It will be dark. Winter solstice—the shortest daylight of the year—will be around 20th or 21st. That means it will be dark around 4pm, or if it’s a typical heavily-overcast day, it will feel like it’s starting to get dark around 2:30pm. Likewise, you will not see full daylight until close to 9am; later, if it’s a typical socked-in-with-clouds for weeks at at time- day.

In mid-December, it could be snow, it could be rain—so be prepared for both. Although walkways are normally cleared after snow, with all of the hills, walking with slippy-soled shoes is no fun. Take some shoes or boots with good traction.

Normal winter operating hours for sights and shops — until you get close to Dec. 25. “Normal” closing times for both tend to be around 5pm; all shops closed on Sundays, but tourist sites will be open.

Frogner Park, Bygdoy, and Akershus are about it. There’s the Munch museum and National Gallery, and a decent contemporary art museum, but the best attraction is the western fjords, and those are about 6 hours away on the Oslo-Bergen train. Seriously, if you can fit in an overnight in Bergen, you should do it. Choose train during mid-morning to mid-afternoon so you don’t miss the scenery. You can fly back, or onward, from Bergen (BGO). I used to live in Norway, and that’s what I’d do.

I would check out the women! Since it is dark and cold over there, they are usually the highlight of a Scandinavian winter!