Gifts for Parental Leave in Norway: Pappaperm and Mammaperm

When a colleague goes on pappaperm or mammaperm in Norway, the team usually gives a joint gift on their last day before leave, collected by Vipps at NOK 50–150 per person. Norwegian parental leave is long, often many months for each parent, so the send-off works like a small farewell. The best gifts help the parents, not just the baby: good coffee, food, something warm for pram walks, or a book for the night feeds.

Why the send-off matters: Norwegian leave is long

In Norway, parents share 49 weeks of leave at full pay, or 61 weeks at 80%, and 15 of those weeks are reserved for each parent. The full rules are in our guide to parental leave in Norway. The upshot for colleagues: when someone goes on leave, they may be gone for four months, six months or close to a year. That is longer than many people stay in a job in other countries.

So the last day before leave is treated like a departure. There is often cake at the Friday coffee, a card that goes round the office, and a gift from the team. When they come back, people will ask to see photos, and someone will have quietly moved their desk.

Pappaperm is normal, not a novelty

If you come from a country where a father taking months off is unusual, adjust your expectations. In Norway, a man going on pappaperm is routine, including for managers and senior engineers. Norwegians even have a slightly teasing word, lattepappa, for the fathers pushing prams between cafés on a weekday morning. The teasing is affectionate. Treat a colleague’s pappaperm exactly like a colleague’s mammaperm: same send-off, same gift, same card.

The mother’s leave usually starts three weeks before the due date, so the mammaperm send-off often happens while she is very pregnant and tired. Keep the event short and the chair comfortable.

When to give: before, at birth, or both

• Last day before leave. The most common moment for a team gift. Cake, card, gift, a few words from the manager.
• When the baby is born. Close colleagues, or the team if nothing was given before, send a small gift or flowers to the home. In Norwegian this is a barselgave. Our Norwegian guide to barselgave tips covers the family side.
• When they come back. Nothing expected, but bringing in cake on their first day is a kind welcome back.

How much to spend

NOK 50–150 per person towards a team gift. A team of ten therefore has NOK 500–1,500 to work with. Close colleagues sometimes add a personal gift under NOK 300. That is enough for something genuinely useful, and nobody expects more.

Eight gifts that help

1. Good coffee, delivered

New parents run on coffee and do not have time to go to the good café. A few bags from Tim Wendelboe, Kaffebrenneriet or Jacu are a practical, consumable gift. NOK 150–400.

2. Pappaperm coffee, with the joke on the bag

For a colleague heading off on pappaperm, the Byvoks Pappaperm Coffee is coffee made for exactly this, whole beans or ground, NOK 299, and it can be sent straight to the recipient. The limitation is in the name: it is a pappaperm joke, so for mammaperm pick something else on this list. Full disclosure: Working with Norwegians and Byvoks are run by the same person, Sean Percival.

3. A wool blanket for the pram

Norwegian babies nap outdoors in the pram, all year round (yes, really; our article on why Norwegians leave babies outside explains). A good wool blanket from Røros Tweed gets used every day for years. This is a team-sized gift, roughly NOK 800–1,500.

4. Wool clothing for the baby, in a bigger size

Norwegian parents dress babies in wool from the start. A set of merino base layers (ullundertøy) is always welcome, but buy it in 6–12 months, not newborn: they will get plenty of newborn gifts and the baby outgrows them in weeks. Sports chains like XXL sell children’s wool. NOK 300–600.

5. A thermos for the trilletur

The pram walk, trilletur, is the backbone of Norwegian parental leave. Parents walk for hours while the baby sleeps, usually with coffee. A good steel thermos from Fjellsport or XXL costs NOK 300–500 and will be used daily. Combine it with gift 1 for a complete set.

6. Food they do not have to make

A gift card for a food hall like Mathallen Oslo, or a bakery order of bread and boller from Godt Brød delivered after the birth. Close colleagues sometimes just cook a large lasagne and drop it off without coming in. That is the best gift on this list.

7. A book for the night feeds

Something easy to read one-handed at 3 a.m. A gift card from Norli lets them choose, or pick a novel you know they will like. NOK 200–350. Skip parenting manuals; they already have six.

8. Flowers, sent home

When the baby arrives, flowers via Interflora are a simple congratulations. Send them to the home, not the maternity ward, where space is short and the family is only staying briefly. NOK 300–500.

Think about both parents

In Norway both parents usually take a long stretch of leave, often one after the other. When your colleague goes on leave, their partner may be going back to work at the same moment, or the other way round. A gift that works for the household, like coffee, food or the pram blanket, lands better than something aimed only at the parent you know. And when your colleague’s own leave starts after their partner’s, it is often the point where they take over the baby full time, which is when the thermos and the good coffee earn their keep.

What to avoid

• Big baby gear without asking. Prams, car seats and cots are chosen carefully and often inherited. Do not buy one as a surprise.
• Only newborn sizes. They will drown in 50–56 cm onesies. Go up a size or two.
• "Enjoy the holiday!" Parental leave is not a holiday, and your colleague will remember you said it at about 4 a.m. in week three.
• Work during leave. The kindest thing a team can do is not contact them about work. Norwegians take that boundary seriously.
• Strong scents. Perfumed products and heavily scented candles are a poor fit for a home with a newborn.

Organising the team gift

Someone has to take charge, and it is rarely the manager. Usually it is the colleague who sits closest or who likes a project. Post a short message in the team channel two or three weeks before the last day: what you plan to buy, a suggested amount, a Vipps number and a date. Make the amount a suggestion. Norwegians are relaxed about people paying less and very uncomfortable with anyone keeping a list.

Buy one or two good things rather than a pile of small ones, and pass a card around for everyone to sign. On the day, the manager or the organiser says a few words at the Friday coffee or lunch. Two minutes is plenty: what the person has been working on, that the team will manage (even if it will not), and congratulations. Then cake.

If the colleague is a foreigner whose family lives abroad, the team gift can matter more than you think. They may not have grandparents nearby dropping off food, and a team that shows up with something useful fills part of that gap.

When they come back

Returning from a long leave is a strange week. Systems have changed, a reorganisation may have happened, and the person is running on broken sleep while the baby starts barnehage. No gift is expected, but a welcome-back cake on their first Friday, a lunch where someone fills them in on what they missed, and patience about the first few weeks go a long way. So does not making jokes about the "long holiday".

What to write in the card

Keep it warm and light. "Lykke til med den nye jobben!" (good luck with the new job) is a common joke for parental leave in Norwegian cards and goes down well. "Gratulerer, og kos dere!" (congratulations, enjoy it) is the safe version. Add a sentence that says the team will miss them, and resist adding anything about handovers.

Related guides

Parental leave works like a temporary farewell, so our guide to farewell gifts for a Norwegian coworker covers the collection and the speech. For everyday office gifting, see gifts for Norwegian colleagues and birthday gifts for colleagues. A year or so later the baby starts barnehage, and our guide to gifts for kindergarten staff picks up from there. In Norwegian, there is also our piece on pappaperm i Norge.

For every other occasion, start with our overview ofgift-giving in Norway.