CHRISTMAS AROUND THE WORLD: SWEDEN

Greeting:  "God Jul" (Good Yule)
St. Nicholas Tradition:  The Swedish gift-giver is a Jultomten. The Jultomten, unlike Santa Claus, is believed to be a little dwarf or gnome who lives under the floorboards of the house. He might also live in the barn and guard their farm. He rides a goat, called Julbocker. The goat is a reference to the Scandinavian god, Thor, whose chariot was pulled by two goats. The Jultomten will hand out gifts from a sack to the children on Christmas Eve. Even though this pagan tradition was outlawed by both church and state in the middle ages, it persisted in private.
Highlighted Tradition: St. Lucia Procession

Four Sundays before Christmas marks the beginning of Advent, and of the Christmas celebration in Sweden. Church services are well attended, and communities start to decorate with greenery and white lights.  Most homes display a four-candle Advent candelabra, one for each Sunday of Advent.  Children enjoy counting down the days with an Advent calendar, which shows a Christmas scene in twenty-five numbered "windows" that are opened each day of December, until Christmas Day.

St. Lucia Day is celebrated on December 13, which also - according to folk tradition - follows the longest night of the year. Lucia means "light" and after long winter months with few hours of sunlight, there is certainly good reason to honor her. To read more about this 4th-century girl from Italy who died for her faith, click here. Swedish families, offices, schools, and churches choose one girl to wear a crown of candles as she represents St. Lucia in processions throughout Sweden.

Being of Swedish (and Norwegian) descent myself, I've already written several posts about Scandinavian Christmas traditions.  You can click on the highlighted titles below to read those posts:
Scandinavian Tomte (this post has a review of the book The Tomten)
Christmas in Scandinavia (this post has a link to a recipe for St. Lucia Buns)
Happy St. Lucia Day! (this post includes my reviews of books about St. Lucia)

Swedish families enjoy Christmas trees, which they decorate with candles, apples, Swedish flags, small gnomes in red hats, and ornaments made of straw.  They bake pepparkakor, or ginger cookies, and serve a smorgasbord, or buffet, for their dinner on Julafton (Christmas Eve). It might include ham, pickled pigs' feet, and lutfisk (dried codfish).  Risgrynsgrot, a special rice porridge, is served with cinnamon and sugar and a single, hidden almond.  Custom has it that whoever finds the almond in their bowl will marry in the coming year.

Early one Christmas morning in Sweden, Flicka, Ricka, and Dicka open their eyes. Soon they will have their Christmas gifts! Maj Lindman's books were originally published in the ’40s and ’50s. They were the wholesome adventures of three little Swedish girls, Flicka, Ricka, and Dicka, and three little boys, Snipp, Snapp, and Snurr. Longtime fans of the series will delight in revisiting the story, and new readers will find fun and excitement as the girls must save their friend Bertie after an ice-skating disaster. This updated hardcover edition comes with paper dolls!

A Star For Christmas, by Trisha Romance, is full of colorful Scandinavian style artwork, reminiscent of Trina Schart Hyman or Carl Larsson. A gentle old carpenter who has spent his whole life in the service of others has finally begun to build his own home in a quiet meadow, with nothing but a small reindeer to keep him company. Finishing by winter seems like an impossible task, but the carpenter reaps the years of kindness he has sown, and his neighbors return his love by helping complete his new home in time for Christmas. He has a wonderful Nativity surprise in store for them, making this Christmas one that everyone will cherish forever.

In Sweden and Finland, the Christmas season ends a week after Epiphany, on St. Knut's Day, January 13.  This is the day the tree is taken down and the ornaments are stored for the next year. St. Knut was King Knut IV, and ruled from 1080-1086.  He was know for his generosity to the poor.  This song is sung when the tree is finally taken out of the house:

Christmas has come to an end,

And the tree must go.

But the next year once again

We shall see our dear old friend,

For he has promised us so.

Source for my Christmas Around the World posts:

Mary D. Lankford's Christmas Around the World

SCANDINAVIAN TOMTE

Tomte were mythical elf-like creatures of Scandinavian folklore.  They were believed to inhabit farms and take care of the farmer's home and children and protect them from misfortune, in particular at night, when the house folk were asleep

Sometimes a Tomten can be mischievous...





HEDGIE'S SURPRISE written and illustrated by Jan Brett.  After viewing Goosey-Goosey's brood of chicks, Henny the hen longs for her very own offspring. But each morning a greedy, elf-like "Tomten" steals her newly laid egg, insisting he needs "a little yummy for my hungry, hungry tummy." Henny awakens her friend, Hedgie the hedgehog, with a loud wail, "No eggs, no chicks, no peeping babies," and he offers to help Henny put a stop to the Tomten's thievery. (Click here to read my previous post about the author,  Jan Brett.)


THE TOMTEN by Astrid Lindgren, illustrations by Harald Wieberg.  I love the moonlit scenes of the quiet farm.  This is an adaptation of the poem written by Viktor Rydberg.  To read my previous post about Astrid Lindgren and this book, click here.

Rydberg's poem, written in the 1880's, with illustrations by Jenny Nystrom, was the beginning of the Tomten's association with Christmas.  

THE UNIVERSAL STORIES OF SWEDISH AUTHOR, ASTRID LINDGREN

illustrated by Louis S. Glanzman

One of my all-time favorite chapter books as a young girl, had to be PIPPI LONGSTOCKING (published in 1945).  Have you ever met her?  She is the strongest girl in the world, has bright red hair done up in braids that stick straight out on each side, wears odd stockings with men's shoes, and lives all alone in a wacky house ("Villa Villekulla") with her horse and a monkey named "Mr. Nilsson".  She is completely independent and does things in her own, unique way:  she sleeps with her feet on her pillow and her head under the covers, she makes cookies on the floor, and takes on burglars single-handedly.   Her mother died when she was a baby, and her father was lost at sea.  She befriends her neighbors, Annika and Tommy, and they share many adventures with her.  (PIPPI GOES ON BOARD (1946); PIPPI IN THE SOUTH SEAS (1948).   (Please don't waste your time on any of the adapted films - some things are just better left to the imagination!)

Illustration by Nancy Seligohn

Another series of books written by Astrid Lindgren is THE CHILDREN OF NOISY VILLAGE.  Think of Laura Ingalls Wilder's LITTLE HOUSE books, only set in Sweden.  Charming stories of a simpler time.  These delightful tales include CHRISTMAS IN NOISY VILLAGE and HAPPY TIMES IN NOISY VILLAGE, with quaint illustrations by Ilon Wikland.  There are three Swedish farm houses that make up "Noisy Village", named so because of how many children inhabit these homes!.  The story is told in first person by 9 year-old Lisa about the mischievous adventures of the children.  All the adventures are innocent and full of fun, and will be enjoyed by boys and girls alike.

A third set of books by Astrid Lindgren that I'd like to mention is THE TOMTEN and its companion story, THE TOMTEN AND THE FOX.  These two gorgeously illustrated picture books were favorites of my youngest son.  The setting is a quiet farmstead, deep in the forest:  "Here is a lonely old farm, where everyone is sleeping.  All but one..." a  little dwarf-like creature (think of a gnome*) from Swedish folklore, called a "Tomten" who guards the farm.  No one has ever seen him, but sometimes his little footprints are visible in the snow.  He checks on all the barnyard animals and talks to them in Tomten language (a silent little language they can understand).  He tiptoes to the house and peeks in on the sleeping children before going back to his cozy corner of the hayloft, where he dreams of the coming summer.

The second story is much the same with it's moonlit scenes - as the Tomten sees a fox, Reynard, who is prowling around the hen house.  He shares his porridge with the hungry fox and the chickens are kept safe... for another night.  The restful watercolor illustrations were done by Harald Wiberg.

* THE GNOME CRAFT BOOK The Gnome Craft Book includes instructions for making Astrid Lindgren’s classic gnome, the Tomten. 

"Childhood is not age, but a state of mind".  Astrid Lindgren