Christmas is coming – time for some festive viewing! As well as all those classic films we watch at this time of year, we have something new for you to try. A fresh comedy TV series from Netflix set in Norway at Christmas time, with a bit of a Bridget Jones and Fleabag edge to it. The setting for this yuletide tale is one of the most beautiful, Christmassy places in the world – Røros (also the inspiration for Frozen), Home for Christmas is perfect for that warm and fuzzy, hilariously funny, and often touching and tearful binge-watch in your pyjamas with some mulled wine.
With the release of the second season yesterday, we spoke to the two creators behind the series who tell us the story of how it all came to be.
You are the creators behind Home for Christmas – how did the idea come about for the pair of you?
We wanted to make something that people might not talk so much about. The pressure if you are a girl approaching 30, you have to get a job, have children, be married, so we took that pressure, which a boy can also feel, and put it into a fun context.
After this we also agreed that the main character should be a girl, because we felt that it gave the series more heart, because with a boy it might have been a little more “fuckboy stamp”.
How did you get the show up and running from the birth of the idea?
It started off with a couple of free beers and pizza at an agency for students from Westerdals School of Communication and Highschool Kristiania a December evening in 2017. We got to know the agency The Oslo Company took a look at some of their work and played beerpong throughout the night.
After a while we left there with a booklet with three different briefs, two of them were based on making commercial concepts and the last one was a Christmas Calendar for NRK.
A couple of weeks later we returned and pitched our ideas. They really liked our idea for a Christmas Calendar.
The week after the pitching I travelled to the Alps. While I was there Amir called me and explained that they had offered us an internship. I got so excited about the call I only remember agreeing and confirming we wanted the internship.
I arrived back in Oslo on Saturday and started Monday morning. We busted our asses off for two months and learned so much in the process. The only dream we really had was to sell it, even if it only resulted in a small web series with a Norwegian Online News agency. We still would have been crazy happy.
I especially remember one day at the internship writing with Amir, I said “Ey, HOW crazy would it be if NETFLIX bought OUR idea?!“ The leader of the agency overheard our conversation while passing by and told us: “Nothing is impossible”.
At the end of May 2018 we pitched our idea to NRK but ended up in talks with Netflix.
If there’s one single thing I have learned throughout this project is that no matter how BIG or unrealistic your dreams are, they are NEVER unreachable!
These days I feel there’s a lot of focus on how much experience you have. But the biggest asset you have in achieving your goals and deliver good work, is to work with something YOU enjoy and love.
And here we are, three years later. Complete underdogs in this business without ANY prior work or experience to show for! 😱🍿📽🎞
What can we expect next from you guys?
As it is a pretty tough and difficult industry, I won’t dare to make any promises yet, but what I can say is we are now working together on different projects in several different genres, which we of course hope eventually will see the light of day. We don’t stress that we should’ve achieved something by a certain time etc. For us it’s about our passion for what we do and that we ourselves are satisfied with what we make, rather than rushing an end result we won’t be happy with just to get it on the market. But we won’t hide the fact that we dream of one day making our work noticed in the United States.
As soon as we have something new coming out, we will of course share it with our followers on our Instagram profiles.
Finally, what is your preferred coffee and cake combination?
(Kristian) I am not adult enough to like coffee yet, but nothing beats a donut served with fresh vegetable juice or smoothie. It’s all about balance, am I right? 😂🤷♂️
