Among other things, there’s one extra benefit to visiting Tromsø in December. During the Christmas season, the city and its surroundings are dressed in hundreds of thousands of lights, and the Christmas Market opens next to the harbor at Stortoget.
This is a tiny market, with mostly food stalls, a large Christmas tree in the middle and a cozy charcoal fire surrounded by comfortable beach chairs. Yes, beach chairs, which give an extra vibe to your Christmas experience in this amazing city.
Italian pasta, Greek gyro – you name the international food, you can find it here. But I hope I’m not the only one travelling all the way to the Arctic Circle and not wanting to eat the same boring food that you can find all around the world.
Interestingly we even found Hungarian goulash here, but I hope it’s okay that we skipped it this time.
Local Food at Tromsø Christmas Market
Luckily for us and for anyone visiting Tromsø Christmas Market, there was also a local food stall where we could find some real local rarities that made our already great Tromsø weekend even more complete.
Reindeer sausage – this is a traditional sausage in Norway, made the old way here, with almost 90% of meat. Basically nothing else than meat and spices. As we were told, in the old days bread was very expensive, so people rarely ate it. They wrapped the sausage instead in paper, this is how it was served to us with some sweet mustard. You had to hold the sausage in your hand with the paper, dunk it into the mustard and enjoy. It was very delicious; not a very strong flavor, but a nice balance between meat and spices. Also the quality was superb, you could feel that almost 90% of the sausage was real meat.
We actually came back here two days later, and tried these delicious reindeer sausages in a bun. Simple yet delicious. Not a cheap adventure–you need two hot dogs to feel you’ve eaten and that will set you back 280 NOK–but Norway in itself isn’t about budget travel.
Fishcake – The further north you go north in Norway, the lighter and fluffier their fishcake gets. This was a rarity, if our vendor was correct, as only one place produces traditional fishcakes in industrial quantities in the neighbourhood, so that it can be sold in restaurants or stalls like this one at Tromsø Christmas Market. It was made with just fish, real full-fat milk – no milk powder – and potato starch. Not only was it delicious, but the most fluffy and lightest fishcake I’ve ever eaten. Some dried caviar was grated over the fishcake to give it a touch of extra flavor and more of a grainy texture.
Potato salad with smoked caviar – very nice and balanced flavors. In fact, it was a really good potato salad, with some potato bits and mostly a texture of mashed potatoes. You couldn’t really make out the flavor of the caviar, not even the smokiness. But the whole dish came together very well with balanced flavors. And it paired perfectly with the reindeer sausage.
Reindeer Sausage All Year Round
The Christmas market in Tromsø is open from the end of November until Christmas. But fortunately if you want to try these amazing local foods, you have the option all year round.
The guy who was selling these items runs a food truck on the same square when the Christmas Market isn’t open. Look for his food truck, and try these amazing flavors and have a great Nordic food experience.
Tromsø Christmas Market Location and Opening Hours
In 2025, Tromsø Christmas market was open from 21 November to 22 December, usually from 11 until 8. It is located right next to the harbor at Stortoget.
The Hype vs. the Real Food
I’d like to add something, not to the Tromsø Christmas Market adventure, but to our authentic Norwegian reindeer sausage experience.
I’ve often talked about how some famous YouTubers or influencers pick a place that people later line up to check out without even thinking. Don’t get me wrong, it is important to inform people about what’s out there to see, and I am myself a travel blogger trying to tell people what they should check out when visiting a place.
But all that glitters is not gold. Compare this nice experience, no line at all, to the hyped hot dog stall that’s just around the corner. Some YouTuber picked it up, and people line up for a reindeer & beef hot dog – which sounds quite a bit less authentic to me – for at least an hour. Then there is this other stall with literally no one, selling the same if not better local food that you can get in two minutes. Add to it that at the hyped up version you’re served by an employee, while at this simple stall you can also hear the story of all these foods by an enthusiastic local.
Which one is better? I honestly don’t know. I did not want to stand in line for literally an hour just to get a hot dog from an employee in a stall that was featured in a video, even if it looked really cool. The stall I mean, not the hot dog.
But I know one thing. Usually it doesn’t get more authentic than buying food from a guy who enthusiastically tells you the country’s food history while serving you.
We’ve Seen the Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis) from the Christmas Market
This is not a guarantee for your Tromsø visit, but the first night we came here the night was so clear and the Northern Lights were so intense that we could actually see it from the market. The lights of the city and the market itself faded it quite a bit so you couldn’t actually really enjoy the view, but you could make it out on the sky.
This is just to reassure you that you shouldn’t worry about seeing the Northern Lights here. If the weather is kind-which mostly means clear skies or just a couple of clouds-you can see the northern magic even from within the city, not always needed to book a Northern Lights van tour.
