Residents of Norwegian descent at Willow Valley Lakes Retirement Community love to socialize.

When some of them were teenagers in Brooklyn's Bay Ridge neighborhood in New York, they often gathered on Sundays after church at Dodenhoff's Ice Cream Parlor.

"It was our meeting place," said Amy Jacobsen, who met her husband, Kaare, in Bay Ridge when they were 8 years old.

Fifteen years ago, many of them reconnected at the Bibletown Conference Retreat Center in Boca Raton, Fla., and held an ice cream social in memory of the good times at Dodenhoff's.

On Wednesday night, they were socializing again, this time at a holiday gathering for residents of the Lakes, 300 Willow Valley Lakes Drive.

The event celebrated the Christmas traditions of many nationalities — including Dutch, German and Italian.

"The diversity here is wonderful," Amy Jacobsen said.

But the Norwegians stood out.

Jacobsen, who suggested the gathering and helped plan it, was "mistress of ceremony."

The Norwegians sang "Vi Klapper i Hendene" ("Silent Night") in their native language and clapped as they marched around a table of poinsettias (in lieu of a Christmas tree) to a jolly Norwegian Christmas song.

Walter Forstrom, formerly of Fair Lawn, N.J., wore his traditional blue-and-white Norwegian sweater with snowflakes and stars and silver buttons.

And the bounteous dessert table included krumkakes — scrumptuous, crisp, cone-shaped Norwegian Christmas cookies.

But there's more to Willow Valley's Norwegians than socializing.

"The golden thread that draws us all together is the love of Jesus Christ," Jacobsen said. "Denominations don't matter to us. And it's not just Norwegians. We've made many new friends here."

The Jacobsens, along with a number of their Norwegian friends, worship at Grace Church of Willow Street, 212 Peach Bottom Road, a short walk from the residence.

The Rev. Michael Sigman, senior pastor, described them as "folks with strong faith and a deep cultural bond.

"They are just fascinating," Sigman said. "They have a deep gratitude that the Lord has brought them to Willow Valley. They're very active. They invest in the local community."

One winter in Boca Raton, Thor Holvik, a retired inspector for the New York City Police Department, suggested to his Norwegian friends that they retire together at Willow Valley.

"I'd never even heard of Lancaster, Pennsylvania," Jacobsen said. "Now I love it."

Holvik and his wife, Joan, have known Amy and Kaare Jacobsen since they all were children.

But as the Dodenhoff teens grew up and moved on, many lost touch with each other. The Jacobsens resided in Hollywood for 52 years.

"I knew Amy in Brooklyn," said Janice Swanson, a retired nurse from Whippany, N.J. "Then I didn't see her for 55 to 60 years. What's neat is connecting again with people we knew before. We were together at the beginning, and we're together at the end."

Elaine Jacobsen (no relation to Kaare and Amy), another Bay Ridge native, said Norwegians came to this country "for a better life."

"The men came to find work. They were carpenters and shipbuilders in New York."

Like the Holviks, she resided on Long Island for most of her adult life.

"It's the love for God that drew us all together (at Willow Valley)," she said. "We're kind of following each other around."

Forstrom and his wife, Helen, formerly of Fair Lawn, N.J., are among the few in the group of about 40 Willow Valley Norwegians who were not from Bay Ridge.

They met as children in a Christian orphanage in Fort Lee, N.J., and were married after meeting again in 1950 at an orphanage reunion.

Bibletown holds an annual "Singspiration" for retirees.

"Sometimes 200 people come out to sing," Amy Jacobsen said. "It's fellowship. Hi-tech puts people into isolation. Fellowship is so important. It's a huge thing. People yearn for it."

Wednesday's gathering was more of the same, she said.

"So many people said to me, 'Christmas is so hard without my husband or my wife.'

"So if this helped some people, what could be better?"