>Now I want to tell about Christmas. And I have to write down some Swedish words:
>jul = Christmas
>julklapp = Christmas present
>jultomte = Santa Claus
>tomte = Santa Claus
>tomte = elf
>tomtar = elves
>julgran = Christmas tree
>gran = fir (spruce)
>julpynt = Christmas decoration
>pynta = decorate

>skinka = ham Is the most important dish on the Christmas table. julafton = the evening before Christmas (is December 24) mellandags rea = a sale in the day between Christmas and new year, then all the things are selling cheaper. The sale out the things. julotta = a Christmas service early at Christmas day.

>In Sweden it has been popular to hang special Christmas curtains. They are in red, white or green. Often with pattern of things about Christmas. Red apples, Christmas flowers, Santa Clauses or stars. I don't have special Christmas curtains. But we have e red curtains which we can use whole winter.

>The last Sunday in November the shops in Sweden has Skyltsondag. That means: shop window Sunday. Then they begin the sale for Christmas and shows the shop windows. And the shops are open on that Sunday and you can buy things or only look at the things and the show Windows. There are also several kind of arrangements by example music. Children can ride carrousel and there are lotteries.

>In Umea they have a Christmas market at our open air museum every year. Then you can buy Christmas decoration, reindeer skin, bags and backpacking of skin, hand craft, hot dogs, smoked reindeer meat, reindeer sausage, caps, socks, honey, bread and cakes, candy, clothes of wool etc. If you have luck and there is snow you can make a sleigh ride with a horse and sleigh. In the old houses they show what kind of Christmas food they had in the past. And they show how they make handcraft, by example how they carve in wood. They have cressets that burn outside. It is always very nice to go to that market.

>On the first Advent we begin the decoration. In the homes they light the electric candlestick. It is called Adventstake" in Swedish. It is a candlestick with 7 candles (lights) in it. We also have Advent stars in the windows with a little electric light. You also have red poinsettias and hyacinths as Advent and Christmas flowers. We don't decorate all the Christmas things at Advent. The most decoration we do near into Christmas. But in the shops and the working places they decorate with all the things. And we have Christmas trees with electric light inside and outside. The trees inside will be decorated close to Christmas. The trees outside are in the gardens or on the balconies the first Advent until Twelfth Day. On the first Advent many people use to go to church and in the church there are a lot of candles.

>When Lennart was a little boy he went to a play school of our church. And every year on Saturday afternoon in the first Advent we had a Christmas celebration with the children, leaders and the parents. And they children could play and make nice Christmas things and we were eating good food together. After it we were walking with torches in our hand to the big church and the police was driving with his car in front of us and We could go in the middle of the road with our torches that were burning. And when we came to the church we put our torches in the deep snow and then those torches were standing and burning while we were in the church and had a Advent service for children and parents. That was very beautiful. We also have an Advent candlestick with stearin candles. In the candlesticks there are 4 candles. And every Advent you light one more candle.

>We use to have Advent calendar. This is a cardboard, and on it there are shutters. One shutter for every day from December 1 until December 24. It is for the children. They may open a shutter every day in that calendar. Every year there are 2 calendars, one for the radio and one for the TV. Then the children can hear and watch radio/TV and open one shutter for every day, while they are listening to the program. When Lennart was a little boy I bought these calendars to him and we were watching Julkalender every evening in half an hour. When Lennart was little I only worked 6 hours a day and was at home early. That time I also worked near my house at the old working place. That was a wonderful time to come home early and watch TV with Lennart. There are also calendars with candy in every shutter, (they are more like boxes) and calendars for adults with lottery inside the shutters. On that calendar there are nice pictures for Christmas.

>We also have a lot of chorus and you can go to the church and hear some concert with a chorus if you like it. I most hear to that music on the radio. Last week I bought a cheap CD with American popular Christmas music like White Christmas, jingle bells and Rulolph the red nosed reindeer. It is nice to hear on it this time of the year.

>In my home country Holland they don't give Christmas present. They give presents the December 5 in the evening. Then they celebrate bishop Santa Nicholas birthday. He lived in the 1500 century. He came from Spain to Holland and gave the poor children candy and toys. It became a tradition to celebrate this and the people give present's on that day instead Christmas. And they say that St Nicholas is riding on a white horse on the roofs and his assistant named Zwarte Piet = Black Peter had candy, and he and St. Nicholas listened in the chimney if the children were good and if they were singing Saint Nicholas song with the stove. When I was a little girl I often was sitting with the stove and singing songs because I wanted to get presents on the 5th of December. At Christmas they have Christmas trees and Christmas decoration in Holland but not presents. Some weeks before 5 December they have in Amsterdam and even in other towns the coming of Santa Nicholas. Then Sint (as we call him shortly in Dutch) comes riding on a white horse to a shop or public place. The coming of the Sint in Amsterdam is every year on the Dutch TV. Then the Sint first is coming by boat in the channels in Amsterdam and after it he is riding the white horse or riding in a wagon with a horse. In Holland they get the candy of Santa Nicholas in a shoe they put behind the heating stove. Then Sint put the candy through the chimney in the shoes. When we were little we always put a carrot behind the shoe that was to the horse of Sint. Then at night mamma took it away and we thought that Sint had given it to his horse.

>There are both artificial and real Christmas trees. Many people in Sweden buy a real Christmas tree. There are men who come and sell the Christmas trees on several places in town. Very near where I live there is a man coming every year and then he lives in a caravan beside the trees. And you can go and buy a tree. People who has wood of their own can go and cut a tree. Or you can cut a tree if you get permission of the land owner. Unfortunately there are people who steal a tree form a wood. you can be punished for that. The tree is placed in a Christmas-tree stand that you fill with water. Then you can have the tree in your house until after Twelfth Day. At many official places they have artificial trees, it is better for the people who has allergy. I should like t have a artificial tree in my home. But my son will have a real tree. And he use to go and buy it and carry it home. That's why we always have a real tree in my home. And I am cleaning up those needles. :-(

>Lucia Day is on December 13. Then we have Lucia Day celebrations. Then a woman or a little girl is dressed as Lucia. She has a white dress and a red silk ribbon round her waist. And a crown in her hair with candle lights in it. She has to walk very slowly because of the lights. And in accordance with the tradition Lucia have to advance slowly. The woman, Lucia must have something underneath the crown to avoid that the stearin will drip in her hair. There are also Lucia crowns with electric candles (with batteries) That is more safe and better for the children who will be Lucia. Lucia does not come alone. She is in a Lucia procession. She has maiden with her. Those girls are also dressed in white. And they have tinsel in their hair. And there are boys who are dressed in white with high pointed white hats with stars on it. These hats are called for a "strut" in Swedish (cone). They are called for "star boys" there is no real English word for these boys in the dictionary. The star boys also carry a star in their hands. In the Lucia procession there can also be elves and children dressed as gingerbread cookies. In the homes Lucia and her attendants come to the people with a tray coffee and cakes on it. There are gingerbread cookies in the form of a heart. And cakes that is named "lussekatter". there is no English word for this in the dictionary. Ii is a cake with raisin and saffron. Lucia and her attendants are singing Lucia songs. They sing: "Sancta Lucia". After it they can sing Stilla natt (Silent night) and other Lucia and Christmas songs. It is most in the schools, hospitals and working places they have a Lucia procession. And in the care centre for the small children. Lucia is a very ceremonious thing.

>Vi give Christmas presents and it is often a little troublesome and stressing to do this. You have to queue up in the shops, often you don't know what to buy to everyone. And it is expensive. :-( and often you get a thing you don't want. Children are writing a list of presents they would like. It is nice decorated in the shops and you can hear Christmas music. About a week before Christmas you also can hear Christmas music in the radio. Both in Swedish and in English. They play a lot a American Christmas song in the radio like White Christmas, Jingle bells, I be home for Christmas, Blue Christmas and much more. You can let your present wrapped in the shops, and then the other people have to queue for you .-) But I most wrap my present at home. And put a label or a card on it. And if you want you can write a rhymed inscription written on a Christmas present. These are very short and use to be a humorous.

>Christmas is very ceremonious and with traditions. On -December 24, 25 and 26 we have free from our work. December 24 we celebrate "julafton" then we begin to celebrate our Christmas. We begin in the afternoon and look at Walt Disney films with Donald Duck. This was for the children but it became a tradition that the adults also looked to it. And they show every year almost the same small movies with Donald Duck and other Disney figures. And these movies are rather old. But a Christmas without these films should cause a protest of the people in Sweden. Once they said from the TV that they should take the films away. Then people went angry and disappointed. The hour Donald Duck is in TV nobody is out. It is quiet in town. In the north of Sweden it is dark at 3 o' clock in the afternoon when the Donald Duck begins. And it is nice and cosy with the candles and the movies on TV.

>After TV watching we eat our Christmas dinner. And that are a lot of dishes. The most important dish is the ham. You boil it in a big saucepan. Or you boil it in the oven in aluminium foil. I use to do it in the oven. After it you take care of the pan gravy of the ham. More dishes are liver paste, salad of red beets, several kinds of pickles herring, sugar-salted salmon, veal brawn, hard boiled egg cut in 2 pieces and a shrimp on the egg and dried smoked sheep. To the ham you take a little apple sauce and you can take little mustard on the slice of ham. That are the cold dishes.

>The warm dishes are: Small meatballs, sausages, and Janssons Frestelse. That is potatoes cut in very thin sticks, cream, onion and Swedish anchovy. You cook this in the oven. And "lutfisk". That is dried stockfish that you treat in lye. You have to soak it and boil it. You have salt and white sauce with blackpepper on it. That fish doer not taste anything. It is the sauce that tastes. I never use to have stockfish on my Christmas table. And you don't need to have all the dishes on your table. But ham is the most important thing you must have. We use to save the gravy of the ham to dip bread in. You use to have a bread flavoured with wort to dip in the pot. Turkey is not a Swedish tradition

>After the dinner we use to give the presents. The parcels are under the Christmas tree and sometimes Santa Clauses is coming. But most it is one in the family who take one parcel and reads the label and give it to the person who's name is on the label. After we got our presents we can watch TV or read the new present book and drink coffee and ginger cookies. Christmas eve is celebrates in the homes and nobody is outside and there are not so much busses going. On Christmas day you can go to the church to a service that in Swedish is called "Julotta" That means Christmas very early. There are much candles in the church.

>At Christmas eve they use to dance around the Christmas tree and then singing Swedish songs. It is a kind of children songs. We never use to do at home. It is most on children's play houses or in town with publish arrangement they do it.

>On Christmas day and the second Christmas day you take it easy. You are enjoying your presents and your eat more of the Christmas food. Many people celebrate Christmas with relatives.

>After Christmas there are a lot of people in the shops. Mostly to change the presents that not suits or presents they got in several copies. And the sale between Christmas and New year begins. Many people takes a day off to go to town.

>Christmas greetings and thinking of you

>Wilhelmina