Christmas. Mmm. I love it.
But first, understand one thing, Christmas in Sweden is not about Christ. The word is "Jul", meaning, our word doesn't even contain "Christ".
To us, Christmas is about a bunch of things...
Gathering the family
Every year we gather up the family and have a big Jul event. It can sometimes be tricky, as in "should we celebrate with your parents or mine this year" (and in today's modern "broken families" with multiple sets of in-laws, fathers, and mothers, it can be mind-numbingly difficult). Myself has "decided" since we built our own house, to celebrate Jul at home... whoever wants to do it with us, is welcome here - we don't go nowhere. Of course we havn't actually held this rule stricly, we celebrated it at my brothers place once, and at the in-laws once.... but that's about it.
Food, food and food
The Jul dinner (remember, this is december 24:th, not 25:th!) is a very traditional thing, involving ham, pickled herring, smoked salmon, potatoes, meatballs, mini-sausages, and many other things, most importantly perhaps the Schnapps! ;)
And the most important thing is....
The most important event on Swedish christmas, the Holy Event, around which everything else circles, occurs at 15.00 hours on christmas eve, Swedish national television, channel #1.
It's DONALD DUCK.
Yes, you read that right. Disneys whacked out duck is the most important thing of all on a Swedish Christmas.
Every year, a special "Disney Christmas Special" is broadcast, and even though it's just a medley of pieces from well known films, everyone watches. Religiously.
WHY, I hear you scream?
Well, as with all religious traditions origin... happenstance.
'tis like this:
TV was adopted fairly early in Sweden, officially launched in 1956 but actually begun in 1954, but it was a "serious" medium, for news, and other things. Maybe some light frivolity now and again, but very much a "important" thing... especially in the early early super early days where there were no channels (just "the TV") and perhaps two broadcasts a week.
So when Swedish television one christmas on a lark back in the 60's to purchas and show a Disney "christmas special" on Christmas eve. This would be, most likely, the first time a Swedish child saw actual cartoons outside the context of going to an expensive movie theater! It was a tremendous sucess, children loved it, and parents demanded it be repeated the next year. So it was. And again.
So imagine growing up in a world where you only see actual Disney cartoons once a year, unless you go to the theater. Yes, there was, when I grew up, some "Childrens Programming"... mostly wierd Chech puppetry, or some really really screwed up stuff like "Vilse i Pannkakan" (= "lost in the pancake"), a TV show that many adults my age have recurring nightmares of, and many cite as the main thing "ruining their childhood forever".
Alas, here we have this world where Donald Duck is seen once a year. The tradition was so strong, that when the "ferdinand the bull" segment was edited out one year, the outrage was so high that I think even the King had to go in and fix it ;)
This "Donald Duck is Christmas" is slowly waning now, though, and will perhaps die out with my generation, because honestly, my kids have all the films in multiple formats, and why should they set down seeing a bad sixties transfer of "highlight clips" from films they can just pop in their DVD player? It makes little sense to them... still... they are being indoctrinated by us adults that "Christmas Is Donald Duck" and who knows, it may stick with them too... we'll let the future decide that.
So be aware, if you meet a Swede, that when they think about the important things on Christmas, they are Donald Duck, Food, Family, and presents. If you poke a Swede for a while, he may remember "Oh yeah, it was something about that Jesus guy, wasn't it?"
Of course, if he said that he would be wrong because the Jul festival predates Christianity, and we are just treating it the "real and original" way. ;)
/Z
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