Shop opening hours in Norway at Christmas and New Year 2026/27

Short answer: Norwegian shops do not all close at one fixed time on New Year's Eve. Check the individual branch for Thursday 31 December 2026. Christmas Eve has different rules: ordinary shops generally have to close by 16:00. Christmas Day, Boxing Day and 1 January are public holidays. Check Vinmonopolet and alcohol sales in grocery shops separately from ordinary shopping hours.

Three different deadlines

When planning shopping, you may encounter three times: the shop's closing time, the end of alcohol sales, and the closing time of a collection point or staffed department. A shopping centre may also publish general hours that do not apply to every tenant.

Begin with what you need to buy or collect. Ordinary groceries, a pre-ordered item and a Vinmonopolet order are separate errands. You do not need one rule for the whole city when you only need a particular branch. Find its address and date-specific hours, then establish that the time applies to the service you need.

Avoid scheduling a shopping trip at the final possible moment. Finding the entrance, collecting an order and paying can take time. If a meal depends on certain ingredients, an earlier opportunity is more useful than assuming everything will be available and the visit will be quick.

Christmas and New Year 2026/27 calendar

This calendar is a planning framework, not a schedule for every Norwegian shop. Statutory exceptions may allow some outlets to open on a holiday, but do not oblige them to do so. On an ordinary weekday, a shop can also choose shorter hours than usual.

Notice Sunday 27 December. Christmas Day and Boxing Day are over, but the next day is still a Sunday. For a self-catering holiday, think through the whole period from 24 to 27 December. Discovering on Saturday evening that a planned large supermarket trip is not possible on Sunday is avoidable.

New Year's Eve: why the answer depends on the branch

New Year's Eve is not on the statutory list of public holidays and does not share Christmas Eve's special 16:00 rule for ordinary shops. This does not mean every shop stays open as on a normal Thursday. Actual hours depend on the branch's holiday arrangements within the applicable rules.

Open the shop's own page and look for special opening hours, Christmas and New Year information, or a list of dates. Check the address carefully when a chain has several branches in one city. A shop by a station and one inside a shopping centre may have different practical arrangements.

If 31 December is not listed, ordinary weekly hours are not confirmation. Contact the branch or plan to shop earlier. A precise question is enough: “What are your opening hours on 31 December 2026?” This reduces the chance of confusing New Year's Eve with New Year's Day.

Little Christmas Eve and Christmas Eve

Little Christmas Eve is 23 December, which falls on a Wednesday in 2026. It can be a useful day for essential shopping before a trip, but individual hours still need checking. There is no guarantee that a particular product will remain available late in the day.

Christmas Eve, 24 December, has a special rule for ordinary fixed retail outlets: they must close by 16:00. They may close earlier. Reading “no later than 16:00” as “every shop is open until 16:00” would therefore be misleading.

Exceptions include certain small grocery outlets and kiosks, and petrol stations subject to separate size limits. The general limits for these categories are 100 square metres for the relevant grocery and kiosk outlets and 150 square metres for petrol stations. Other conditions and exceptions also exist. A chain's name alone does not determine whether a branch qualifies.

The guide to Sunday-opening shops in Norway explains the distinction between the main rule and exceptions. For your actual shopping trip, the next step is still to establish the chosen outlet's hours.

Vinmonopolet: four consecutive closed days at Christmas 2026

Vinmonopolet states that its shops close on Christmas Eve and public holidays. They also close on Sundays. In the 2026 calendar, this means closure on 24, 25, 26 and 27 December. To shop before that period, investigate an earlier opening day.

On New Year's Eve, the day before a public holiday, the statutory outer sales window is 10:00 to 16:00. This is not a confirmed timetable for each branch; actual hours may be shorter. Use Vinmonopolet's shop finder for the date, and distinguish customer-service hours from shop hours.

An online order is not the same as an item ready for collection. Check that you have received the collection notification, where the order is located and when it can be handed over. Do not add an extra stop to your journey without knowing the order can actually be collected.

Grocery-shop alcohol: local rules matter

For group 1 alcohol, legislation specifies normal sales hours and a maximum limit. Before Sundays and public holidays, the normal deadline is 15:00, while a municipality may allow sales until 18:00. Local rules can also be stricter. A grocery shop can therefore remain open after alcohol sales have finished.

Oslo municipality lists New Year's Eve sales from 08:00 to 18:00 when the date is not a Sunday. In 2026, 31 December is a Thursday. This is an Oslo rule, not a nationwide timetable for shops. A branch that closes earlier cannot continue selling after it has shut.

This alcohol category is not sold in grocery shops on Sundays and public holidays. Permission for a small outlet to sell food on those days does not change that restriction. Consult the municipality for your destination and leave a reasonable margin when shopping.

Finding a shop nearby

The selection of Sunday-opening grocery shops in Oslo can help identify possibilities in the centre and surrounding neighbourhoods. It provides addresses and routes to further information. Regular Sunday hours do not confirm special opening on 25 December or 1 January.

You can also search the Oslo grocery and supermarket directory. Check that an entry really refers to the branch and type of goods you need. Follow a category label and map position with the shop's own confirmation before changing your journey.

For several types of shopping, look at Oslo shopping centres, but check both the centre and the tenant. Groceries, pharmacies, restaurants and other businesses may have separate hours and entrances. An open restaurant does not establish that the other shops in the building are open.

How to verify opening hours

Save the confirmed time with the address in your itinerary. Include the date, so information for 23 December is not accidentally reused for the 24th. A short, clearly labelled note is easier to rely on while travelling than several search results.

If two sources disagree, the shop's current date-specific notice should carry more weight than an old general overview. Contact the branch if uncertainty remains. Do not simply choose the later closing time because it fits your plans better.

An automatically displayed map listing can be useful for directions, but it may not be clear whether holiday exceptions have been entered. Look for an explicit date. The same caution applies to photographs of opening-hour signs uploaded in a previous year.

When travelling with other people, share the confirmed information rather than asking several people to search independently. This helps prevent one person going to the wrong branch while another is using a different set of hours.

Food for an apartment or cabin stay

Plan meals around the kitchen you actually have. Ask whether there is an oven, hob, fridge and basic equipment. A short list for breakfast and a few easy dinners can be more useful than a large Christmas menu.

Separate essentials needed on arrival from items you can buy later. Food for children, agreed dietary requirements and breakfast for the first morning should not depend on an uncertain late shopping trip. At the same time, avoid buying more than you can store and use.

For late check-in, a pre-arranged meal may be easier than cooking. Find possibilities in the Oslo restaurant directory and ask about the specific evening. You need a confirmed reservation; ordinary opening hours or a phone number are only starting points.

If transporting food on a longer journey, choose products and transport arrangements consistent with the storage instructions on the packaging. Do not let a lengthy excursion between shopping and check-in become an unplanned storage period.

Think about the final morning as well. You may need breakfast before the nearest shop opens or before public transport starts running at a convenient time. Preparing this small part of the trip can make departure much less rushed.

Ordering, delivery and collection

Home delivery can be convenient if a slot is genuinely available and you can receive the order. Confirm the date and address before building your meal plan around it. A product shown as available online is not itself a reserved delivery slot.

For click and collect, both the goods and the collection point must be ready. A shopping centre may close earlier than the online ordering service suggests. Ask whether collection is possible through a separate entrance if the rest of the building is shut.

Distinguish an order confirmation from a ready-for-collection message. The first normally records the order; the second tells you it is ready. Follow the particular service's terms rather than assuming payment means the item is waiting at the counter.

Check substitutions when the exact product matters to your meal. If a replacement would not suit your needs, use the service's available instructions or choose another arrangement. This is especially relevant when you cannot make a second shopping trip after delivery.

If the shop is closed

Start with the need that matters now. If you need dinner, an open restaurant may be more relevant than finding a large supermarket. If you lack one ingredient, consider changing the meal. That can avoid a long additional journey.

Do not make a detour without establishing that the alternative is open and sells the relevant category of goods. A small Sunday outlet may not carry the range of the larger shop next door. Ask specifically if you need one particular product.

For a longer stay, the Christmas in Norway guide and New Year's Eve guide can help place shopping around your other plans. The aim is to arrange essentials early enough that finding a shop does not take over the holiday.

Sources

• Lovdata: public holidays and holiday peace
• Norwegian Government: retail opening rules
• Vinmonopolet: shops and opening hours
• Vinmonopolet: closed days
• Helsedirektoratet: Alcohol Act section 3-4
• Helsedirektoratet: Alcohol Act section 3-7
• City of Oslo: grocery-shop alcohol sales hours