Christmas Eve:
Julafton, December 24. The whole family is together. Relatives living elsewhere have come to spend Christmas Eve with the family with the largest number of children. The decorated Christmas tree is placed in the largest room of the house, and gifts are placed under its branches. Traditionally someone like a neighbor, or perhaps the pater familias, dresses up as Santa and rings the door bell to be let in. Gifts are handed out as Santa and/or the father of the children reads the text on the label of each parcel and hands out each gift to the right recipient. Then everyone watches as each present is opened. This is the highlight of Christmas in Sweden!
Christmas Day:
Juldagen, December 25. People used to be a little deflated. Christmas wasn't over, and yet it was - or it used to be. Nowadays there are all these Christmas Day sales in department stores, and many (though not all) restaurants and pubs are open. So many Swedes go out and celebrate or shop.
But it used to be what you can see in the picture above. The hostess, the mother of the children, relaxes on a sofa, and the kids play with their new toys, which they have already played with for hours and hours.
Can't keep a part of the caption of the Christmas Day picture away from you. It says:
To Mom Christmas Day is the best day of the year, because then she doesn't notice that her children exist.
She can just lie on her sofa and relax and not pay any attention to her children at all. It would be impossible to write something like that in a Swedish children's book today. The pictures are from a book that was printed in 1959, Johans jul (Johan's Christmas):
Merry Christmas!
Ann
