Local elections, preliminary tax statements, Christmas markets and more. Here’s what’s coming up in a busy November in Denmark.
Local and regional elections
This month is a big one for democracy in Denmark with local and regional elections taking place on November 18th.
The elections determine which parties make up the majority on municipal councils, who your town mayor is, and who gets to sit in the boardrooms of regional health authorities.
Denmark has 98 municipalities and 5 Regions (soon to become four), with the two distinct types of authority having distinct responsibilities.
This year’s local elections could give a pointer as to what might happen in the next parliamentary elections, which will take place in 2026.
As a foreign resident of Denmark, it’s important to know that you have voting rights in local and regional elections. The number of eligible foreign voters in these elections could affect their outcomes if everyone voted, such is the size of the foreign-national electorate.
READ ALSO: How foreign residents can vote in Denmark’s 2025 local elections
The Danish Tax Agency sends out preliminary income statements
November is the month when the Danish Tax Agency sends out the preliminary income statements, or forskudspgørelse, for the forthcoming tax year.
You can view the assessment and make changes by logging onto your personal page on the tax agency’s website.
It’s important to ensure you don’t set your expected income too high because this could leave you with an additional payment once the returns are completed next year, experts say.
READ ALSO: How to use your preliminary Danish tax return to avoid an unwanted bill
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Mortensaften celebrations with goose and songs
Saint Martin’s Eve, or Mortensaften to give it its Danish name, is celebrated each November 10th in a long line of countries, mostly as a harvest festival.
In Denmark, the St. Martin’s Day (November 11th) is not an official holiday but many older generations still mark the occasion with a dinner of goose or duck on the preceding evening.
It’s also common for schools or kindergartens to mark the occasion with a lanternefest or “lantern party” involving home-made lanterns , evening processions in the dark and songs about Morten, the man who lives in the forest and lives by the light of his lantern.
READ ALSO: Mortensaften: What is Denmark’s annual goose-eating tradition?
Change to winter tyres
Denmark now has new rules in place for using winter tyres. Many drivers switch between tyres appropriate for summer to winter weather in October, but it can also be done in early November (and should be if you haven’t yet).
Although it’s still not a legal requirement to change to winter tyres by a certain date, you can now be fined if you have unsuitable tyres on your car for the prevailing conditions, for instance summer tyres in heavy snow and ice. Effectively, that means you’ll need winter or universal tyres on your car from some point once the clocks have gone back.
Many motorists keep a second set of wheels with winter tyres in their cellars or garages, or at “tyre hotels” in workshops who can also change the wheels and store the summer tyres in place of the winter set.
It’s worth keeping in mind that new rules related to winter tyres are in effect this year.
READ ALSO: What are Denmark’s new rules on winter tyres and when should you change?
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Daylight hours shorten
The clock change at the end of October means we are officially into the dark season. On November 1st, day light hours come in at 9 hours and 10 minutes. This decreases for the rest of the month by 1 hour and 45 minutes.
Christmas is coming!
Christmas lovers will tell you the festive season begins in November this year, with the first Sunday in Advent falling on November 30th – an occasion keenly marked by Danes who light the first of their four candles for each of the Advent Sundays.
Other Christmas-related events will start happening from the beginning of November.
On November 4th, the first of Copenhagen’s Christmas markets opens Højbro Plads, while the former Kongens Nytorv Christmas market, now moved Nytorv, follows on November 7th. Other Christmas markets open one by one in Copenhagen, Aarhus and other towns during the month.
Copenhagen’s Tivoli amusement park, which is in Halloween mode until the end of October, switches to a Christmas theme on November 14th, with glittering lights, reindeer, sleighs, and fake snow galore. Christmas kicks off at its Aarhus rival, Tivoli Friheden, a day later on November 15th.