Christmas in Sweden (7)

In Spain they give the christmas presents the 6:th of January, in England on the Christmas day. In Sweden the Christmas Eve is the day for the presents. Its “tomten” who gives the presents. From the beginning tomten was a little figure who guarded the house and the building site (=tomt) and the people who lived there. He liked rice porridge with a little butter very much. He didn´t distribute presents in that time, but it was the Christmas goat ( a person disguised as a he-goat with horns and beard). Our modern tomte is a mixture of influences, a little from tomten, a little from Santa and a little from the Christmas goat. Santa has got rein deer, but the tomten has not. Tomten comes walking, knocks on the door asking: “Have we got any kind children here?” And of course there are.. The Christmas Eve people has got problems getting a tomte. Maybe there is a neighbor who can be it. If there isn´t, dad or mum goes “to buy the news paper”, a white lie, but that isn´t forbidden when you want to keep the Christmas peace. In our family we have the Christmas buffet at one thirty in the afternoon. There is ham, herring, meat-balls, eggs, sausages and such dishes. In the evening, at eight o´clock we have rice porridge with milk and cinnamon. With this we eat a sandwich with ham and cheese. There is a special beverage for Christmas, julmust. It reminds a little of Coca-Cola in color but it´s got a somewhat different taste. Many families looks upon the TV when it´s Mickey Mouse and his friends, an hour with different episodes with Snow white, Cinderella, Donald Duck and other Disney characters. The other program is very Swedish. Its name is Karl-Bertil Jonsons Christmas Eve and it´s about a youngster who works extra in a post office. He steals parcels from the rich and distributes them amongst the poor in the slum – like Robin Hood did.