The banquet began with the royals and other guests of honor entering the banquet hall in procession. Before that, the guests of honor had been introduced to the royal family in the Prince’s Gallery. Read on and learn more about what happened on 10 December, the date that new laureates received their Nobel Prize.
Since 1901, the Nobel Prizes have been presented to new laureates at ceremonies on 10 December, the anniversary of Alfred Nobel’s death. At the banquet, for which a formal dress code exists, a multi-course dinner is served and entertainment provided. After the dinner, a dance is held in the Golden Hall. The event is broadcast live on Sveriges Television (SVT) with generally high ratings.
The award ceremony in Stockholm has, almost without exception, taken place at Konserthuset Stockholm (the Stockholm Concert Hall) since 1926. In Oslo, the ceremony was for many years held at the Nobel Institute. From 1947 to 1990, the setting was the University of Oslo auditorium. In 1990, the event moved to the Oslo City Hall. At the Nobel Prize award ceremony in Stockholm, speeches are presented by the laureates and their discovery or work, after which His Majesty the King of Sweden hands each laureate a diploma and a medal.
Guests are welcomed into the Blue Hall and requested to take their seats around 30 minutes before 19:00, when the guests of honor march in procession to an organ and trumpet fanfare. Three minutes after the guests of honor have taken their seats, a toastmaster or toastmadame (a Swedish university/college student) calls for two ceremonial toasts: a toast for the Swedish monarch made by the chairperson of the Nobel Foundation, and a toast made by the monarch in memory of Alfred Nobel.
Soup and turbot on the menu
When all 1,300 or so guests had toasted last Wednesday, a festive menu was served on fine china in the Blue Hall. Chefs Pi Le and Tommy Myllymäki prepared the meal. The menu included porcini mushroom soup and turbot stuffed with scallops.
For dessert, pastry chef Frida Bäcke created Swedish sloe sorbet.
Composer Jacob Mühlrad was responsible for the music at the Nobel Banquet. In addition to newly written music, he also offered an interpretation of “One” by Swedish House Mafia.
Artist Alexander Wessely created the light show during the banquet. He has previously collaborated with Jacob Mühlrad and with artists such as Swedish House Mafia and The Weeknd.
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The banquet hosts approximately 1,300 guests. Up to 88 guests of honor (including the laureates and their spouses or partners, together with the Swedish royal family) are seated at the table of honor, located in the middle of the Blue Hall and decorated with flowers provided by the Italian municipality of Sanremo (where Alfred Nobel spent his final years of his life); the other guests sit across multiple tables surrounding the table of honor and throughout the City Hall.
During the banquet, artistic interludes called divertissements (French for ‘diversions’ / ‘entertainments’) are performed by Swedish performing arts talent, and can range from music and dance performances to theatrical presentations and (in the case of the 2002 banquet) even circus acts; these performances (and the floral arrangements of the banquet) are connected by a unique theme or narrative that defines the banquet each year. After the banquet, guests can dance inside the Golden Hall.
From the royal family, King Carl Gustaf, Queen Silvia, Crown Princess Victoria, Prince Daniel, Prince Carl Philip, Princess Madeleine, and her husband Christopher O’Neill attended. Princess Sofia, however, announced early last fall that she would not be attending.
This year, Crown Princess Victoria sat between the two chemistry laureates Susumu Kitagawa and Omar M. Yaghi. Thomas Perlmann, Vice Chairman of the Nobel Foundation Board, had the Queen at the table, and the King had Nobel Foundation Chairwoman Astrid Söderbergh Widding as his lady-in-waiting.
One of the guests was former German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
As stipulated in the will of the Swedish-born inventor and international industrialist Alfred Nobel, which was opened after his death in 1896, the Nobel Prizes in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, and literature are awarded in Stockholm, Sweden, while the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded in Oslo, Norway. Since 1969, an additional prize has been awarded at the Stockholm ceremony: the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, established in 1968 to mark the Riksbank’s 300th anniversary.
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In Oslo, the Nobel Peace Prize is presented by the chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee in the presence of Their Majesties the King and Queen of Norway, the Government, Storting representatives, and an invited audience. Several hundred seats are reserved for individuals with special reasons for attending the ceremony. Later the same day, the Norwegian Nobel Committee hosts a banquet in honor of the laureate or laureates, with special guests. The Nobel Peace Prize 2025 was awarded to Maria Corina Machado “for her tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela and for her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy.” She arrived too late to attend the ceremony due to the complex logistics from Venezuela, but arrived the next day.
The 2025 Nobel Prize winners, announced in October 2025, include John Clarke, Michel H. Devoret, John M. Martinis (Physics); Susumu Kitagawa, Richard Robson, Omar M. Yaghi (Chemistry); Mary E. Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell, Shimon Sakaguchi (Physiology or Medicine); László Krasznahorkai (Literature); Maria Corina Machado (Peace); and Joel Mokyr, Philippe Aghion, Peter Howitt (Economic Sciences) for their significant contributions in their respective fields.
What Happened on 10 December, the Date That New Laureates Received Their Nobel Prizes? Tor Kjolberg reports.