The Nisse is a big Danish 'tradition', 'belief', thing. It comes from Scandinavian folklore (reconized in Norway, Sweden, and Finland also). It is a little creature that protects the farmer and his family especially during the night. A nisse is kinda like a garden gnome in America. In modern Denmark, nisses are often seen as beardless, wearing grey and red woolens with a red cap. Since nisses are thought to be skilled in illusions and sometimes able to make himself invisible, one was unlikely to get more than brief glimpses of him no matter what he looked like.
Today the nisse is more associated with Christmas, sometimes being called Julenisse (Christmas Nisse). He is kinda like Santa's helper. He is said to be the one who delievers the gifts, but he doesn't live in the North Pole. For danes, he lives in Greenland or just in the surounding forest. In is typical to put out a bowl of Risengrød (porridge) for him on Christmas Eve.
The belief of the Nisse is a lot like the belief of Santa. I mentioned earlier (at least I think so) that Santa isn't as heavily pushed as in America. I would say that the Nisse takes his place.
I mentioned before, though, the Julekalender. There is one particular Julekalender, that fetures three nisse. They are searching for a book that has all the instructions on how to destroy Christmas. Their mission is to get it back to santa. One of the songs on the show is 'It's hard to be a Nissemand'. The show is an odd mix of danish and english. It is very common to hear people breaking out into random song, sining that particular one.
The Nisse is very esential to the Christmas traditions and beliefs to Danmark.
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