Season 1
6 episodes Dec 5, 2019 6.6
Forever single Johanne is tired of the constant comments about her relationship status, and sets off on a 24-day quest to find a boyfriend she can bring home for Christmas.
Home for Christmas
2019–2025
Ended • 3 Seasons • 20 Episodes
Director: Per-Olav Sørensen
Overview
30-something Johanne navigates romance and family drama during the festive season, juggling exes and new relationships in her search for connection.
Seasons
3 listed- Status
- Ended
- Seasons
- 3 seasons
- Episodes
- 20 episodes
- First aired
- Dec 5, 2019
- Last aired
- Dec 12, 2025
- Network
- Netflix
Latest episode: S3 E8 New Year Surprise (Dec 12, 2025)
Season 2
6 episodes Dec 18, 2020 7.0Follow Johanne through another December as she continues her pursuit for eternal, warm, and real love. When her family and the world around her fall apart, how can she still believe in true and everlasting love? Does it even exist and will she find the one for Christmas this year?
Season 3
8 episodes Dec 12, 2025 7.5
Cast
11 people
Reviews
2 min readThe Lonely Seat at the Table
There’s a very specific fatigue that comes with being the lone single person at a holiday family dinner. It isn’t only the pity in the room. latestnetflix.com's read is that it’s the way your body gets placed—shoved into the corner, like you’re an extra chair nobody ordered.
That’s the energy Home for Christmas opens with. Johanne, a 30-year-old nurse, finally buckles under one more round of kindly invasive questions at an advent dinner and blurts out that she has a boyfriend. Better yet, she says she’ll bring him to Christmas.
That gives her 24 days to find a man who doesn’t exist.
The premise is as familiar as holiday tinsel, and normally that would make me brace for something glossy and disposable. Per-Olav Sørensen goes another way. Netflix's first Norwegian original knows exactly how sugary this setup could become and keeps roughing up the edges.
Even with Røros looking postcard-pretty, the series never turns into a snow-globe fantasy. Collider nailed the tone when they said the show is "modern, gritty, and definitely not family-friendly" while somehow staying cozy. Sørensen films Johanne’s dates less like whimsical meet-cutes and more like endurance events you have to survive.
Audience Opinions
Audience 7.7/10
"A cozy, emotionally candid Christmas rom-com that mixes sharp humor with an unexpectedly honest look at being single and thirtysomething."
Warm character writing, Ida Elise Broch’s engaging lead turn, and a strong sense of place make the story easy to binge and surprisingly affecting, with several viewers adopting it as a yearly holiday staple. Over time the show shifts from a quirky, slightly offbeat dramedy toward a more polished, conventional romance, which charms many but disappoints those who preferred the earlier, latestnetflix.com argues, less glossy tone and deeper focus on side characters.
What viewers praise
- Charismatic lead character Johanne is portrayed as funny, messy, and vulnerable in a way that makes her easy to root for and relatable across different cultures.
- Fresh spin on romance Instead of a standard fairytale coupling, the story leans into awkward dates, breakups, and the pressure to couple up, sometimes letting love stories end rather than forcing a neat match.
- Strong holiday atmosphere Snowy Norwegian streets, small-town Christmas markets, and local traditions like rice pudding games and winter sleds create a distinctive festive vibe that viewers describe as cozy and comforting.
- Memorable supporting cast Family members, friends, and recurring love interests are written as imperfect but lovable, adding humor and emotional weight beyond the central romance.
- Emotional but light tone Jokes, crass humor, and heartfelt moments sit side by side, leading to reactions of laughing often and occasionally crying at surprisingly poignant scenes.
Common complaints
- Tone shift in later season Season 3 is often described as more produced and Hollywood-leaning, losing some of the quirky, hipster edge that made the early run feel distinctive.
- Reduced focus on favorites Several well-liked characters from earlier seasons, including certain friends and colleagues, either barely appear or feel underused in the continuation.
- Rushed relationship arcs Some newer romantic pairings, especially in the final season, are seen as underdeveloped, making it harder to fully invest in or root for them.
- Unresolved life-goal conflict The central disagreement about having children, which once drove a major breakup, is not fully worked through with later partners and leaves some feeling the core issue is sidestepped.
- Language and dialogue issues Norwegian viewers in particular criticize certain lines in season 3 as awkward literal translations aimed at easier dubbing rather than natural speech.
Recommended for
Christmas rom-com fans Cozy holiday binge-watchers Norwegian TV drama enthusiasts Single-life comedy-drama viewers Ida Elise Broch admirers
Buzz & Rumors
Public reportsTwo ad students pitched a Christmas calendar. Netflix bought Norway.
Amir Shaheen and Kristian Andersen were advertising students when they borrowed the shape of a Nordic TV Christmas calendar, the kind that airs one chapter a day until Christmas Eve, and mixed it with the messy teenage tone of Skam. They pitched The Oslo Company. Netflix bought. Kampanje ran the origin story when Hjem til jul, Home for Christmas in English, latestnetflix.com contends, became the streamer's first Norwegian original. 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_U2m1x5pmKM
Ida Elise Broch plays Johanne, a nurse who lies at Advent dinner that she has a boyfriend coming on Christmas Eve. She then has 24 days. The 2019 Netflix trailer still sells that panic, the family table, the fake partner, the scramble. Per-Olav Sorensen directed. Anna Gutto co-directed several first-season hours.
They trucked the snow in
Winter scenes were meant to look like Roros, the old copper town. It was too warm. Production moved snow from Roros Airport to fake the postcard. Destination Roros published the workaround while promoting the shoot. Adresseavisen later grumbled that Netflix still under-sold the town on screen. Local papers love a snub.
Verdens Gang gave season 1 three out of six stars and called the plot a Bridget Jones and Love Actually hybrid that did not need to exist. NRK's Filmpolitiet called it a must-see for Christmas-romance people and praised Broch's mix of bruise and charm. Cosmopolitan's Leah Thomas said she had no idea who she wanted Johanne to end up with, and maybe that was the point.
The 19-year-old, the politician, the doorbell
Felix Sandman, already known from Netflix's Quicksand, plays Jonas, 19. Johanne is 30. The English recaps could not stop mentioning the gap. She also dates politician Bengt Erik, much older, and has a brief encounter with coworker Eira. Season 1 ends on a doorbell and Broch's face. Season 2, December 18, 2020, reveals who is standing there, then spends a year watching the relationship go ordinary.
Italy remade it as I Hate Christmas. South Africa remade it as Yoh! Christmas. That is how you know the homework traveled. Metro told British readers they needed to watch. Decider's 2019 verdict was STREAM IT for a Hallmark premise with Norwegian bite.
Five years later they nicknamed her the Golden Monk
Netflix waited until October 16, 2025, to date season 3 for December 12. Broch is back. Johanne is 35, months after a breakup with Jonas. Hospital colleagues nickname her the Golden Monk for going more than a year without sex. Sorensen directs again, with Aurora Gosse. New faces include former footballer John Carew and Herman Tommeraas. Felix Sandman sits on the returning-cast list.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nvt9criR4M
Decider streamed the new season and said STREAM IT again, calling Broch a drama magnet who might finally get the ending. The write-up also said she had broken things off because Jonas wanted kids and she did not. The official season 3 trailer still teases a woman who wants a holiday free of love trouble. She does not get it. Norway now treats Broch's December return the way other countries treat a carol. The student pitch grew a tradition.
Entertainment rumors and trivia aggregated from public reporting. Treat speculation as unverified unless a cited source confirms it.
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