe that Christmas traditions are the most important part of the holiday, followed by 33 percent who look forward to the Christmas dinner the most. In third place is the festive atmosphere, according to the survey.
In Denmark, 70 percent believe that the best part of Christmas is staying indoors and enjoying cozy time with family. In comparison, only 22 percent of Norwegians consider this the most important aspect, while the figure is 27 percent among Swedes.
The Danes rank the festive atmosphere as the second most important, followed by traditions in third place.
We don’t have a billionaire owner, and our unique reader-funded model keeps us free from political or corporate influence. This means we can fearlessly report the facts and shine a light on the misdeeds of those in power.
Consider a donation to keep our independent journalism running…
Unemployment in Sweden rose during the second quarter of 2025, while inflation continues to remain high. The economic uncertainty is also increasingly affecting households and businesses.
According to the Swedish Public Employment Service’s latest figures, 366,496 people were officially registered as unemployed in June 2025, compared to 347,994 people during the same period the previous year. This corresponds to an unemployment level of 6.9 percent, up from 6.6 percent in 2024.
The increase is visible in 15 of the country’s 21 counties, where Västerbotten in northern Sweden has been particularly hard hit following industrial closures. Västmanland in central Sweden also shows a clear increase, while Dalarna and the island of Gotland note some improvement.
Among young people (18–24 years), the situation is particularly serious. 41,939 were registered as unemployed in June, corresponding to 7.8 percent according to the Swedish Public Employment Service’s measure. This occurs while many are newly registering and competition for jobs is increasing.
Experts also point out that the real unemployment rate may be significantly higher than the official figures. Many unemployed people are not registered with the Swedish Public Employment Service and are therefore not included in the statistics.
According to Statistics Sweden’s (SCB) labor force surveys, there are also approximately 200,000 people who are outside the labor force but still want to work – for example, part-time unemployed, long-term unemployed, or people in education who are actively job searching.
The Swedish people continue to struggle with deteriorating household finances while politicians prioritize billions in support to countries at war as well as larger military expenditures.
Inflation continues at high levels
According to the National Institute of Economic Research, price inflation remains at an elevated level in Sweden. Statistics Sweden (SCB) reports that the consumer price index (CPI) rose by 0.8 percent in July compared to the previous month, corresponding to an annual rate of approximately 4.1 percent.
The high annual rate is described as being driven by continued energy price increases, rising transport costs, and disruptions in global supply chains.
The Swedish central bank’s (Riksbank) preferred inflation measure, CPIF (CPI with fixed interest rate), was preliminarily measured at approximately 3.0 percent on an annual basis in July, compared to 2.9 percent in June. The difference between CPI and CPIF is mainly because CPI includes interest costs that have had a major impact, while CPIF excludes these and therefore provides a clearer picture of underlying price developments.
This means that even though price increases based on monthly data are relatively moderate right now, the more stable CPIF inflation continues to be above the Riksbank’s target of 2 percent. For many households, this means continued increased living costs and reduced purchasing power, especially in combination with rising interest rates and a weakened Swedish krona.
Norway’s oil fund has invested in an Israeli company that services fighter jets during the ongoing invasion of Gaza – something now confirmed by the company’s CEO. Finance Minister Jens Stoltenberg claims he takes responsibility for the decision.
Bet Shemesh Engines Holdings delivers services and products to both civilian and military aircraft, with the Israeli military being one of its largest customers. Among other things, it maintains and manufactures parts for engines on Israeli fighter jets used to bomb Gaza. In 2023, Norway’s oil fund, or the Government Pension Fund Global, bought into the company.
— The fund has not been on any blacklist, says CEO Nicolai Tangen to Norwegian state broadcaster NRK.
Since the war began in October 2023, the Israeli company has increased sixfold in market value. The fund has since continued to buy into the company and now owns two percent. However, the oil fund claims it was not aware that the company had profited from the war. Tangen blames the purchase on politicians since it’s up to them to decide which companies should be excluded.
— The Stortinget (Norwegian Parliament) has decided that we should invest in Israel, and that’s what we do, says Tangen to Norwegian TV2.
Stoltenberg: I have the responsibility
On Wednesday, the Oil Fund together with Norway’s central bank and Norwegian Finance Minister Jens Stoltenberg, NATO’s former Secretary-General, held a crisis meeting regarding the matter. When he meets the press afterward, Stoltenberg takes responsibility for the investment, while also claiming he didn’t know about the company’s customers.
— I am the one who has the responsibility for ensuring the Oil Fund’s guidelines are followed as intended, he says to Norwegian E24.
Stoltenberg has previously expressed that the war in Gaza violates international law and now says they are determined to withdraw.
— We are determined to withdraw from companies that violate international law. This must happen quickly, he says.
Politicians and media promised that mass immigration would make Sandviken, Sweden into an economic success story. Ten years later, reality is much bleaker: half the city is now classified as an exclusion area and compared to notorious problem suburbs like Rinkeby and Tjärna Ängar.
In 2014, left-liberal media, led by the Bonnier-owned Dagens Nyheter (Sweden’s largest daily newspaper), trumpeted that mass migration to Sandviken was a gigantic profitable venture that would make the entire municipality economically prosperous.
“Earns over half a billion from immigration”, read DN’s headline, claiming that each immigrant resident would generate €13,000 annually in revenue for the municipality.
The claims were based on figures in a report by auditing firm PwC and had been commissioned by the municipality itself.
Mass immigration was supposed to be a success for Sandviken. Photo: facsimile/DN
However, the optimistic calculations were based on fantasies and wishful thinking, and within just a couple of years it became clear that the municipality’s financial situation had instead become severely strained – with a budget deficit of €6 million.
— It was a fantasy scenario that was painted. The report was flawed from the beginning. How could anyone stand behind it?wondered Moderate Party opposition councilor Jonny Bratberg in 2019.
“White flight”
And since then, the situation has hardly improved. No billion-euro profits from mass immigration have materialized. Instead, the Swedish government now classifies half of Sandviken as an “exclusion area” – on the same list as notorious immigrant-dense and crime-ridden suburbs like Rinkeby (in Stockholm), Tjärna Ängar in Borlänge, and Gottsunda in Uppsala.
Surveillance cameras now sit on almost every street corner, and Emma Holmqvist, a segregation researcher at Uppsala University, notes that a large portion of the ethnically Swedish population has fled from immigrant-dense parts of Sandviken – and that other Swedes avoid moving there.
— ‘White flight, white avoidance’ is what we call it, says Emma Holmqvist.
— In long-term studies we can see that those with high incomes are partly driving spirals of segregation. They have housing choices that low-income earners lack. They can move away from an area with rental apartments and negative development, simply by purchasing housing.
Swedes don’t want to live with immigrants
She emphasizes, however, that people – regardless of group affiliation – tend to want to live near people who are like themselves, and that this applies to both families with children and high-income earners.
— But one thing that stands out is that many with immigrant backgrounds tend to want to live with more Swedes – the opposite rarely applies to native-born Swedes, she notes.
That Swedes in Sandviken don’t want to live together with immigrants is pointed out as a major and acute problem that must be solved by politicians – for example, by building more rental apartments in villa neighborhoods.
Children as integration tools
The municipality’s politicians have previously attracted attention in connection with a heavily criticized integration initiative where they made the decision to forcibly relocate mainly Swedish children from villa areas to an immigrant-dense, low-performing school in an exclusion area.
The decision enraged many parents and was described as a kind of “social experiment,” where children were involuntarily made into tools in politicians’ integration policy project.
— This is some form of Social Democratic wet dream, where you mix up the students in yet another integration project. You take an A-school and exchange half the students with a D-school, and then you get two C-schools instead – so everyone becomes satisfied and happy. It’s completely insane, of course, commented Jonny Bratberg on the matter in Tidningen Näringslivet (a Swedish business publication).
The debate about how the female body should be portrayed in public art has flared up again in Denmark. The background is authorities’ decision to remove the sculpture Den store havfrue – the large mermaid – from its place in public space after accusations that the statue is pornographic or promotes harmful beauty ideals.
The attention-grabbing sculpture was erected in 2006 at Langelinie Pier in Copenhagen, Denmark, not far from the much more famous statue The Little Mermaid, inspired by H.C. Andersen’s fairy tale.
But Den store havfrue, which measures 4 by 6 meters and weighs 14 tons, was met with early criticism – not least from feminist quarters. In the complaints, the mermaid is described as, among other things, “fake and vulgar”, and it was moved in 2018 to Dragør fortress.
In March this year, the Danish Agency for Palaces and Cultural Properties decided that the statue may no longer stand in public space. The authority believes that the artwork is not compatible with the cultural heritage that The Little Mermaid from 1910 represents.
Art critic Mathias Kryger, working at Danish newspaper Politiken, has described the statue as “ugly and pornographic”. Priest and journalist Sorine Gotfredsen has in turn argued that the sculpture is directly harmful to women’s mental health.
“Erecting a statue of a man’s hot dream of how a woman should look hardly promotes women’s acceptance of their own bodies”, she wrote in a text in Danish newspaper Berlingske.
The original – “The Little Mermaid” by Edvard Eriksen. Photo: Avda-Berlin/CC BY-SA 3.0
Artist defends his work
Others, however, oppose the decision to remove the statue, and Berlingske’s debate editor Aminata Corr Thrane wonders if “naked women’s breasts must have a specific academic form and size to be allowed to be shown publicly”.
Corr Thrane notes that Den store havfrue is actually “possibly a little less naked” than its famous counterpart, but adds that she “on the other hand has larger breasts, and that’s probably where the problem lies”.
The sculpture’s creator, artist Peter Bech, is puzzled by the criticism. He defends the work and says that the mermaid’s breasts are “proportional to its scale”. Bech created the statue as a response to recurring comments from tourists that the classic mermaid was too small.
Now he hopes to find a solution for the sculpture to remain in Copenhagen – albeit in a new location.
