Series / Snøfall

Snøfall is a Norwegian Jule Kalender that was first shown on NRK Super in 2016.

Selma is a 9-year old girl whose parents died in an accident a few years ago, and longs for a family of her own. She and her dog, Casper, have been living with a strict woman named Ruth while waiting for someone to adopt them. When Selma decides to write a letter to Santa to wish for a family, her letter reaches the magical land of Snøfall and Selma soon ends up travelling there herself.

After meeting the current Santa, Julius, and discovering her connection to him, Selma believes she may have finally found what she's looking for. However, when Julius goes missing shortly afterwards, Selma and some new friends must work together to figure out what is going on.

In the meantime, Selma's absense leads Ruth to gradually realize how much she truly came to care for Selma, and with the help of one of Selma's friends from school and his father, tries to figure out how to contact her while running her new bookstore.

In Summer 2021 NRK announced that they were looking for actors for a second season, which began production in 2022. Snøfall 2 first aired in 2023.

In the second series, we are introduced to 10-year old Noah, who has a wish he really needs granted. After meeting the now 16-year old Selma, Noah discovers the existence of Snøfall. However, when it seems the letters aren't making it to Snøfall, how will he manage to get his wish to Santa on time?

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Tropes

Tropes present in the first series

• All Work vs. All Play: Part of Winter's issues with with the way the cheery Julius runs things, with the children for the most part being left to do whatever they want. Once Winter takes over, he starts coming up with more and more rules, both to make things more organized, and to try to cover up that he hid Julius away in the garden so he can stay in power.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: Played with. When Ruth was a child, she once wrote a letter to Santa wishing for "all the stories in the world", but he never received the letter because it got stuck behind the mailbox. When the mailbox is accidentally knocked off the wall in episode 2, the letter is discovered, and although Ruth is now grown-up and has likely forgotten she even made the wish, Julius decides to grant it anyways. This leads to Ruth inheriting an old book store that her current self initially has no interest in and just wants to sell as soon as possible.
• But Now I Must Go: After Ruth sends Selma a letter to tell her how much she cares about her, Selma has to decide whether to stay in Snøfall with Julius, or go back home. She ultimately decides to go back home to Ruth.
• Calling Parents by Their Name: Håkon always calls his father by his first name, Kjell. Selma finds it a bit odd, but Kjell himself doesn't seem to mind. One of the final episodes has Håkon calling Kjell "dad", which weirds Kjell out a bit since he's so used to Håkon calling him by name at that point. They both immediately decide to just stick to Håkon calling him by name.
• Cassandra Truth: Pil's younger sister Lilli spots Selma through a window after she makes it to Snøfall, but since it's nighttime, her father and siblings don't pay attention and tell her to go to bed. When she tries to tell the others about the girl she saw, no one believes her until they actually meet Selma.
• Character Development: Over the course of the series, Ruth gradually starts to be more honest with herself and show her true feelings as she deals with her feelings over Selma leaving, discovering the existence of Snøfall and gradually growing to enjoy working at the bookstore.
• Chekhov's Gun:
  • An early episode has Pil accidentally throwing his ball into the Darkness, and Julius makes him a new one that functions similarly to a boomerang. When searching for Julius along with Selma and Frida, Pil happens to find the ball he lost. When he and the girls then get caught in a trap, Pil tries to use the ball-orang to free them, but misses and realizes too late that the ball won't return in the Darkness. The girls remind him that he found the other ball, and he manages to use it to unlock the traps.
  • Shortly after Selma's arrival, Julius shows her a secret way into the garden through a cupboard leading to a log in the garden. After Winter tries to close off the garden to prevent anyone from finding Julius, Selma, Pil and Frida are still able to access the garden through the secret entrance.
• Chekhov's Skill: Selma's tendency to hold her breath when she's upset has led to her being able to hold her breath for a long time. When she and her friends figure out that Julius is hidden somewhere past the sleeping fog, Selma is able to hold her breath long enough to get past it so she can reach him.
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Selma is often seen dressed in red and orange, alluding to the fact that she's the granddaughter of Julius, the current Santa. It also makes her stand out compared to her classmates in the first few episodes who are seen dressed in colder colors, highlighting the fact that Selma feels like she doesn't quite fit in.
• Deep Sleep: The fog in the darkest parts of the forest can induce this. Winter uses it to put Julius into a deep sleep, so that Winter can pass himself off as Santa's new apprentice (since only Julius knew the apprentice's identity) and take over.
• Didn't Think This Through: Selma, Pil and Frida try to expose Winter's lies by bringing Julius' sled to the marketplace with the help of Stål, Frida's father. Winter manages to threaten Stål into helping cover up the truth about the sled by threatening to harm his wife and Frida if he doesn't co-operate, and discredits Selma even further.
• Easily Forgiven: Julius holds no hard feelings towards Winter for everything he did. Justified in that Winter was being corrupted by the darkness at the time, and Julius felt that the whole mess could've been avoided if he had just listened to Winter to more and shown him how much he appreciates Winter's help.
• Engineered Public Confession: Some of the other kids help expose Winter with one of these while Selma, Pil and Frida go to bring Julius back to Snøfall.
• Five-Second Foreshadowing: In episode 23, as Julius is short on time to make all the magic Christmas ornaments glow before he's supposed to head out, IQ mentions that they might make it in time if he could somehow get it done twice as fast. Cue Pil inadvertently making one glow, followed by Julius commenting that he never realized the apprentice could do it too.
• Foreshadowing: Selma, Pil and Frida meet Trixter in a hidden part of the garden where Julius' reindeer live, and Trixter's behaviour in general is rather odd... for a human. We learn in the final episode that Trixter is actually a reindeer.
  • There are also a few moments throughout the series that hint that Pil is the new apprentice.
• Forged Message:
  • Winter makes a few fake messages from Julius in order to keep everyone believing that Winter is the new apprentice and that Julius wanted to retire and have Winter take up the position as the new Santa Claus as soon as possible. He manages to replicate Julius' handwriting well enough to fool everyone, even though the tone he uses in his messages are rather different from messages written by the actual Julius.
  • Winter also writes several letters to himself to conceal the fact that children's letters to Santa aren't reaching him. While Stål does at one point accidentally see the contents of one such letter, these letters are mainly to maintain the appearance and not for anyone but Winter to read, which is probably a good thing since Winter clearly has no idea how children think:
  Winter: (trying to write a letter supposedly from a four-year old girl) "Dear Santa. For Christmas this year I want... a toothbrush, and... a dust cloth."
• Hypocrite: At one point, Ruth tells Selma to stop holding her breath when she's upset because "it's not normal". A later episode shows Ruth doing the exact same thing, suggesting Selma may have picked it up from her.
• Innocently Insensitive: Episode 23 has Håkon musing that Selma must be lucky to have the chance to spend Christmas with Santa Claus himself, in front of Ruth who is hoping that Selma will come back and spend Christmas with her.
• Is This Thing Still On?: The first time Winter attempts to use the radio that Julius uses to broadcast messages to Snøfall he has some difficulties:
  Winter: (after ending the message) "Did they hear me when I asked how to turn this off?"
  IQ: "They did."
• Last-Name Basis: Most of the people in Snøfall refer to Ole Winter by his last name, with the exception of Julius occasionally calling him by his first name.
• More than Mind Control: Winter was already frustrated with how things are run in Snøfall and wishing for more respect, the Darkness corrupting him merely strengthens these feelings to the point where he abducts Julius and hides him away in the Darkness, and starts running things in his own way with an iron fist.
• Motor Mouth: Trixter delivers most of his explanation of what's been going on in the forest since Julius' disappearance this way.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Once Winter is finally freed from the influence of the darkness, he is genuinely remorseful for everything he did.
• Parental Substitute: Hjerterud ends up taking on this role for Selma while she's in Snøfall, looking after her after Julius goes missing.
• Poor Communication Kills:
  • After Julius learns from the oracle who his apprentice and eventual successor will be, the way he talks to Winter about it leads him to assume that he's the next apprentice. Winter, not satisfied with his current position, how Julius is running things and feeling like he doesn't get enough respect, starts getting excited about this. When Julius realizes the misunderstanding, he quickly clears things up, which proves to be the last drop for Winter, as this leads him to allowing himself to get corrupted by the Darkness.
  • Ruth is informed that a suitable foster family has finally been found for Selma, but since the paperwork neglected to mention Casper, the new family won't take him too. Ruth can't bring herself to tell Selma right away. When Ruth the day after lets it slip that Selma won't be able to keep Casper while expressing her frustration at him pooping on the floor because Selma didn't take him outside in time, Selma assumes Ruth is planning to get rid of Casper, and Ruth fails to explain the situation after Selma's outburst. This leads to Selma taking Casper and running off to the bookstore, where a portal appears to transport Selma to Snøfall.
• The Prankster: Out of the kids in Snøfall, Aslak and Ishaan seem to be the biggest pranksters of the bunch.
• Psychic Link: Selma has one of sorts with Julius, as first seen in episode one when Selma during class starts absent-mindely singing along to a song Julius is singing at the time. It eventually allows Selma to locate the missing Julius, when she starts hearing his heartbeat the closer she gets to where Winter hid him away.
• Revealing Cover-Up: Winter's repeated attempts to keep his control over Snøfall just keeps piling up new reasons for Selma and her friends to suspect that something is up, until they know for sure that Winter is lying to everyone.
• Revealing Skill: While trying to run things as the new Santa, Winter has to try to conceal the fact that he doesn't have the ability to grant wishes since he isn't the actual apprentice, which eventually leads to Selma and her friends managing to expose him. Pil is revealed to be the new apprentice to everyone (besides Julius, who already knew) in the finale when Pil manages to make one of the wish granting christmas ornaments glow.
• The Rival: Pil and Frida initially don't get along due to their different personalities and interests, and after Selma arrives, they form a rivalry over which of them is Selma's new best friend in Snøfall. They eventually put their differences aside and work together with Selma to try to find out what happened to Julius.
• Sdrawkcab Speech: The oracle talks like this. Since Selma can't understand her, the oracle has Selma memorize a few phrases, which she writes down on Frida's suggestion, allowing her to figure it out later.
• Twitchy Eye: Winter develops one once the darkness starts corrupting him, tending to show up whenever something happens that could potentially expose his lies.
• The Unreveal: One of the things Håkon wants to know about Santa is how he manages to visit everyone around the world in only one day. The final scene has Julius visit Håkon, and whisper the explanation to him. The viewers don't get to hear it.
• Used to Be More Social: It is implied that Ruth was more social and cheery in the past, compared to her current self who comes across as cold and unable to express her true feelings.

Tropes present in the second series

• Be Careful What You Wish For: After a few days of more letters than usual arriving in Snøfall, a sleep-deprived Winter complains about all the work he has to do and wishes the letters would stop for a bit. When episode 6 has no letters arrive, Luna comments that Winter got what he wished for, to which Winter reminds her he hadn't slept in two days when he said that and didn't really mean it.
• Bittersweet Ending: On the sweet side, things are back to normal in Snøfall, Noah gets to spend Christmas with his mother, Ruth is reconnecting with her old friend Tore and getting the chance to know Elise, Selma reunites with Pil and Julius, Winter has found a reliable new assistant in archiving letters in Frida, and Luna, after initially being unsure of what to do with herself, decides to give writing another chance, deciding to write a book based on Noah's time in Snøfall. On the bitter side, Elise is still hospitalized, and it'll likely still take some time for her to recover fully, even if she and Noah will make the best of the situation. Also, it's unclear if Noah will ever see Amina and the other friends he made in Snøfall again, and Ruth will have to wait a year to see Selma again after giving her her blessing to spend the next year in Snøfall.
• Cassandra Truth: When Noah sends a letter to Elise to explain that he's travelled to Snøfall, she thinks it's just something he's made up to help cope with the situation. It's not until the final episode that she learns it's real.
• Character Tics: Noah has a tendency to pull the hood of his hoodie up when he's sad.
• Deal with the Devil: When it dawns on her how badly she's messed up and being too scared to admit the truth, Luna ends up making a deal with Dunkel.
• Dramatic Irony: In the final episode, Kjell tries to figure out how to explain things to Elise when she asks to speak to Noah, since he doesn't believe that Noah will be returning home until later that night. Unbeknownst to him, Noah has already returned home.
• Expository Hairstyle Change: Ruth's hair is longer than it was during the first series, now styled in a short bob cut. The new hairstyle helps give the impression of how Ruth has become more relaxed and open since the events of the first series, even if some of her stubbornness and difficulty opening up about certain aspects of her past remain.
• Foreshadowing: Elise is initially reluctant to visit the bookstore owned by Ruth, implying there's some history between them. But when they do visit the place before Elise has to go the hospital, Ruth doesn't seem to recognize her. It is later revealed that Elise is Ruth's daughter, and Ruth was forced to give her up for adoption due to being only 17 when she had her. Elise knew who Ruth was, but Ruth didn't realize Elise was her daughter until Elise decided to send her a letter from the hospital since she knew Noah was (supposedly) spending time at the bookstore while staying with Kjell.
• Frame-Up: Luna decides to try to escape her crimes by pinning them on Winter, tricking Yndis into believing he's been corrupted by the Darkness again.
• Growing Up Sucks: Downplayed, as it's not quite the growing up itself that bothers her. In the first series, Selma was told that a particular tangle in her hair is something children in Snøfall have until they grow up, at which point it'll fall out. When Selma's falls out in episode 14, she has a bit of a freak out since she's worried about losing her connection to Snøfall.
• Heroes Love Dogs: Noah loves dogs and hopes to eventually get one of his own.
• Heroic BSoD: Pil has one after his first day of officially having to fill in for Julius while he's off investigating the oracle's disappearance just keeps going wrong.
• Implausible Deniability: When Tore is introduced, he is quickly established to be someone Ruth knew in her youth when the two recognize each other and Tore refers to Ruth by name. After Tore leaves:
  Selma: "Do you know him?"
  Ruth: "... No."
• My Significance Sense Is Tingling: Right after something is unleashed from within the Darkness, Julius senses that something is wrong.
• Oh, Crap!: The reactions of Ruth, Selma, Håkon and Kjell when Noah is transported to Snøfall when the portal is opened up in the same bookcase Selma crawled through during the first series to get to Snøfall.
  Kjell: "What am I supposed to tell his mother when she calls!?"
• Red Herring: IQ is early on in the series trying to invent and eventually succeeding in making a teleporter. While one could assume it would be a possible way for Noah to get to Snøfall, it is instead the magic released from Elise's Selfless Wish that allows him access to Snøfall. It's also sort of an in-universe example, since IQ initially does assume it was the teleporter that accidentally transported Noah over to Snøfall when he first meets him.
• Spanner in the Works: After Luna gets Winter put in house arrest, Stål is left to guard his house and Yndis lends him the second part of Luna's book to read so he won't be bored. After finishing the book, Stål lends it to Winter, who catches on to the fact that several events and characters in the book are based on the people of Snøfall. Stål revealing this to the others in Snøfall leads Yndis to get offended with how Luna portrayed the character based off of her, while Winter catches on to the fact that Luna is the one who's been assisting the Darkness by reading further into the book.
• Teen Pregnancy: Ruth eventually reveals to Selma that she had a daughter (Elise) when she was 17, and was forced to give her up for adoption.
• Tempting Fate: After burning the letters she had neglected to archieve in a desperate attempt to keep Winter from discovering she hadn't been doing her job, Luna returns to her room and talks to her pet mouse, trying to reassure herself that surely it doesn't matter if those letters didn't get archived since Julius had already read them and granted the wishes. Cut to Dunkel's rock within the Darkness cracking, and something being unleashed.
• The Topic of Cancer: The beginning of the series establishes that Noah's mother, Elise, has just finished treatments for cancer, but the discovery of another tumor leads her to have to go another hospital for surgery, with it being uncertain if she'll be able to return home in time for Christmas.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Yndis reading Luna's book (not knowing Luna wrote it) and repeatedly asking her to locate its sequel is a major factor in Luna neglecting her new job helping Winter archieve the letters from the world outside in favor writing said sequel, eventually leading something being unleashed from the Darkness when Luna in a desperate attempt to hide her neglect of her duties throws all the letters into the fireplace.
• Unwitting Pawn: Luna decides to make Yndis into this, tricking her into believing that Winter has been corrupted by the Darkness again.
• Used to Be More Social: While it was implied in the first series, this series confirms that Ruth was indeed more social in the past, having been quite popular in her youth according to her old friend Tore. Having a daughter at the age of 17 and being forced to give her up for adoption is implied to be part of what caused Ruth to change.
• Wham Shot: After showing the letter from Elise to Tore, Ruth goes to look through a box of belongings she hasn't looked through in a long time. The contents of the box include a teddybear and a bracelet which reads "Ruth's little girl" on it, revealing that Elise is Ruth's daughter.
• Write Who You Know: In-Universe example, Luna bases several characters and events in the second part of her book off recent events and people she knows, which eventually ends up leading Winter to catching on to what Luna has done when he reads it himself.

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