magine a summer when the sun shines at midnight, or winter when there's no sun for three months.

Norwegians can easily.

Christmas must be a dreary business for those deep in the dark and deep in the snow.

Wrong.

Norwegians have a million things to do to cheer them up: reindeer, puffins, tobogganing, skiing, seafaring, great fish, warm hearth fires, mountain climbing, snow hiking, fjords, tundra, pine forests, white tailed eagles, the gulf stream, red and yellow houses, bright shiny faces, and a lot blondes.

Plus, they cook up a storm at Christmas. Every Norwegian traditional dish ever invented is dragged into the kitchen. Some dishes start prepping in September. The Christmas celebration itself is a long affair starting Christmas Eve and extending to Saint Caunute's Day on January 13. Norwegians are also great lovers of beer, imported wines (mostly French), and Aquavit (more on that wacky stuff later).

I'd say if you can stay buoyant even through the sun is MIA (and you don't just go to sleep like a bear), you've discovered a kind of secret knowledge.

This I had to see for myself.

I went to Norge (as its called by the natives) and hopped a Coastal Express Ship to cruise down the full length of the Norwegian coast.

I had two guides: chef Harry Ellingsen of the M/S Nordleys, and...a troll. Yes, a troll, okay maybe we didn't actually have a conversation, (but more on that later).

Chef Harry Ellingsen is an enthusiastic chef-sailor, sailing the Norwegian Sea for 25 years and cooking for the passengers aboard the friendly cargo fleet of Bergen Line's Coastal express, called Hurtigurten in Norway.