A Swedish Chrismas!

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Past Editorials

Hi everybody!

     I was asked by Douglas to write the editorial and I must say that it was like getting a cold shower. New language, new audience and everything but I decided to give it a go despite cold feet and a cold. And remember folks that if you don’t like it you know who to blame.

For those of you who don’t know me, I’m JoJo, a crazy Swede. As you’ll notice when you read this.

       Me and most Swedes are quite familiar with the American way of celebrating Christmas but like always it’s not the other way around so I thought I’d give you a little lesson to a crazy gathering at the JoJo residence. Keep in mind that this is about me and my family. How many other Swedes who have it like this will be left unsaid.

     Telling you everything will take up way too much space and probably bore you all to death so I’ll just take the key things. The things that make Christmas.

For starters we dont start Christmas in November. Here it’s more like the week before. Good way to not get fed up before it’s time. And we don’t celebrate the 25^th we’ve got the 24^th.

     Also there is a big difference in the outside decorations. We don’t have our houses covered in lights. More like a bush or two is enough for us. Unfortunately we’ll probably be Americanized in that area too soon.

Snow is very important, I think, to get that real Christmassy feeling. We’ve had no snow since I was a kid, just rain and I was afraid it would be the same this year but the other day mine and every kids(and grownups) wish came true. It snowed. Not much but at least it looks white and that’s most important. If it will last ’til Christmas is another question but we could always hope.

      3 o’clock, the magic time when it’s Donald Duck. It is another very important thing that we just can’t be without. It’s an hour of the goodies from the Classic Disney’s movies like The Junglebook, Lady and the Tramp, Snow White and so on. This has been a tradition for Swedes for almost 30 or more years. Everybody, old and young, know every word by heart. They tried to take it away last year I think and the whole of Sweden was in uproar. You would think there was a disaster. TV said it was not cultural enough and we should get something Swedish instead and in a way I agree but you just can’t take away something that’s been so important to people for that long. One of our favourite parts is from Robin Hood when they are taking the money from the king and the snake Sir Hiss wakes up. You see, granma hates snakes and she looks so funny and screams when he comes on. And we love to torture her with it.

     I would lie if I said that the presents didn’t matter cos they do but when you where younger it was the amount. Nowadays it’s the thought behind it that’s more important. The kids especially are experts on this. When they do buy, they buy with their heart and not the mind (wallet) like most grownups. They notice details and always have wonderful explanations to their gifts. Like last year when I had said I didn’t have a stocking to put up and that I wanted one that was huge so I could get many gifts in it. For me it was more of a joke but one of my nephew’s(8 years) sewed me one ’cos he remembered me saying I wanted one. You can imagine what it looks like being sewed by a young boy but it’s the most beautiful stocking I’ve ever seen.

     We should take after the kids more in this area I think.

     Well then we have this inevitable thing called food. I mean we all got to eat but it sure is a lot more fun during Christmas when you’ve got so many goodies to choose from. Now I think that our food table differs a bit from yours. I’m now gonna try to list my favourites. There might be some difficulties ’cos of the language and I don’t wanna make you too hungry. My favourites that I just can’t be without is mum’s liver paste(I can eat loads), grandpa’s pickled herring(divine), something we call roulad-it’s pork rolled and flavoured with mustard(WOW), meatballs and ham. All homemade. The others eat a lot more like cabbage prepared in four different styles-Long cabbage, green cabbage, red cabbage, brown cabbage; all of which includes sugar. Nothing for me though. Well this is just a small part of the enourmous amount of food we’ve got. You literally roll from the table. As if that wasn’t enough we got home made candy, nuts, oranges and so on. You don’t have to eat for days.

       Julmust vs Coca-cola is the current war in Sweden. Forget about Israel or Afghanistan. It’s here the battle is. The battle of the sodas. I’m sure most of you are wondering what the heck is she talking about. Well let me explain it a bit better for you. Julmust is a traditional soda that everybody drinks around Christmas. It looks like coke but it has some distinct differences. Taste being the most important. It tastes of Christmas!!! For me and most Swedes anyway. It’s hard to explain to an outsider but I can say that as I understand it they serve it in IKEA stores around the world. One American said it tasted like a mix between beer and coke. Hmm, not sure about that.

Second it’s tradition and tradition is hard to erase. Now this is something the coke company has a hard time dealing with. They don’t wanna miss out on those extra dollars they could make for those three months. Not that they will loose any big sums ’cos after all they have the rest of the world. Even in far away places you have never heard of they drink coke. Incredible. So far I’m happy to report that Julmust is the winner by a long shoot.

     Sometimes I wish I could just lock myself in with a good book or a movie instead of spending Christmas with a noisy family(you need earplugs) and all the stress around it but I believe that these traditions are very important ’cos in this crazy world we live in we need comfort and security and that is what traditions can give us. Now more than ever.

Oh by the way, don’t forget folks to put Viagra in the water under the tree to make it stand up longer ;-)!

     As for the new year I got a few things to look forward to at leats. Most importantly we are going to warmer seasons(thank god), Douglas will be back over here(maybe) and my favourite is the fact that I’ll be able to drive my car again. I’ve been longing for that for many years now. I’ve recently gotten a new wheelchair that will enable this and as a bonus Douglas has promised me a race. A Formula 1 race, right Douglas?

  Jojo in Sweden