Greetings all. I hope you can assist with my (fortunate) dilemma: my husband and I are traveling to Norway in a few weeks where we will be visiting many of his cousins. We'll be staying with various relatives in Vegarshei, Gjerstad, Hokksund, etc. and on top of trying to get the names and relations straight I'm starting to get concerned about what to bring our gracious hosts, whom I've never met. We may need to bring as many as 8-9 gifts, and it goes without saying that they need to be on the small side to fit in our rucksacks (not to mention the teeny Opel we're renting... ) I would love to do the standard take-them-out-to-dinner, but we'll be on their family farms with cookouts, and from what I've read eating out gets expensive fast in Scandinavia. The only thing I could think of was maybe little bottles of good American alcohol, like Bourbon? Could anyone give me some ides? Thank you all so much.

Hi,

I don't think that you would want to bring less than a 750 ml bottle of Bourbon as a gift.

Flowers are always welcome.

Ah, I meant the hip-flask size, not the little nips, but I see your point. Flowers are a good idea, provided we can find places to stop and get 'em.

Last summer we went on a trip to Alaska that involved staying in the homes of people we didn't know. Of course, we wanted to bring hostess gifts. Most of the 30 people on the trip brought something that typified their home state. Here there is a store called "Celebrate Wisconsin" which has items such as pens, refrigerator magets, Christmas ornaments, photo books, calendars, T shirts, food products (canned or jarred), computer mousepads, mugs, oven mitts, painted dish towels, etc, etc.

We just returned from visiting our friends in Wrexham, North Wales. We brought them sliced ham from Cracker Barrel restaurants in Tennessee. They loved it!
John

I live in Florida and took themed gifts to some friends...a baseball cap from a nearby beach resort, a purse mirror with palm trees enameled on it, a plastic pail with sunglasses and seashell for the child. That little girl was also delighted to get some Goldfish...the crackers still haven't been globalized! Other folks got books with artsy photographs of our area...they were heavy, but I had thought that notecards with the same photographer's works would be good...just didn't have time to find them. I took very lightwieght nylon handbags (Le Sportsac brand from Marshall's) for the teenagers in France, and for Mom, a dishtowel with Rosie the Riveter on it (Smithsonian Institution via TJ Maxx), and a mini Georgia O'Keefe calendar. Next years calendars are coming out and some of them have "American" themes. CD's of American music, maybe? I also took an American Vogue and Rolling Stone to the teens. How 'bout red, white and blue tee shirts, etc. from Old Navy? Dirt cheap. 'Tis the season. And remember, the more stuff you take over and give away, the more room you have for things to bring home!!

Please DON'T take meat products across borders. Foot and mouth disease is a very recent memory and you can't be too careful.

We are going on a trip to Scandinavia soon, and in some places we need some small gifts for the hosts.
We are planning to take a fistful of the golden dollars (Indian) as souvenirs and collector items. I'll put them in small envelopes w/ cards for a nicer presentation. You can get them from banks and Post Office machines (your change comes back in coins) and from the usamint.com website (7 days for delivery) - these are uncirculated and cost a bit extra.
Have a great trip !

Sorry , just realized that the website for getting info on Sacagawea golden dollar is www.usmint.gov
I also printed out the info about the life of S.and other info to include with the coins.

Many Europeans are crazy about the American West. I take Indian-style turquoise jewelry, esp. earrings, set in sterling silver for women's gifts. They're inexpensive (try Target)and small. For men, try key rings or belt buckles with a western motif. I agree with the ball caps also for men. I've also taken tiny animal statues (the collectible kind at a gift store) which depict American bison or bighorn sheep. Again, they are small and unisex. Ball point pens with American flag decorations are also small and usually inexpensive.

I usually take electronic organizers because they don't seem to have inexpensive ones readily available. Also, something that represents your state or area of country, cd's. For a special person, you can have your state or federal representative fly a flag over the capitol (state or national) for under $10-15. If you let them know early enough, you can have it done on a special day.

Here in Norway we usually bring flowers, a bottle of wine or chocholate if we are staying with friends etc. It is also usual to drink coffee in the afternoon/evening so it is also quite common to bring a cake or something sweet to go with the coffee.
I think a good idea would be to bring a gift basket with chocholate or cookies, or something like that. (I would love Pepperidge Farm....)
It is possible to buy American Bourbon in Norway, so I don't know if that such a good idea and it is not allowed to bring more than a litre per. person.
Maybe baseball caps or t-shirts would be nice gifts (especially for men/boys)