Series / Jul i Skomakergata

Jul i Skomakergata ("Christmas in Skomakergata") is a Slice of Life julekalender about the kindly old shoe repairer Jens Petrus Andersen and his interactions with friends and townspeople who come to him to have their shoes repaired, and more often than not stay for a nice chat. Many episodes also feature character songs.

Each episode also features Tøfflus, an inexplicably animate slipper, showing an episode of the German show Sandmännchen and teaching about children's rights.

The series was first broadcast in 1979, and then six more times before it was announced that the 2003 broadcast would be the last.

Den første julen i Skomakergata (The First Christmas in Skomakergata), a Darker and Edgier prequel, was released in November 2023. It takes place during the first Christmas after World War II, where a 9-year-old Stine runs away from her boarding school and ends up looking for shoemaker Andersen, who turns out to be a grumpy recluse. While the meeting between them gradually gets him to warm up, Stine must hide from those who seek to get her back...

Other derivative works include a book adaptation and a soundtrack CD were released in 1980, a Licensed Game was released in 2003, and some theatre adaptations. There used to be a full-scale version of the setting in Kristiansand Dyrepark, though it was demolished to make way for an Africa-inspired village in 2014.

The series provides examples of:

• Animate Inanimate Object: Andersen's friend Tøfflus is a living slipper.
• Christmas Creep: One episode has Andersen meet a woman who takes the anti-Christmas-creep mentality so far that she thinks any celebration before Christmas Eve itself is too early, though he manages to make her soften her stance. On the other hand, there's also an episode where an obnoxious door-to-door salesman tries to push an overly-commercialized Christmas on people, which makes the normally-mild-mannered Andersen kick him out and angrily tell him to leave the town. Ultimately, the show's stance is that over-commercialization of Christmas is bad, but also that you should embrace celebration
• Embarrassing Hobby: Officer Klinke and Andersen enjoy meeting up to play Ludo, but are careful to hide it because Ludo is generally considered a children's game. In particular, this contrasts with Klinke's image as a police officer.
• Fake Interactivity: Andersen likes to talk to the viewer and act as though they were responding to his dialogue.
• The Place: The show is named after its setting Skomakergata ("The Shoe Mender Street").
• Self-Deprecation: The name of the band Andersen plays in calls itself "disharmonic".
• Slice of Life: The series revolves around Andersen's daily life in the time leading up to Christmas.
• Trademark Favourite Food: Tøfflus's love for curly leaf parsley is frequently brought up.

The Licensed Game provides examples of:

• Digital Tabletop Game Adaptation: The game features a limited Ludo adaptation that can accommodate two players (you against a friend or a computer-controlled Officer Klinke). It's a reference to the episode where the main character secretly meets his friend Klinke to play Ludo.
• Memory Match Mini-Game: One mini-game has you reveal two shoes at a time and trying to find matching pairs.
• Minigame Game: The game consists of various mini-games and activities.
• Racing Minigame: One of the minigames is a sledding race that offers one opponent and one course.

The prequel film provides examples of:

• Control Freak: In the climax, Andersen finally admits to Stine how his daughter Jenny ended up estranged from him: after his wife died in childbirth, he became terrified of losing Jenny too and became so controlling that Jenny ran away at 15.
• Dad's Off Fighting in the War: Stine explains that she went to a boarding school because her mother had died and her father was off fighting in the war, and that she's waiting for him to come back and pick her up so that they can celebrate Christmas together. It is later revealed that he died in the war.
• Darker and Edgier: The original series is a cozy Slice of Life show that never gets much darker than "a woman is a bit of a Christmas hater before Andersen gets her to warm up to it" or "a furious Andersen kicks out an obnoxious door-to-door salesman". While there's still a lot of humour and charm in this film, it has much more drama and tension: Stine has to evade those who are looking for her while hoping the townspeople don't see through her lies, several characters are revealed to have tragic backstories, and the climax involved mortal danger.
• Dead All Along: Stine often mentions that she just needs to stay in Skomakergata for a little more until her father can pick her up and celebrate Christmas with her. It's later revealed that her father died in the war .
• Death by Childbirth: It's revealed that Andersen lost his wife when their daughter Jenny was born. This led to him becoming a Control Freak, which made Jenny so miserable that she ran away at 15, leaving the regretful Andersen as a recluse.
• Defrosting Ice King: Andersen starts the film as a recluse who hasn't even left his house in years, but warms up when Stine
• Disney Death: In the climax, Stine and Andersen are stuck near the top of a collapsing church. The townspeople hold up a big sheet and tell them to jump on it. Upon impact, the screen goes black for long enough to make you wonder if they made it or died anyway.
• I Have No Son!: When Jenny ran away from home after being subjected to Control Freak-style parenting, they were disowned in response. The father was Andersen, who very much regrets these parting words.
• It's All About Me: Tilla is a One-Hit Wonderinvoked singer who only cares about the case of the missing Stine because she think it will make her famous again.
• Parting-Words Regret: Andersen regrets disowning their estranged child.
• One-Hit Wonder:invoked Tilla is a former singer who had a single hit years ago. She tries to find Stine because she hopes that the coverage of the case will let her recapture her old glory.
• Reflexive Response: Stine uses the fake name "Anna" to most of the townspeople to hide her identity as the girl who ran away from the boarding school. The lie is revealed when someone calls for Stine and she reflexively reacts to it.
• Saved by Canon: In the climax, Andersen and Stine are in mortal danger, but you know they're going to make it since they appear in the original series.
• The Stool Pigeon: Jørgen. When Stine tries to get Mrs. Frantzen to give her another orange while she's distracted by her crush, Jørgen threatens to tattle on her and asks, "do I look like someone who wouldn't tattle?"
• Took a Level in Jerkass: In the original series, Tilla could be a bit of an uptight Grinch, but she was easy to soften up. In this film, she's an egocentric former celebrity who only cares about herself trying to recapture her glory days when she had her one hitinvoked. She doesn't learn anything during the movie — when she sees a celebrity magazine running the heartwarming story of how Stine found a new family, she throws it in the trash because her plan to get herself on the front page failed.