Bridget Budbill

Christmastime in Ballard may at first glance seem similar to the festivities in other neighborhoods. There are shimmering tinsel-covered snowflakes lining the streets and little corners of the local grocery stores are set aside to provide us our own urban Christmas tree hunting grounds.

This is all typical of the holiday season in most neighborhoods, right? Maybe. While shopping on Market Street I saw a sign in the window of Olsen's Scandinavian Foods. Their gnomes are currently 20 percent off regular price. Typical of most neighborhoods? Maybe not.

Gnomes are not a mystery to me, all thanks to my grandmother, who was a proud Norwegian. She liked to use the phrase "Uff-da," and tell me stories of just how bad a hot kitchen smells when filled with lye and lutefisk and other jarred delights. To all of you who don't know, "Uff-da" translates to something like Charlie Brown's "good grief," and is a very versatile expression.

Inside Olsen's were goodies I'd never seen before, and I took a moment to examine the cod roe in a squeeze tube. There were other, more traditional symbols of a Scandinavian yuletide celebration and I looked around at the St. Lucia wreaths and candles, and noticed the straw ornaments in a basket on the counter.

My grandma had ornaments just like these-little heart-shaped baskets woven of straw and adorned with red ribbon. I didn't realize they were Norwegian and I didn't know why she liked them so much.

I never asked my grandma what kinds of Norwegian traditions she enjoyed. She's gone now, and so I have missed that opportunity. Ballard, though, is famous for warmly embracing a deeply-rooted Nordic heritage, and in Olsen's store, next to jars of herring cutlets, I wondered if that heritage has influenced Christmas in Ballard beyond just those of Nordic descent.

The answer is yes, in some small ways. Kitchen n' Things sells little Scandinavian cookie stamps and you can find gnome stickers in Imagination Toys. But the truth is that many residents in Ballard have no connection to any Scandinavian traditions. Not everyone in Ballard has a Norwegian grandmother who said "Uff-da" when she dropped something and pickled all things she could fit in a Ball jar.

Does this mean that Christmas in Ballard really is just like any other neighborhood, with Safeway Christmas trees and snazzy streetlight d/cor?

No, not quite. There is still something that all of Ballard's residents share at Christmastime, Nordic or not, and that is the celebration of a season of light.

The Christmas celebration in Scandinavia is all about bringing warmth and light during a season of short days and cold nights, and that feeling is a seasonal sentiment that can be shared by everyone.

And in this, Ballard, better than any neighborhood in Seattle, captures the light of Christmastime. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that the founders came from the land of the frosty fjord, where light was something to cherish.

Romanza boasts bold and brazen glittering bobbles in colors like Barbie pink and Sleigh bell silver hanging from their in-store Christmas tree.

Outside Kavu and Gifted, the building fa