AALBORG \u2013 While Europe’s still in the throes of summer heat, it\u2019s beginning to look a lot like Christmas in the Danish city of Aalborg.<\/p>\n
Dozens of Santas, Mrs. Clauses and elves from around the world have descended on Denmark’s fourth-largest city for the Nordic nation\u2019s annual World Santa Claus Congress, a colorful midsummer tradition for decades.<\/p>\n
First staged at an amusement park near Copenhagen in 1957, the congress moved to Aalborg on Denmark\u2019s Jutland peninsula two years ago. This year, the Santa suits looked a little stifling under the Danish summer sun.<\/p>\n
The event, which marks its 70th anniversary next year, was created to entertain children, but became a popular gathering for Santas who appear in stores and shopping malls during the Yuletide season.<\/p>\n
The gathering offers a chance for professional Santas \u2014 not the real one, of course! \u2014 to swap stories, compare beards, sharpen their craft and compete in lighthearted contests months before anyone checks naughty-or-nice lists for the Christmas rush.<\/p>\n
The packed agenda features events like gingerbread eating, gift wrapping, balloon modeling, and several noisy parades. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe grandmas say: \u2018Oh, it\u2019s too early to come here\u2019,” said organizer Peter Gislund, himself a Santa Claus in Aalborg during the Christmas season. \u201cThe kids say: ‘Hooray! Santa\u2019s here already’.\u201d <\/p>\n
Christmas as a state of mind, not just a season<\/p>\n
Over the years, the annual four-day gathering has attracted Santas and Mrs. Clauses from as far away as Australia, Hong Kong, Canada and the United States.<\/p>\n
Most of the three dozen or so Santas and Mrs. Clauses at the congress this week hail from Scandinavia, but some flew in \u2014 like Paradise Yamamoto from Tokyo.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is very fun, so many children \u2026 Ho, ho, ho!\u201d said Yamamoto with a laugh after parading through Aalborg waving a Japanese flag and dancing to the song “Feliz Navidad\u201d \u2014 one of many Christmas classics played during the event. <\/p>\n
Robert Hercz, a 64-year-old Norwegian Santa from Oslo, said that despite their different nationalities, all Santas on hand share \u201ca gene\u201d \u2014 for generosity and spreading joy. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou have it or you don\u2019t,\u201d said Hercz, who was attending the congress for the first time. \u201cWe have the true Santa spirit. And it\u2019s all about giving, sharing, and putting a little bit of joy in people\u2019s hearts.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not all ho-ho-ing and belly rubs.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen Santas are together, they always mingle and talk a little bit,\u201d said Gislund. \u201cMaybe I put a little bit of sparkle in the beard and so on. That\u2019s the good part of meeting some Santas from all over the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Simon Br\u00f8ns, a 33-year-old Danish Santa, the event is proof that the festive spirit isn\u2019t just for Christmas.<\/p>\n
\u201cChristmas is not a season. It\u2019s a feeling you have in your stomach,” he said with a smile. “So if you want, you can have Christmas the whole year.\u201d<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AALBORG \u2013 While Europe’s still in the throes of summer heat, it\u2019s beginning to look a lot like…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":126208,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2],"tags":[27,26,26624,61632,61631,61630,1161],"class_list":["post-126207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-denmark","tag-danmark","tag-denmark","tag-oddities","tag-peter-gislund","tag-robert-hercz","tag-simon-brons","tag-world-news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@dk\/116889991653526373","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=126207"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126207\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/126208"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}