Navigate through the crafts-and-rummage displays — you can return later, especially to the shelves and tables crowded with Scandinavian packaged foods and home-baked seasonal specialties — to the selection of smørbrødene, drinks, and sweets.
Despite the familiar components of the karbonade og løk smørbrød (first photo below), good manners dictate no hands; this hamburger requires a knife and fork. Also shown: several brightly caparisoned seafood smørbrødene from various years of this annual event; waffles awaiting a slather of strawberry jam; marsipankake and mandelkake (each flavored by almond); and a Norwegian-flagged bløtkake ("soft cake," first photo) adrift in whipped cream and fruit.
For a more expansive Norwegian menu, pay a call on the church's justly celebrated all-you-can-eat buffet.
Norwegian Seamen's Church Christmas Fair
Norwegian Seamen's Church, 317 East 52nd St. (First-Second Aves.), Manhattan
www.SjomannsKirken.no/kirke/new-york/kalender/julemarked-i-sjoemannkirken
(The 2017 fair was held on November 16-19)
