A Christmas Collection

A Christmas Collection NA17B/D/E

Christmas tradition Christmas, a festival celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ is primarily observed on December the 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world. It is the most wonderful time of the year where families bring Christmas trees in their homes and presents are given to children in their socks. For a couple of weeks every year the world takes on a magic glow, people happines grows and it even seems that the winter somehow feels cosy. It is also the time of the year which children leaves

milk and cookies to Santa Claus on the Christmas Evevening. But is this how all countries celebrating Christmas?

Sweden, Goat Since 1966, a thirteen- meter- tall Christmas goat has been built in the centre of Gävle on to Advent, but this Christmas Swedish tradition has caused to another “traditionâ€? of sorts which the people try to burn it down. Since 1966 has this goat been burned down at least 29 times and the most recent time was in 2016.

Krampus, USA

A demon, beast- looking creature that likes to drift the streets of frightening kids and gruelling the bad kids. Nope, this is not Halloween I am talking about, but instead St. Nicholas´s evil Krampus. In tradition of USA, St. Nicholas gives rewards to nice boys and girls, while Krampus is said to abduct the most misbehaving children and capture them in his sack. The first weeks of December, men dress up as the Krampus scaring young children with bells and chains clattering.

The Yule Lads 13 days before Christmas, 13 dangerous characters come out to play in Iceland. The mysterious characters are called “Yule Lads” and they visit children across the country the 13 nights leading in up to Christmas. In each nights of Yuletide, children in Iceland places their best shoes by the window and a different Yule Lad visits and leaving gifts for nice boys and girls. For the bad and naughty ones, he leaves rotten potatoes. Dressed in traditional Icelandic costume, these fellas are very play full, and their names hint at the type of trouble they like to cause.

25 facts you didn’t know about Christmas ❖ Coca Cola played a huge part in creating the Santa Claus we have today. 1931 they hired an artist called Haddon Sundblom who made Santa a lot less scary. ❖ Over 15,000 people go the ER each year with injuries caused by Christmas hanging decorations and preparations. Climbing ladders, cooking turkey and broken electronics have proven hazardous. ❖ The engineers that designed the Voyager Space Mission made sure it would avoid planetary encounters during the holidays. ❖ There’s a longstanding tradition where you tell ghost stories on Christmas Eve. It has died out during the past century. ❖ You can donate your Christmas tree to zoos, then the animals can have some trees to eat and chew on. ❖ The restaurant Denny’s was built in 1988 to have a 24/7 serving, they decided that locks were unnecessary. This was a problem later when they wanted to close over Christmas. ❖ Nearly every famous Christmas song is written by Jewish people. For example; “Winter Wonderland”, “Chestnuts roasting” and “I’m dreaming of a White Christmas”. ❖ The Christmas tree in the Trafalgar Square is donated to London from the people of Norway as a “thank you” for the help during the WW2. ❖ Red, green and gold are the traditional colors of Christmas. Red represents the blood of Christ, green represents the life and rebirth and gold represents light, royalty and wealth. ❖ In Poland, spiders are a big part of Christmas celebrations. Legend says that it was a spider who wove the blanket for baby Jesus. Today they decorate the Christmas tree with spiders and spider webs to celebrate this.

❖ If you buy an artificial tree, you would have to use it for over 20 years for it to be “greener” than buying a real tree every year. ❖ During Christmas season, almost 28 Lego sets are sold every second. ❖ The `X´ in Xmas comes from the Greek meaning of X i.e. Christ. ❖ Germany is credited with starting many Christmas traditions. I.e. hanging stockings and leaving cookies out for Santa. ❖ In 1901, Teddy Roosevelt, the then president, banned Christmas trees because of environmental concerns. ❖ A popular Christmas tradition in Japan is to eat at KFCs. The customers must book two months in advance. ❖ Last year, in the Arab Emirates, the most expensively dressed Christmas tree was raised. It was valued over 11 million dollars. ❖ It usually takes 15 years before a Christmas tree grows tall enough to be displayed at a market or somewhere else. ❖ Black Friday is not the busiest shopping day, the two days right before Christmas day are. ❖ The correct definition for a “white” Christmas in the UK is that one single snowflake needs to be observed from the rooftop of the Met Office HQ during the 24 hours of Dec 25th. ❖ It has only been seven white Christmases in the UK so far into the 20th century. ❖ Two weeks before Christmas is the most common time for couples to break up. This is according to data from Facebook. Maybe it is because the pressure of buying a gift. ❖ Germans made the first artificial trees, made from colored goose feathers.

â?– The earliest known decoration was the apple. â?– The word "Christmas" comes from the Old English name "Christes Maesse," which means "Christ's Mass."

Some facts about Christmas I always think that you should understand something before you do it so in that spirit I will explain some interesting Christmas facts.

Starting with the favourite thing about Christmas, the food. It’s no secret that people eat a lot during Christmas but how much do you really eat? Well we swedes eat a total of 9000 metric tons of ham during Christmas; this divided by 10,2 million people equals about 0,88 kg of ham each.

Keep in mind that the number is only that low if you don’t consider the people that doesn’t celebrate Christmas. The number should really be 0,9 kg or more per person.

This means that you get about 1170 kcal, 192g of protein and 30,6g of ash from eating ham during Christmas celebrations

Now we will move onto everybody’s favourite Christmas character, Santa Clause.

In Sweden he is called “Jultomten” and he goes around to houses and gives out presents to everyone that has been nice throughout the year. This is a whole lot of work for one night, is it even possible succeed with this task? It does however seem like he does not handle the Muslim, Hindu, Jewish and Buddhist children and this decreases his work by about 85%.

Which leaves Santa with about 91,8 million households to visit. Santa has about 31 hours to deliver all his presents if we account for time zones. With this information and if we assume that Santa is a super human that only needs 1/1000th of a second to deliver presents at any given house, we can calculate that Santa has to, on average, travel at a speed of about 1046 km/s, or about 3000 times faster than the speed of sound. This is only true if you assume that there is only one Santa, if there were multiple that would make their work a lot easier.

A Story of Unconditional Love Sela was enjoying the dinner because her mother Mela was going to tell her the story of The Warrior afterwards. This was a story that Sela was very excited about and insisted for a long time for her mother to tell her. Sela heard about the Warrior from her classmates in the school. Her mother Mela did not want to tell her, because it was related to her forefathers. Sela made a cup of coffee and brought it to her mother who was sitting near the fireplace and enjoying the music.

Once upon a time, there was a beautiful girl living in the northern part of Abacha Empire.

She had golden hair and red lips. She always carried her sword that was gifted from her father. Their family members called themselves The Hunters. Many people were afraid of them. They were one of the respected families of the northern region. La was very beautiful and kind to her parents. The girl was often passing through the woods from home to school because it was a shortcut way to home.

One day the weather was freezing. While she was riding the horse suddenly the horse made a bad move and she fell from the horse. She was hurt. There were hybrids that looked like wolves. There were rumours about the hybrids that they could turn into Humans.

Everybody was afraid of hybrids. One of the hybrids names was Warrior. He was a handsome and brave guy. He was unafraid of everything. The Warrior took the girl and started running into the woods. The hybrid took the girl into the cave. The girl was afraid and could not speak. The hybrid turns himself into a man. He was attractive when the girl saw the hybrid's real face. She became less afraid. Warrior told her that he saved her life from the other hybrids that wanted to kill her. He escorted La to her home and came back.

In the night, the girl was thinking about the Warrior. Why did he save her life? The hybrid had been noticing the girl for a long time ago. The hybrid had been searching for his love for centuries. Finally, he met his girl. But the girl did not know anything about the hybrid.

The only thing she knew was that hybrids were their enemies and how an enemy can save a life. That was an unbelievable moment for her. The predicter had told the Warrior "your love will appear to you, a hundred years after you have stopped drinking human blood".

He had been waiting for that day since he had stopped drinking human blood. La was the same girl that he had seen in his dream. There was some supernatural force that wanted to bind together La and Warrior.

The night after rescuing La, Warrior appeared in the town. He knew that it was a bad move that might kill him. Because the hybrids did not dare to come to the town. The town had a story of killing the hybrids. The Hybrids were afraid of the Hunter family. La was enjoying dinner with her family. Warrior came back home. Every day he was waiting for her in the woods to see her. La knew that Warrior was waiting for her every day in the woods at the same time. One day La caught Warrior in the woods. She asked Warrior that why he was waiting for her at the same time. He told the story of his love and how he had been looking for her for a hundred years. La told him that it is not possible. They are enemies. They would never be together. No one would accept their marriage. The Warrior told her

When I saw you at first, I thought a fairy came out of the

fairyland. I could not control my emotions. I was falling towards you like you would have some attraction force.

Your smile will kill me.

But I want to live with you, Like a bee around the rose Like a moth around the candle.

For a moment but I want to be around you.

They started meeting every day without the aware of the danger that was coming towards them.

In the beautiful summer night, Warrior was waiting for La near the temple. La and Warrior wanted to celebrate the summer festival dance together. They started dancing. It was a beautiful moment for Warrior that he had been waiting for a hundred years. La was looking

Your eyes are like a deep ocean. When someone falls in it, it is hard to come out. La was smiling when Warrior finished his last sentence. Suddenly Warrior started amazing today and she was very happy. They looked into each other's eyes.

turning. La's father fired an arrow towards Warrior. La tried to save Warrior the arrow hit into La's heart. La was dying in Warrior's arm. That moment was unbearable for Warrior.

La sacrificed her life to save Warrior. An unconditional love that few people do in the world like Warrior and La. He had been waiting for a hundred years to meet with his love.

Warrior started howling very loudly so that everybody was scared. He was showing his anger. Warrior started killing soldiers who wanted to kill him instead killed his only love and reason of life (La). Warrior did not kill La's father because he made a promise with La that he would protect La and his family form every danger. He ran into the woods while howling loudly.

He enjoyed that short period, when he was with La. Warrior made a memory of his love.

It was a short moment, but it was enough for him to live the rest of his life with that memory. There is still rumours about Warrior that he visits La's grave every full moon night. That's why nobody goes in the graveyard on full moon nights. You will hear a wolf howling on the full moon night. " Mela told her daughter, Sela" Hayder Ali NA17B

Emelie Moberg 2018-12-18

A meeting with Santa Claus Have you ever wondered if Santa Claus exists and if, where does he live? I have worked with Santanology at the ministry of Christmas for over a decade and now I am pleased to announce, that we finally have the answer. I want to show my gratitude to all the explorers who encountered the extreme weather conditions in the North. Not only on the North pole, but also Greenland and the Finnish Lapland, just to find the answer that we all have been waiting for. It was not until the 897th expedition to the North Pole, that the researchers finally found the clue that lead us straight in to the Kingdom of Santa Claus. A great breakthrough which was possible thanks to all the magnificent effort that we have put in to this project. We wanted to take this one step further so now, you can follow me on my journey to the North, where I got the opportunity to talk to Santa Claus himself, in person.

December 11 - 2018 The snowflakes hit me in my face, just like needles and the wind forced me to bend over, to be able to walk. My legs were sore after walking for hours and they kept sinking down in the powder snow, even though I was wearing snowshoes. The sky was dark as the night, but I could clearly see a figure appear on the horizon. As I kept walking, the figure grew bigger and I could feel my pulse rise, was this the moment, the moment I had been waiting for all my life? When he was not just a dark figure far away, I saw the color of his clothes, green? I can admit that I expected Santa Claus to be a bit taller and considering that Christmas is getting closer, should he not already have started to grow a beard? What really made my mind baffled, was the candy cane he was holding in one of his small hands. I was one of his biggest fans after all, so I did not want to judge nor make a bad impression on him, therefore I started to introduce myself, trying to look like nothing was bothering me. Santa Claus did not respond, instead he had a bitter face.

Then he waved the candy cane, and everything went black.

I am not sure how much time had passed and as I opened my eyes everything was blurry, and the dizziness overwhelming. My vision cleared a bit, but the only thing I could see was red. I shook my head and looked around, trying to focus. Suddenly I stared in to a pair of blue eyes, so clear and kind that I just knew it, this was Santa Claus. Santa smiled and told me he was sorry, but that it had to be done this way, to protect his kingdom.

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The “Santa” that had met me outdoors was an elf, but not any elf, it was Shinny Upatree, the leader of the Elves and Santa´s oldest and most trusted friend. He was just by Santa´s side, but this time smiling.

We were in a big oval room and I was sitting in a red chair. In front of me, in a similar chair was Santa and Shinny. I decided to start with a question I had wondered about for years, if he knew we had been searching for him, day after day. Santa chuckled and said: - My dear friend. We have noticed, and it would be hard not to. I have followed the expeditions and I must say, that I am amazed how determined you have been. I did make one mistake though, that lead your explorers straight in to my kingdom. However, I am pleased that they found the missing key, because without it I could not get into my beloved candy cupboard. Unfortunately, I could not let them remember so Shinny made a spell and then there was no harm done. Although, I felt some guilt and therefore decided to let them remember everything except the location. That is why Shinny had to meet you which Pepper Minstix demanded, my protector and the Head of Elf Security. I cannot have people running around here all the time, especially not when Christmas is getting closer.

I understood what he meant and did not want to think about the consequences if the wrong people decided to go to the North Pole. I shoved that unpleasant thought away and decided to ask the most classic question, if Santa could describe himself with three words.

- Tricky question, but many may wonder, so I will answer, just give me one second…

As Santa crossed his arms and closed his eyes under his glasses, Shinny whispered: - Lazy, honest and kind.

Santa opened his eyes, looked at Shinny and nodded his head, an agreement.

The two last words were not a surprise, but lazy? How does that work? The answer I received made it make sense, because Santa only works from November until January and during the rest of the year he prefers to do as little as possible.

A bell rang, and Santa suddenly stood up and said:

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- Time to feed the reindeer! I know one that you want to meet for sure, as he winked one of his eyes.

Outside Santa´s office there were red walls with golden decorations, just as in my dreams. The main hall was huge, with tiny elves moving in every direction.

Some were looking at a list and others carrying gifts. In the middle of the hallway there was a giant Christmas tree, about three stories high. I probably looked like a child in a candy store, but I was so amazed. The two wooden doors opened, and I took a deep breath of fresh and cold air. It was completely dark, and I asked if Santa could get tired of the darkness and cold.

- Well, I do not want to disappoint you, but I do not always live here. Only during the winter, which can be tough, yes. However, during the other seasons you probably find me on a beach laying on a sunbed, without a beard and costume.

Santa kept surprising me, and I wondered what more we did not know about him. We continued to walk towards the stable and on the way there I learned that Shinny was the one that took care of everything, when Santa was gone.

Suddenly a reindeer landed from the sky in front of me, or more like crashlanded, making a deep path in the snow. Santa grinned as he said: - There you are, do you want to some snacks?

The reindeer vigorously jumped out of the snow and stood on his four legs before I even blinked. By looking at the nose, there was no doubt, it was Rudolph. I got to feed all the reindeer and got licked by their long knobbly tongues. Each year, the eight of them helped Santa around the world, giving out a Christmas gift to every child, or did they? I asked Santa who answered: - I expected you to wonder that. Once upon a time we did, but now it is close to impossible. I am so grateful for all the letters I get each year, from volunteers that can be a Santa for night. Without the volunteers I would not be able to visit every child and that would be a catastrophe.

Today it is December 11 and that makes it 12 days left until Santa´s reindeer need to be ready to leave for their long and tough ride. I have always wondered how they get ready for Christmas, not only them but also Santa, so I did not hesitate to ask.

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- That is Wunorse Openslae´s job to make sure. He makes them practise every day on coordination and synchronisation. He even has a special program for Rudolph, the clumsy one.

I looked on him and made a gesture to continue with himself and Santa´s chins turned red as Shinny turned his face around trying to hide a laughter.

- Okay, I know I should follow the training program, but things always seem to get in the way.

Santa put a hand on his big stomach, looked down and continued with: - Well, as long as I am having a good health, the reindeer can take me anywhere and I fit in my sleigh it is all fine. I will start my exercising on January first though, so beach 2019 here I come.

Shinny rolled his eyes as he told me that he hears that every year, but the stomach just keeps growing. Me on the other hand, could not even imagine a skinny Santa, so I agreed with Santa Claus.

We left the stable and smell of wet reindeer food and walked towards the factory which was one of the biggest and most majestic buildings I had ever seen. Thinking about the size of the factory and the number of toys that were produced, I found it hard to understand how it worked. Santa referred to magic and that they were similar to a non-profit organisation, driven of smiles and joy from children. I continued to walk on, unaware of my surroundings and almost hit a warning sign before Santa pulled me away from it. He had a serious expression in his face as he said: - Look at the roof of this cottage, it is melting. This house has been here since 1873 and now, 2018 it is falling apart. Do you know why?

I saw that the cottage I was standing next to, was nothing like the other ones I had seen so far. It was dark, abandoned and there were several holes in the roof. The sign warned for falling parts and by looking on the material in the snow, it was necessary. I looked to both left and right and there were at least 30 more cottages like this one. The view made me think of a ghost city mixed with a construction site. It was horrible and when I got eye contact with Santa, I could see how his eyes were crystal clear, blank of tears. It hurt inside me to see him like this.

- The last 30 years, the temperature has increased here, and it goes quicker every year that passes. All the older buildings are built together 4

with the help of a special candy glue that has started to melt. I have calculated that in 20 years, only 30% of the buildings will be left. That means that a lot of elves will lose their beloved homes as well as their jobs. We can rebuild, but this is a sign we should take seriously. It is not supposed to be like this…

I understood that he was talking about the global warming and increased greenhouse effect. If not this fact, that we are ruining Santa´s home, I do not know what will stop us from destroying the earth.

Santa interrupted my thoughts by saying: - Do you think I would look good in a swimming suit?

I could not help it, but I laughed. Santa knew how to ease up the atmosphere and I could not get the picture of Santa riding a sleigh in a swimming suit out of my mind. Santa interrupted my thoughts by saying: - My friend, we can just hope that we find a solution for the global trouble that we have caused, but for now, it is time for you to go back home.

Your friends will come to pick you up in no time.

I had one last question for Santa, before I left, so I asked him what he wanted to tell everyone that does not believe in him. Santa chuckled and told me: - I would remind them about the naughty and good list. It is updated every five minutes all year around, thanks to the administrator, Alabaster Snowball, who you want to have on your side. The best way to make him like you, is to send him candy canes from Gränna. He is obsessed with them. Anyway, I do not want to force anyone to believe in me and I respect other opinions, but if you want a gift from me, you better believe.

He said the last words with a glimpse in his eyes and gave me a gentle hug as a goodbye. It had been a long day for me, full of new experiences and knowledge. I left his kingdom, looked up to the stars and the marvellous green aurora. I could hear the helicopter approach, that was going to bring me home.

I could not wait to get back to the ministry to share my story, not only to my co-workers, but to the world. I had accomplished my childhood dream which was to meet Santa Claus. I can admit that it did cost a lot of time and hard work, but it was worth every single minute. Never stop working for your dreams to come true.

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Amor Occidere She found them in one of the small spaces in her parent´s shed on her way to fetch a shovel to get rid of all the snow that had fallen during the night before. Since her father passed away, she has been helping her mother with most of the household chores. Her mother was spending the entire day at work in the order to provide her family with food enough for her and all her younger siblings and she was the oldest one, therefore, all the household chores were being laid on her table. She did not mind this, perhaps because of her huge devotion for her mother that made it feel like a pleasure to help her. She additionally enjoyed focusing on something else than the death of her father. Sometimes, she felt like she had her own world in the garden.

The garden was a shelter from the sorrow that dwelled behind the doors of the house. It was like a bubble where the grief did not manage to enter and where she could free her mind from the destructive thoughts that boarded her mind by diffusion.

One of them were laying in the hay weeping simultaneously as the two others were drinking from their mother’s breast. As soon as she had her head inside the shed, she felt a disgusting odour. She turned around in the intention to find the thing responsible for the smell. In the corner, detached from the four others, laid a petite white one. She knew she had to get it out of the shed. She put on her gloves which she had in her pocket and lifted it. She got startled.

The white fur was painted red with blood coming from the throat. By what seemed like a reflex, she stretched out her thin arms and ran out of the shed. She cried. It was out of her comprehension that someone was capable of doing such terrible things. It totally broke her heart. Later that evening, she buried it under the snow near the house.

After the funeral, she returned to the shed. She sat down besides the small family and patted them all. Simultaneously as she heard the purring of the mother, the pieces of her heart were patched together by the tongue of the small ones. When she first made her discovery, she was convinced that she wanted to share it with her siblings, but the lenient fur made her alter her mind. She wanted them to belong to her and the only way of doing that was to keep it a secret.

From that day, every day when she was about to do her chores she visited the babies and their mother. She always brought some milk or cream. Sometimes, at the end of the week, her mother came home with some fish to the family and she would not mind sharing it with her new friends who had the pleasure to have a taste as well. She gave them names and new hay to sleep on every day. Their water bowl was always full of fresh water and she even made them a toy from her old stuffed animal. She always treated them with tenderness and they became a light in her darkness.

Time flew, and Christmas was just around the corner. The street was full of snow and her younger sibling almost disappeared in all of it. It was a delightful time, despite the fact that none of the children got a Christmas calendar. Their mother compensated it by giving them the biggest Christmas tree on the market. They all became elated and could not prevent themselves from decorating it as soon as she had put it in a pot. When they helped each other

with all the glittery bowls that was on their way up in the branches, she started thinking about her Christmas gifts. She was not sure that she would get any this year and it made her cheeks wet. In the evening, she was returning to her friends in the shed. The mother was weeping and she was sure it was because of grief. Her thoughts went back to the Christmas gifts. She was determined that she was going to give them a gift. She had to do it. After all the tears they have dried for her, it was her obligation.

The night before Christmas, she still had not figure out what she should give them. Nothing seemed good enough. Her emergency solution became a huge gourmet meal. She had a barrel with cheese, milk, cream, meatballs, Christmas ham and even Christmas porridge if they would like. Despite this, she did not feel satisfied with her effort. Nevertheless, she strolled the way to the shed to offer it. All of them devoured all their stomachs could carry and then they went to sleep with her hands petting their furs. She fell asleep too but woke up an hour later because her fingers were hurting from all the cold. When she was standing up in the intention of heading back to the house, she could not even feel her feet.

On her way back, she saw something moving in the shrubs. It was so dark she could not see what is was but as she went closer, an animal was sniffing on her hand and suddenly she felt a rough tongue on her knuckle. It was a big, black male with green eyes which almost shone in the dark. Then she got it. The perfect gift was right in front of her. A male that could help the mother raise the babies and a father to the babies. She lifted it up and it started purring on her bosom. She returned to the shed and putted down the male and gave them a chance to get to know each other. They all seemed quite confused. The black one went to the family, in what she thought, the intention to greet. The mother was rather sceptical at first, but after a minute or two she seemed to accept the newcomer. The girl decided to leave them alone over the night and come back next morning. She was sensible enough to close the door meticulously since she was not willing to risk the new father to sneak out.

The following morning, to her astonishment, she was the first one to wake up. It did not belong to the usual, particularly not considering the fact that it was Christmas eve. She did not mind though. She jumped out of bed and ran down the stairs and did not even give a glimpse to the Christmas tree to find out if any gifts had been placed under it during the night. She filled a bottle with water and brought some Christmas ham and porridge to the animals and began her stroll to the shed. The sun was shining and a hard cover of ice was protecting the soft snow. Her steps felt easy and she was excited to see if the male had become a part of the family yet. When she opened the door, she could not believe her eyes. She dropped the bowl and the water ran down her pyjamas and the flowers on her panties became darker. In the corner, the mother was hunched and seemed startled and in the corner, laying diagonally against the former mentioned, was the black one, who seemed furious. Just a couple of inches away were the three petite ones. They were lifeless and blood came from their throats. Just a few seconds after she opened the door to the shed, a scream was heard from the black one as it ran out. She went to the babies and they were all cold and stiff. Tears were gushing down her cheeks as she begged them to wake up. Unfortunately, they did not. They never did and she sat in the snow for hours crying her eyes out.

It was a sad Christmas that year. She was full of anxiety and felt a lot of shame for what she had done. Because somehow, she understood what had happened. She also had to carry it

herself because she did not have the courage to confess her sins to anyone. Perhaps, what hurt her the most may have been the fact that she had never poured her heart and soul out for anything in that way before and when she did, she ruined it all. It made her feel worthless. Not only worthless but like she destroyed everything she laid her hands on. It seemed like the more intense her love became, the harder she held on to the thing that had captured her love.

Simultaneously as she held as hard as she could, she was strangling the things she cared about the most. She did not see it as the black beast killed her babies but as her love did.

Alva Falkenstrรถm

The evolution of Santa Clause Background story: Along time ago before Christmas first got invented the first Santa Clause got created. Some think he is immortal, but the truth is he can die. The first Santa Clause was just a wise man who wanted to give the Christmas spirit of sharing and love to the people. And every 40 years he chooses a homeless boy to become the next Santa, he brings him home to the North pole and teaches him the spirit of Christmas. Over the years as the world changes, the lifestyle of the Santa Clause changes too.

Home: His accommodation has changed. At the beginning he was living in an Igloo, and after that in a small castle. Around year 2000, he lived in a small cottage. And in present time he lives in a giant mansion, with a pool and ice bears as butlers.

Clothes: His clothes have also changed so instead of his red wool clothes he is carrying a red leatherjacket, red leather pants and a red cap with a red tassel on top of it.

Job: some say he may have the easiest work ever because he only works one day per each year, but that is not true. He need to plan Christmas one month before it is occurring to have time to finish creating presents until Christmas evening. He also need to remove or add gifts every day because new kids are born and sadly also some casualties occur. And at Christmas evening he visits 330 million households.

Vehicles: Over the years he population of the world has increased drastically. And Because of that, Santa needed a better vehicle than his sleight because it was too slow. That is why he got himself a jet to be able to visit every home in only one night. And he gave the Reindeers the possibility to be free, and to live in their natural habitats instead.

What happens if Santa dies in an accident?

If Santa dies in an accident during his travel around the world, his helpers distribute the rest of that year’s gifts, and his wife need to teach the kid who is chosen to be the next Santa Clause.

Summarize Santa clause have often changed his clothes, vehicles and types of homes because he need to adjust himself to the rest of the fast-developing world.

If he would be the same as he was 500 years ago, he would not be fast enough to hand out all the presents.

Moritz Uhlig

CHRISTMAS EDITION There once was a girl named Mariah Carey, she lived in Saintsville, a city up among the mountains, in which Christmas had been lost for a couple of years. In fact, the people in Saintsville had not celebrated it for 20 years. Mariah remembered all her Christmas holidays as a child. It was probably the best times in her life, since all in her family were gathered and they spent the holidays building snowmen, drinking hot chocolate and celebrating their loved ones. At that time her mother was still alive and it was a very joyful occasion.

Now Mariah Carey was a bit older, she loved to sing and worked daily at her father’s café, singing. People came by every day just to watch her sing, her voice was made of heaven. Mariah’s favorite songs were the Christmas songs.

Perhaps, since she surely missed her mother and Christmas a lot, even though she only had the opportunity to celebrate as a child.

Mariah kept on working in her father’s café, where she did not only sing, she helped her father with cleaning and baking as well.

They had a very loyal and trustworthy customer that ordered at least fifteen boxes of pastries and sweets weekly. Her father always delivered it to his house, a bit far away from town. Although, her father did not ever get the opportunity to finally meet his beloved client. The client had always put a note on the door, saying that he wanted them to put the delivery on the stairs. This made her father a bit upset, he wanted to thank his faithful customer after all. Therefore, he occasionally wrote the letters saying thanks on the pastries with frosting.

One day her father had become sick. He could not provide the customer his weekly parcel and someone else had got to do it, considering that they did not afford to lose this one. They already had it a bit tough with their finances, paying all their bills. So, Mariah went to go provide their customer his weekly delivery. She grabbed all the boxes and put it in the company’s sleigh and started her journey towards the woods.

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As usual, Mariah sang wherever she went. This time she was singing the song All I Want for Christmas is You and the lyrics went like this: “Santa won't you bring me the one I really need?” Suddenly, someone yelled out of nowhere, “He doesn’t exist! He’s a nobody!” She was frightened. Not only was there a terrifying voice, when she turned around she saw a polar bear standing right in front of her. Her first instinct was to drop all the boxes with pastries and run, and so she did. But he caught up with her and eventually seized her. At this time, she was yelling “Help!” as loud as she could. However, no one heard her since she had this bag over her head and then she was captured by the polar bear.

For the next few days she was stuck and locked up in a cage without seeing anybody. She did remember being caught by a polar bear, but she kept hesitating whether it was real or if she only had been dreaming. She looked out the window and saw that she was located in a huge castle. By then, she came to a realization that she probably had been caught by their mysterious and beloved customer. Suddenly, a bowl with rice pudding was thrown into her cage and she could see how a bit of white fur was moving behind the bars. “Hello?” she yelled, “Who are you?” A few seconds later the polar bear stepped in front of her. That explained why he did not want to exchange a few words with her father earlier. He was indeed a polar bear.

“The real question is who you are?” he was ravaging at her, “And what are you doing in my territory?” he asked. “My father is sick-“ she replied but was somehow rudely interrupted. “Do you think that I will help you with that?” he questioned. “-I was only here to bring your weekly delivery as my father always do”, she continued. He immediately felt a bit uneasy and guilty. “I am so sorry,” he said looking down at the ground.

“Is Mr. Carey your father?” he asked with wide eyes. “Yes, he is,” she smiled. “Okay, let’s get you out of this cage,” he said and opened it up. “I am Mariah Carey.” she said as they shook hands “I am Iorek Byrnison.”

He invited her to dinner, but to begin with, she did not really want to stay. After all, Mariah was extremely hungry and there was a snowstorm outside as well, so she stayed. The dinner was cooked and served by some of his little helpers, 2

a broom, two teacups, one candelabra and a clock. At first it was a dead silence between the two of them but then they both started to open up about themselves. She told him about her great interest for singing, which she was extremely passionate about. After a while, music began to play, and Iorek asked her for a dance. They danced all night long and eventually ended up at the balcony. They sat down and looked out over the beautiful landscape. “Have you always been a polar bear?” she wondered. He was quiet.

“No, I have made a few mistakes in my life that has brought me in to this situation.” he mumbled. Mariah felt bad for him and looked at him, understanding. “You do not need to feel pressure about telling me if you are not up to it,” she said honestly. He took a deep breath and swallowed. “You know how Christmas has been lost for the last couple of years?” he looked at her while she nodded. “Every year Santa got a proper donation from parents all around the world so that he could satisfy their kids on Christmas Eve. One year he had been selfish and used his wealth on buying pastries to please his stomach, instead of pleasing all the kids around the world as he should have done. When a parent to a child who did not receive a present, decided to gather some other parents to see if their kids had got any presents, they realized what he had done. Therefore, they cast a spell on him and turned him into a beast. Now Christmas is gone.”

He looked down at the ground. “I used to climb rooftops and go down chimneys once, but I really messed up,” he finished.

Now, she was the one looking at him with wide eyes. She had so many questions to ask and this was just too much. First, he was a polar bear and all at once, she had got to know that this polar bear was probably the former Santa Claus. She just sat there speechless. She did not know if she was going to be mad at him or if she was going to be sorry for his sake. “Are you really Santa Claus?” she asked him. He looked at her and nodded. “I was, but now I am just a dreadful beast.” he said a bit down.

He offered her to stay in his castle, in her own huge royal bedroom, an offer she could not resist. After going to bed that night she could hear something downstairs. Mariah went out of bed, down to the ballroom and saw the little helpers cleaning all the dishes. “Oh, Mariah!” cheered the little teacup, then she could hear the voice of the bigger teacup, his mother “The beauty! What a 3

wonderful surprise!” She smiled at them and began to help them doing all their dishes.

After a while they started to talk about Iorek. “Have you always been his little helpers?” she asked them. “Yes, we have been with him ever since he was a little boy.” the broom answered. “The master is not as terrible as he appears.” the candelabra continued, laughing. “Can he somehow go back to being just Santa Claus?” she asked and looked at the clock, the one with wisdom. “There is one opportunity that can make the spell go away, but time is soon running out.

Come, I will show you.” the clock said as they walked upstairs.

They went inside a beautiful room in the attic, with one grand piano and this immense balcony. Now the stars were out clearly. The moonlight shone up an item in the corner of the room. It was a bell jar with a snowflake inside. She could feel it drag her towards it.

“She is the one,” the broom whispered. “As long as the spell is still alive, the snowflake keeps melting. When there is nothing of it left, the spell cannot be restored.” the clock said, with a serious tone in his voice. “He has not been this happy ever since the angry parents turned him into a polar bear. You make him happy, Mariah.” the broom assured her. “From the minute you walked in here.” the little teacup interposed. “And that is what it takes to break the spell, for him to find the one.”

The candelabra started to play the piano and Mariah began to sing. Soon, all the little helpers sang along. Just as they were about to stop singing Iorek came inside and started to sing with his quite impressive and delicate voice, the song that Mariah had been singing that day, in the woods. Mariah was astonished and touched by the harmony in his voice. She could feel her heart beating in her chest. “All I want for Christmas is you.” he finished the lyrics and went down on his knees in front of her. “You are the only one who has ever listened to me and made me feel glad again, Mariah. I love you.” They kissed each other and during the kiss, Iorek slowly transformed into himself again.

Now, Iorek and Mariah could start bringing life to Christmas again. The holiday they both loved and were extremely passionate about. They lived and worked together in Iorek’s castle and eventually transformed it to a Christmas factory.

4

The little helpers helped them with Santa’s delivery lists, they also worked with producing toys. Mariah’s father developed and established his café business even more. The upcoming Christmas they did not only deliver presents all over the world, they handed out cookies and pastries too. Everywhere they went, they sang, so wherever they came they were recognized as the singing Christmas couple. Most importantly, Mariah and her father found peace about her mother’s death and celebrated the memory of her. Thereby, Christmas was saved at last and they lived happily ever after in their Christmas palace.

Emma Seleskog 2018-12-18 5

Christmas Story

You are only one page away from reading one beautiful Danish Christmas story to really feel the holiday spirit.

All you must do is to get comfortable in front of Santa’s fireplace and enjoy!

All credit goes to the Danish author: H.C Andersen.

By: Shams Albadri

The Little Match Girl The weather was awfully cold. It snowed, and the evening dark fell over the city. It was also the last evening of the year; New Year’s Eve. In the cold and dark, a poor little girl was walking down the streets. Her head and feet were bare. When she was walking from home she had her slippers on, but not even that helped from the cold. It was her mother’s big slippers. The slippers were so big that she lost them off her feet while hurrying to cross the street. She could not find one of the slippers and, the other one was a boy running away with. The boy shouted that he could use her slipper as a cot since he was getting a baby.

There the little girl walked on her small feet, that became red and blue due to the cold. In her old apron, she had matches and, in her hand, she had a few more. There was not a single person that wanted to buy anything from her throughout the entire day. The little girl was both freezing and hungry.

There she walked and looked desperate, poor girl. The snowflakes fell on her long, blonde hair that curled itself so beautifully around her neck, but she did not think about that adornment. The light shined out of every window and, the smell of the deliciously roasted geese; it was New Year’s Eve after all. Yes, she thought about that too.

Away in a corner, between two houses, she sat and hugged herself. Her tiny legs were now under her body to try and make them warm, but that did not help. She froze even more and, she did not dare go home since she had not sold any matches yet, have not gotten a single penny, her father would beat her. Home would not matter, it was as cold as it is in the streets, they only lived under a roof, even though it was made of straw and rags. By now her small hands were almost paralyzed because of the cold wind. A little match would do well if she only dared to pull out one out of the box and streak it against the wall to warm her fingers.

She pulled one out; ritsch! Oh wow, how it sparked and burned. The match was warm, like a little candle. As she held her hands around the flame, she felt that it was an oddly good, warm match. The little girl imagined herself sitting in front of a big fireplace with shiny brass buttons, it warmed her so well. No, what was it? – The little girl tried to stretch out her cold legs to feel the warmth, but the flame burned out. The fireplace disappeared, and she was once again all alone in the streets with a burned-out match in her hand.

A new match got lit, it burned, and it shined. She could see right through the window in front of her, the table was set with a shiny white cloth and white porcelain. There was the roasted goose with its steam going upwards. The goose jumped down from the table and out towards the poor little girl, then the match burned-out once again, and all she could see was the big and cold brick wall.

Once again, the little girl lit a new match. Now she sat under the most beautiful Christmas tree ever. The tree was bigger and more decorated than the one she saw at the rich merchant last Christmas. Thousands of candles were burning on the green branches. The girl reached her hand out – and once again the match burned-out and all the candles were now fading away.

Now she saw that the sky was starlit. One of them fell and made a long fire comet tail in the sky.

-Someone is dying at this moment! Said the little girl. Her old grandmother had told her,” When a star fall, a Soul goes up to God”.

Yet again, she lit another match, it brightened up her surroundings and, in the light, she saw her old grandmother, so bright, so shiny and so good.

-Grandmother! Shouted the little one. Take me with you! I know you will be gone when the flame goes out, like the hot fireplace, the magnificent geese and the great, lovely Christmas Tree! As she quickly strokes all the matches that remained in the bundle. The little girl really wanted her grandmother to stay, and the matches lit up so bright, that it was brighter than a summer day. Grandmother has never looked so beautiful, so big and loving.

Grandmother lifted the little girl on her arm and they flew both in joy so high up and there they felt no cold, no hunger, no anxiety – they were with God. In the morning, by the corner of the house, there sat the little girl with red cheeks and with a smile on her face – dead, frozen to death on the last eve of this year. New Year’s morning went upon her dead body, sitting with her matches, where most of them were used. She wanted to warm herself, some said, but no one knew the beautifulness she saw in every lit-up match, and the joy she had felt by seeing her grandmother.

The victims of Christmas Christmas will soon be here. The most of us connect that to spending time with our family, eat a lot of food and candies, give and get presents and all have a nice and cozy holiday around loved ones. But for everyone that is not what pops up in our head when the Advent candlesticks are lightened, and when it starts to gush out Christmas music from the speakers. We need to talk about what happens to the victims of Christmas. Who are they? What are they subject to? To understand this, we must add some things to the list of things that Christmas are.

Next to the food and candies there are also alcohol on the table. Adults drink alcohol and get drunk when children attend. For a child it is very strange to see a parent drunk, you do not recognize them and get uncomfortable or afraid. Alcohol does not only change your personality, it also turns off the consequence thinking which leads to that a drunk person does things without thinking before and act on their impulse. One thing this could lead to is that other people get beaten, not seldom women and children.

According to Sverigesradio.se, the reported cases of female assault increase close after the Christmas and New Year week. They motivate it with that many women wait to report until the children have started school so that they do not have to be a part of it, and that is why the increasement comes after the holiday. Even if one parent sometimes tries to protect their children they understand what happens and are victims of violence and loneliness during Christmas.

Usually those kids have the school and youth centers as an safe haven but at Christmas time both are closed and the only place to be is at home.

Christmas is as I said before strongly connected to spending time with family.

But what happens to people who do not have a family? Our elderly, many of them with a deceased partner must celebrate Christmas alone. Not everyone has children or friends who they are welcome to visit on Christmas. An effect of low pension, especially for women, is one reason that the social network is cut down. They do not have enough money to go out with friends on activities. Another effect is that lonely elderly do not have money enough to move to a retirement home, were they have company and activities. This generates an isolation, and on Christmas it gets even clearer and sadder for the troubled.

It is important to illuminate the problems, but it is just as important to bring hope. There are things you could do to avoid violence and loneliness. Women and children that are exposed to violence or threats could find a peaceful place at a safe home together with other in the same position. Last year, about 400 children and women celebrated Christmas at safe houses in Sweden, according to Sydsvenskan. For many children it is their first Christmas without violence and everybody could feel safe and nobody is alone.

For people that are alone reluctantly, homeless or just want a new way to celebrate Christmas on, there are places to unite together organized by different organizations, for example FrälsningarmÊn. They offer food, activities, performances and above all else company. Because after all, a good company is the key to have a great Christmas.

For the people that not are subjects to aloneness, violence and so on, Christmas can be destroyed by expectations of how it should be celebrated. I think that no matter how many trimmings or deserts you have fixed, it will not be a great holiday if you do not focus on your beloved ones. We should make sure that everybody could celebrate a nice Christmas. I want everybody to connect it to spending time with people you feel safe around, eating sweets, lightened candles and so forth, not something else.

Sara WikstrĂśm, 18/12-18

Christmas in India Christmas the birth of lord Jesus is celebrated in the 25th December every year.

India is no exception to this tradition. Although Christians make only 5-10% of India’s population, People from other religions still try their best to make a better Christmas for Christians and they celebrate themselves too.

India is famous for their glamourous festivals full of lights and food from different cultures. These festivals can be different depending where you find yourself in India.

Goa Goa with a large group of Catholic population is the best place to celebrate a traditional Christmas in India. The food in Goa is always delicious but during Christmas, it’s exceptional. Treat yourself with a traditional Christmas dinner at a fancy restaurant or a shack on the beach.

Indulge in mouthwatering delights like roast turkey, and various deserts. This would really make your Christmas perfect.

Mumbai Mumbai is also known for their traditional Christmases, You can find churches all around the city.

2018 will be a special Christmas for the Mumbai citizens because the Saint Thomas Cathedral church is going to celebrate their 300th anniversary.

Celebrations In total you will find a lot of fun and experiences where ever you are in India.

Because India is bright colors and lights during all the festivals, Christmas foods like Kuswar which is adapted from Goa to the rest of country, Christmas fruit cake.

Christians in India celebrate Christmas with gaiety and devotion, It starts on Christmas eve of 24th December and lasts until New Year’s day.

Shopping is a huge tradition for all Indians as they buy clothes for themselves and Christmas gifts for their friends and families.

Christmas is celebrated by all religions in India. All Indians from other religions like Muslims, Seek, Indo do their best to make a joyful Christmas for their Christian friends.

Christmas in Syria Christmas lights appear after many dark years for Syria's Christians.

Only 10% of the total population in Syria follows Christianity.

Christmas is celebrated the same enthusiasm as anywhere in the West.

Customs, traditions and celebrations In Syria, Christmas is celebrated widely. Houses, buildings, trees, shopping malls and roads are decorated with Christmas lights to reflect the mood of the Christmas season. Syrian Christian families follow Christmas customs to celebrate Christmas. Every year, on 6 December, many of Syrian Christians attend special crowds in the churches. This day recognizes the honor of St. Nicholas, the bishop of Meira, a good-hearted man known for his sympathy and generosity towards the children.

The masses in the church On Christmas morning, people attend mass in the church and a pleasant parade takes place. Wherever the Mass is performed, the fire is lit in the middle of the place. During the Mass, the Syrian people sing and pray. The priest carries the image of Jesus Christ in his hand and walks around.

Christmas Day Christmas dinner is the next major event for the Syrians. People prepare delicious chicken dishes, mutton and dessert. Some of the famous Christmasdishes include baba Ghanouj, Hummus,chicken, pastries,nuts,oranges and soft drinks.

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Christmas table in Sweden Christmas is celebrated in many countries, it makes the winter more beautiful and lighter. It brings the family members and friends together and it is a chance to get free from work and school. You can see a lot of different traditions all around the world when it comes to Christmas. For example, in the Philippines the Giant Lantern festival is held every year in San Fernando on the Saturday before the Christmas Eve. Eleven villages from all over the country come together to compete to make the best lantern.

Christmas may be more beautiful in Sweden than in any other country, because Sweden gets very dark in winters and December is the darkest month in a Swedish winter. When you go to work or school it is dark and when you come back it is dark too. Christmas lights make the country lighter and give the people the motivation to go on, because Christmas is coming soon.

One of the most important parts of Christmas is of course the Christmas table. The Christmas table is known as Julbord in Sweden. One interesting thing is that if you live in Sweden and work, then you are going to enjoy the Christmas table twice. Because Swedish people usually dine the Christmas table once with their colleagues, and once with the family. They usually celebrate the Christmas table from late November until Christmas Eve with the co-workers and with the family on Christmas Eve, 24th December.

A regular Swedish table include three different dishes: The first generally includes a variety of pickled herring and cured salmon, the second is bread, ham, liver pâtÊ, red beet salad, and cheese, and the final course is comprised of the warm dishes with Janssons frestelse, dopp i grytan, meatballs, sausages, pork ribs, and cabbage.

Picture by me, 02-12-2018, Kill, in Sweden

I went to a Christmas table with my mother and her colleagues for the first time in Sweden.

The restaurant was beautifully designed with lights, both outside and inside. When we entered the room, there were glasses with warm mulled wine (glรถgg), ginger cookies and saffron buns to begin with. You could have some raisin and almond in that as well. There were lots of food and a table full of cookies, chocolates and different kinds of deserts. One thing which is maybe specific to Swedes is the porridge, you can see it on every Swedish Christmas table.

Of course, the Christmas table is not just for eating, it is a moment to be with those who you love. A moment at the ending of the year that gives you the chance to say happy new year to your near and dear. I wish everybody a very good Christmas and happy new year.

Things we relate to Christmas The holiday season is finally here in all in its glory. With its many presents, snow and the formidable food that’s coming with it. After all the stress and hard work that we have endured during the past year, it is well deserved for all of us to take a break from all that and spend time with our friends and family. We all have different things that symbolizes Christmas, it could be a feeling or a physical thing. And in this article, I want to talk about the things that make our favourite holiday special in comparison to the other ones that occur.

Christmas tree The highly decorated tree is possibly the most iconic thing about Christmas. It is in centre of where everyone gathers and watch TV, as us swedes do. We decorate it with beautiful Christmas balls and the festoons in silver and gold, but the crown jewel is of course the golden star that shines bright on the top. Another thing thatt makes our Christmas trees appreciated by us all is that it keeps our Christmas gifts safe under its long branches until Christmas evening.

Christmas gifts Christmas would not be as popular with children if it was not for the Christmas gifts that are handed out to them. We have all written many pages containing our deepest wishes for Christmas. We usually didn't even get half of the toys that we had written on our list. But when the presents had been opened, we were as happy as ever anyway.

Santa Claus It would not be Christmas without the red and white dressed Santa Claus that we all know and love, he is the person who is making it all happen! He has worked all year together with his little helpers to make all the presents that are handed out on Christmas evening. In honour of him, we decorate our houses both inside and outside with paintings and miniature statues to honour him and his helpers to show our gratefulness and thanking towards them.

Fredrik Nilsson

Second hand in first hand

It´s the Christmas time of the year!

It´s time to buy Christmas gifts and decorate the house. But did you know that according to the Swedish newspaper “Aftonbladet” an average grown up in Sweden buys Christmas gifts for about 3000 Swedish kronor a year! That’s a lot of money and things!

In this inferior’s factories and under bad conditions are kids often working, just so some people can buy as many cheap Christmas gifts as possible to their kids someone else kids have to risk their lives by working in a factory to get money enough for food! Besides that, a lot of things are of made plastic and when we throw away that it may affect the environment badly.

Toys for kids are often made in plastic and when the kid grow up the toy get thrown away. This might not sound so awful, but the thing is that all the plastic that we produce and throw away are affecting the environment more than you may think.

We need to buy less things, but can we really stop buying Christmas gifts? I don’t think so! But we can buy things without having to produce new ones. That´s a good way to be kind to the environment.

A lot of the things we buy are created in developing countries and often under bad circumstances. The working conditions are unspeakably. The employees are working long days without breaks, the factories are in bad condition and really need to be repaired to not risk falling apart while the employees are working.

I’m not saying that we need to stop buying Christmas gifts, that is an important tradition for a lot of people, but we can start thinking about what kind of stuff we are buying. If we start buying things that someone else already have been using, then we don’t have to conduce to the bad way of producing for example clothes and plastic that are affecting the environment badly. Therefor I think more people should start buying second hand. There are a lot of different stores that sells second hand and once you’ve learned how to find what you are looking for it won’t take longer to shop your Christmas gifts at second hand than in a usual store.

Erika Åsberg 2018/12/1

Meatballs with beetroot salad To do: Set the oven at 125 ° C. Meatballs: Mix breadcrumbs with eggs and cream and let it swell about 5 minutes.

Peel and finely chop the onion. Sear it in half of the butter to give it a nice colour.

Add the onions to a plate and let it cool.

Mix the mince with salt until it gets solid. Add breadcrumb mixture and pepper and blend until the mix becomes solid again. Then stir in the onion.

Roll small meat balls of batter and place them on a baking sheet. Insert in the middle of the oven for about 25 minutes. Take out and cool down the meatballs until they are served.

Ingredients: 8 buffet servings

Meatballs 1/2 dl breadcrumbs 1 egg 1 dl heavy cream 1 yellow onion 2 tbsp butter approx. 500 g beef mince 1 tsp salt 2 pinches of black pepper

Beetroot salad with horseradish 1 can Pickled beets (Ă 370 g) 1 dl mayonnaise

Beetroot salad: Let the beets drain.

1/2 dl sour cream

Mix mayonnaise with sour cream and season with salt and pepper.

2 pinches of salt

Peel and grate horseradish. Dice the Apple.

Immediately turn it down into the mayonnaise mixture

2 tbsp grated fresh horseradish

1 pinch of freshly ground black pepper

1 Red Apple

Cut the beets into strips and mix with the rest.

When serving: Sear the meatballs in the rest of the butter in a frying pan for about 8 minutes.

Tips: Both the meatballs and the beetroot salad can be made 1-2 days in advance Mix half a finely chopped onion into the beetroot salad.

Gingerbread Recipe Finally, it´s Christmas time and gingerbread cookies is a must. Here you have a great and delicious recipe that also is easy to do. And with some company it will be twice as fun!

This is what you need: •

8 oz butter

•

½ cup dark syrup

•

1 ½ cups sugar

•

½ cups whipped cream

•

1 tbsp grounded ginger

•

1 tbsp grounded cinnamon

•

½ tbsp grounded cloves

•

½ tbsp grounded cardamom

•

1 tbsp bicarbonate

•

4 ½ cups flour

Start off by putting butter, sugar and syrup in a saucepan and heat until everything has melted.

Pour the mixture in a kitchen aid, add cream and all the spices, then stir.

Mix bicarbonate and flour, pour it into the mixture.

Work it all together into a loose dough. Then let it rest outside or in a refrigerator for 24 hours. Take the dough inside one hour before baking.

Turn on the oven to 392°F. Pour a thin layer of flour on a table and roll out the dough. Use cookie cutters to form the cookies.

Put them on an oven tray with baking papers and bake in the middle of the oven for five minutes. Let the cookies cool on the tray.

Now they are ready to be eaten, Merry Christmas!

The origin of Santa Claus Santa is today depicted as a jolly old man in a red outfit, but his origin stretches all the way back to the 3rd century. This article will show his journey from St Nicholas to the shopping mall Santa we see every Christmas.

The early origin of Santa

Santa Claus comes to

Claus

America

A monk named St Nicholas

Saint Nicholas became popular

lived in a place currently referred

in the U.S. during the late 18th

to as Turkey, approximately 1700

century. He gained attention in

years ago. Due to him having

New York when a few Dutch

traits such as being kind and

families honoured the anniversary

generous, he was the centre of

of his death. This was covered by

many great stories. His popularity

a local newspaper and the name

spread as the years went by and he

Santa Claus arose from St

is now known as the protector of

Nicholas’ Dutch nick name,

children and sailors. As the

Sinter Klaas. The stories

renaissance emerged, he was the

revolving around Sinter Klaas

most popular saint in Europe.

were popularized even more by the

After the Protestant

author Washington Irving in

Reformation, the veneration of

1809. He referred to Sinter

saints began to decline. St

Klaas as the patron saint of

Nicholas did although manage to

New York in his book, “The

remain popular, especially in

History of New York�.

Holland.

Santa appearing in shopping malls During the early 19th century, Santa began to appear in shopping malls. As Christmas shopping

became more popular, the stores used Santa as advertisement. A shop in Philadelphia even presented a life-size Santa model in 1841, which attracted thousands of children.

The creation of Santa’s current appearance Clement Moore wrote in 1822 a poem dedicated to his three daughters. The poem was entitled “An Account of a Visit from St. Nicholas” and is responsible for many of his current characteristics. He was portrayed as a portly, jolly elf with the supernatural ability to easily descend through chimneys. This image was further enhanced by the cartoonist Thomas Nast. Nast depicted Santa with a striking resemblance to modern Santa. He was described as round and cheerful with a full white beard, delivering large sacks of toys for lucky children. Nast also gave Santa his bright red suit with white fur, North Pole workshop, elves, and his wife, Mrs. Claus.

//Magnus Fredriksson

Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs.

Once upon a time, long, long ago a king and queen ruled over a distant land. The queen was too nice for her own good and everyone adored her.

She was expecting and hoped to conceive her very own daughter with her lovely husband who she loved so. Day and night, she would pray for her daughter to be on her way to the castle. One day she looked outside the window as she carefully knit a long soft neckpiece for her beloved future daughter, winter was on its way so it’s best to be prepared she thought. She would constantly see a bird, flying outside the window and as she turned her attention to it, she accidentally pierced the skin on her thumb. She wished “Oh, how I wish that I had a daughter that had skin as white as snow, lips as red as blood, and hair as black as ebony”. Little did the

queen know, her only wish was about to become reality.

Shortly after that she gave birth to a baby girl with skin was as white as snow, lips as red as blood and hair as black as ebony, everything the queen could’ve ever imagined.

Therefore, the baby received the name Snow White. Unfortunately, the queen died shortly after giving birth to Snow White, so the king made sure to give Snow White the best childhood she could ever have.

A couple years went by, Snow White quickly grew up into a beautiful and talkative young woman who dedicated most of her days by taking care of older people and animals. She would often sing and when she did, people would turn their heads, astonished at what a beautiful and clear voice she had.

Snow White’s voice was not only

appreciated by the villages inhabitants but also the animals.

Even though she was convinced that animals couldn’t talk nor dance, whilst singing her heart out, a rabbit or two would always catch her attention. It was almost as if they were harmonizing with Snow White, hitting each note and moving their body in a way that she was not able to explain. It amazed her every time, it was almost as if she was able to talk to them, and even understand messages they were constantly trying to convey.

One day, her father decided to introduce her to a very beautiful woman which one day would become her stepmother. She was extremely nice, a little too nice if you asked Snow White. She would constantly smile and laugh but never once did something nice come out of her mouth. But she quickly let her guard down as she thought and hoped her father, would once again find true love and live happy ever after.

After the huge celebration new queen would every night carefully brush her thick, ebony hair. They would sing their hearts out and Snow White couldn’t help but notice what a beautiful voice she had. Her stepmother also told her everything about her life before meeting the king who at this point caught a big

un-curable disease and spoke to Snow White just before passing away. “I’ve climbed into thousands of chimneys, I’m sorry to say that this would be my last Christmas as the guy in red, but I need to rest.”

He paused. “Snow White, you need to deliver the last presents otherwise there will not be such a thing as Christmas this year!”

It was a couple of days before Christmas eve, the queen had spent the entire day inside her big bedchamber. Occasionally, somebody would knock on the door once or twice and her only response would be that she was gift wrapping Christmas presents. But so was not the case, she had been studying dark magic and owned a magic mirror who she would daily ask: “Mirror, Mirror on the wall, who’s the fairest of them all?”.

She would, each time receive the same answer “Thou, O queen, are the fairest of all”. Pleased to hear this, her face lit up into a huge smile knowing her magical mirror could speak nothing but the truth.

One early morning, the queen asked “Mirror, mirror on the wall, who’s the fairest of them all?”. She was raged when it answered:

“You my queen, are fair; it is true.

But Snow White is even fairer than you.”

The queen now flew into a jealous rage. She would grab the closest thing to her, which was a tall glass, and smashed it onto the hard floor and ordered her younger huntsman to fool Snow White into the deep woods to be killed. She did not want him coming back without her requirement, Snow White’s heart.

But once the huntsman took Snow White into the forest, he found himself unable to kill her. Instead, he let her go and made her promise to never return to the castle.

Knowing he had to bring the queen Snow Whites heart, he killed a deer and quickly made his way back into the castle.

Snow White was terrified and began to run deeper and deeper into the woods getting even more terrified as the trees seemed to whisper to each other. Just as the dark was about to fall she saw a little house and went inside to rest. Inside, everything was tiny and tidy. She began moving through the small house and eventually found a bed.

“Look it’s Snow White.” She heard somebody whisper. Almost instantly

By Enida Sulejmanovic Na17B

she lifted her head up and saw seven dwarfs. “Did you sleep well?”

One of them asked. She gave them a rather confused look. “Oh, looks like Santa never told you about us? your father of course.” Every dwarf began introducing themselves.

Greeting and shaking Snow White’s hand. “Well come on now, the presents won’t fix themselves.” One of them said and grabbed Snow White’s hand and pulled her of the bed and dragged her out of the room.

Days and nights, they worked on fulfilling every Wishlist and packed them onto the sleigh but before they could lift and deliver all presents to the inhabitants the seven dwarfs carefully connected all reindeer to it.

As they flew over their small village, Snow White told them all about her evil mother and how rude she would be. So, as they flew over their big castle, the dwarfs, or well, Santa’s little helpers cast a spell onto the queen. Making her green and ugly.

“She will never find love again” they said, and Snow White really hoped they were speaking the truth.

Top 35 Christmas songs 1. Mer Jul - Adolphson & Falk 2. White Christmas - Bing Crosby 3. Let It snow! Let It snow! Let It snow! – Dean Martin 4. Driving home for Christmas – Chris Rea 5. It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas – Bing Crosby 6. All I want for Christmas is You – Mariah Carey 7. Last Christmas – Wham!

8. O helga natt – Tommy Körberg 9. Happy Xmas – John Lennon 10. Jingle Bells – Dean Martin 11. Winter wonderland – Tony Bennet 12. Tänd ett ljus – Triad 13. Jingle bell rock – Bobby Helms 14. Julen är här – Tommy Körberg 15. Nu tändas tusen juleljus – Benny Andersson 16. Fairytale of New York – The Pouges 17. Do they know it’s Christmas? -Band Aid 18. Gläns över sjö och strand – Christer Sjögren 19. It’s the most wonderful time of the year – Andy Williams 20. Snowman – Sia 21. Hej mitt vinterland – Lotta Engberg 22. Decembernatt (hallelujah) – Peter Jöback 23. Välkommen hem – E.M.D 24. Santa’s coming for us – Sia 25. Så mörk är natten i midvintertid – Sammy, Shirley & Sonja 26. Ho ho ho – Sia 27. Sana Claus is coming to town – Paul Anka 28. Jul, jul, strålande jul – Carola 29. Feliz Navidad – José Feliciano 30. Juligen – Just D 31. Rockin’ around the Christmas Tree – Brenda Lee 32. Santa tell me – Ariana Grande 33. Ser du stjärnan i det blå – Jan Malmsjö 34. Hey ho – Freddy Kalas 35. Karl-Bertil Jonsson, 14 år – Svante Thuresson

STOP BUYING – START BAKING

You might have heard that we need to take care of the environment since the global warming is one of our time’s vital questions. That means the earth is getting warmer which is not good even if you might like the warm weather during the summertime.

Also, it will be a more extreme weather and it probably won’t be snow in the winter.

Then you can’t be out skiing, making a snowman or have a snowball-war with your friends. And, the cosy Christmas feeling won’t be there anymore.

My mother showed me a picture of me sticking out my head from a big snow cave that I had built as a kid. Then the snow fell in November and didn’t disappear until Mars.

That’s not the case anymore and I think it’s sad that some of the kids nowadays won’t ever experience that just because the global warming. But, what about starting to change that with small steps this Christmas so we might see a white Christmas in some years again?

During Christmas people buy a lot of Christmas gifts. Instead of celebrating the birth of Jesus as the Christmas originally is a festival to, many people stress about Christmas gifts and money to buy them. In the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet there’s an investigation where you can read that last Christmas, people in Sweden bought Christmas gift on average for more than 3000 Swedish crowns. 4% of the people bought for more than 10 000 Swedish crowns which is about 1100 dollar.

Maybe you are like me, you like to give people gifts too, not only receiving them. I love to see how happy people are when they get something they really like. Then comes another problem, it can be very expensive to buy gifts to everybody you love. But, at the same time, gifts are a part of Christmas nowadays. Therefore, it feels sad to stop with gifts completely and, since I find pleasure in giving people gifts, I really wanted to find a solution for this problem.

So, here are four chocolatey Christmas candy recipes, one for each advent, that you can make together with someone you love. Bring them to the Christmas party or eat them all by yourself, it’s only Christmas once a year. But, remember that sharing is caring, and it doesn’t have to be more complicated than bringing these goodies to make the ones you love happy.

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Vegan chocolate truffle (~20 pieces) Ingredients: 1 dl / 0,4 cup coconut milk (>14% fat) 225 g dark chocolate (at least 60% cacao)

How to do it: Chop the chocolate finely.

To decoration (optional): Cacao, candy canes, icing sugar or what else you like.

Add the chocolate to the coconut milk and put a lid or a towel on the bowl to keep the heat.

Heat the coconut milk (don’t forget to shake it well before opening it).

Let it be like that for 5 minutes and then stir until the chocolate has melted.

Put it in the freezer for an hour.

Take out the mixture and roll it to small even balls.

Roll the balls in cacao, crossed candy canes, coconut flakes or what else you like to.

Store them in a jar with lid and put it in the fridge. You can freeze them too.

Mint kisses (~40 pieces) How to do it: Whisk the egg white firmly, add the peppermint oil and stir.

Sift the icing sugar into the egg mix and continue whisking to a smooth paste.

Put the paste into a forcing bag and pipe the paste to thin plates on a baking paper. Let them dry in the room, preferably for the night.

Melt the chocolate and pour it into a forcing bag. Pipe some on the white plates and let solidify.

Ingredients: 1 egg white 5 drops peppermint oil 3,5 dl / 1,5 cups icing sugar 50 g dark chocolate

A little healthier fudge Ingredients: 300 g cashew, unsalted 1,5 dl / 0,6 cup maple syrup 1,5 dl / 0,6 cup cacao 1 tsp sea salt 1 dl / 0,6 cup coconut oil 1 ml vanilla powder 200 g dark chocolate 2 candy canes (if you want to)

How to do it: Mix the cashew with a mixer until it becomes like a powder.

Add all the other ingredients except the candy canes and the chocolate.

Mix it until it becomes creamy.

Flatten the creamy mix on a plate or tray with baking paper to about 2 cm / 0,8 inches thick.

Melt the chocolate and pour it over the cake. Cross the candy canes and spread them over too.

Put it in the fridge for about an hour.

Put it out and cut in small pieces.

Store them in the fridge again.

Rocky road fudge How to do it: Heat the oven to 180°C / 356°F. Cut the marshmallows and “grill” half of them in the oven for 5-6 minutes or until they are yellowish.

Chop the chocolate and cut the butter into small pieces.

Ingredients: 80 g marshmallows 6 Digestive cookies 200 g dark chocolate 200 g milk chocolate 25 g butter 400 g condensed milk

Heat the milk on low heat. Add the chocolate and the butter and blend it quickly together. Let it melt to a smooth paste.

Smash 5 Digestive cookies to coarse pieces. Add them and the marshmallows, both the baked and unbaked, but save some to decoration.

Flatten the paste on a plate or tray that is about 20*30 cm (8*12 inches). Put it in the fridge to solidify for at least 6 hours. Cut it to smaller pieces.

Emelie Storm 18/12–18

The origin of the Christmas tree The Christmas tree is a well-known tradition around the world. Along with Santa Claus, the Christmas tree is the most relatable symbol of Christmas. It comes in many shapes and forms and could be decorated in a very fashionable way. You can hang everything from gingerbread and candy canes, to shining lights and glittering angles in it. The tree itself is always an evergreen. Often spruce, or fir and sometimes pine. But while it is well-known what a Christmas tree is, it’s much more seldom to know where the tradition comes from. Why did we decide that a green tree in the middle of the living room would be a good idea?

The origin is not crystal clear, but we have some clues to why it is such a widespread tradition. The first use of evergreens in a symbolic use dates back thousands of years. Pagans used branches of fir to decorate their homes at the winter solstice. The green branches in the middle of the winter reminded them of the spring. It was also considered that evergreen branches would scare away devils and witches. Celt druids also used evergreens as decoration but for symbolizing everlasting life. The Romans dressed their temples in fir trees on the festival of Saturnalia. A feast for the ancient god Saturn, who represented green seeds, fruitfulness, and life. Vikings had plants of spruce and pine trees as a symbol of the sun god Balder, who was similar to Saturn.

So, evergreens have always been a symbol of life. But when did we start using them for Christmas? The earliest documented Christmas tree was erected in Livonia. (Estonia and Latvia) and there is a dispute between Tallinn and Riga of who was first. Tallinn in 1441 and Riga in 1510. Both trees were set up by the “Brotherhood of Blackheads”. They danced around it on Christmas eve and then set it aflame. This brotherhood was a constellation of merchants, ship owners and foreigners in Livonia. The tradition spread around northern Europe and was popular among German Protestants.

The first one to bring a Christmas tree inside is said to be Martin Luther. Supposedly, he was also the first one to put candles on a Christmas tree. The story goes that Martin was walking home on a frosty winter night. He looked up and saw the stars shining through fir branches.

This made a great impression on him while the stars made him think of Jesus coming down to earth from heaven. Because of this, he proceeded to cut one down and bring it home to recreate this sight for his family. He put it in the middle of the living room and hung candles and other ornaments in it. The candles would represent the stars he saw.

This is one of many legends about the upbringing of the Christmas tree- tradition. Another famous story from Germany is about a forester and his family, who live in a cottage in the woods. One evening on a cold night they hear a knock on the door. Outside stood a little boy.

The family changed his clothes, warmed him up and let him sleep in the children’s bed. On the next morning, the Christmas morning, they were woken up by an angles choir. The little boy had turned into Jesus, the Christ child. To thank the family Jesus went out in the garden and broke off a fir branch.

The Christmas tree tradition spread through northern Europe and in the 1830s it came to Britain. Queen Victoria’s husband Prince Albert was from Germany and in 1841 he had brought a Christmas tree over the channel and placed it in the Windsor Castle, where the royal family celebrated Christmas. A drawing picturing the family standing around the tree was published in the newspaper London Times in 1848. Two years later it was again published,

but this time in an American magazine. This was the start of the American Christmas tree tradition.

The Christmas tree is a very common sight in these times. They look very different depending on where you are from. But it is difficult to understand where it originally came from, like with many, if not all, traditions. Although, we can, with moderate certainty, say that the Christmas tree comes from somewhere in Northern Europe. I hope this gave some clarity to the matter. So, the next time you decorate your living room evergreen you know it’s history.

Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_tree https://www.history.com/topics/christmas/history-of-christmas-trees https://www.whychristmas.com/fun/decorateatree.shtml

Rickard Nygren Na17b

Turning tables She had always been a big-hearted child, with a great sympathy for other people, wanting them to thrive and feel good before herself. She prioritized people’s happiness and wellness as no youth and was always almost way too polite regarding to her own age. You could almost think she was living in the middle ages – her behaviour and knowledge was similar to a well experienced senior. The long blond hair, blue eyes and pink little dress deceived her personality and character, and barring to her childly look, you would probably mistake her with an adult. Furthermore, a really skilled adult. You could sufficiently call her precocious.

Yes, I think that word would describe her right on target. Lucy was precocious.

Lucy had experienced nine Christmases and this one her parents wanted to be especially meaningful and beautiful to her. They wanted her to remember the tenth as a special one, with a lot of presents, love and above all, a massive amount of snow. They knew she loved snow, and they were planning to give her the one most coveted sledge in town, because her current one was less than a heartbeat from falling apart. Lucy had never asked for a new, and her parents had almost forgot about the only thing she probably would wish for, though she probably wouldn’t admit it even if they offered it to her.

The only hitch, as the dot of the letter i, Lucy had a great believe in Santa and all of his elves. This may sound weird, because of course it’s normal and something every kid does, but just because of this, she was convinced that everything she wished for required to be written in her wish list. Like I said, Lucy was a special child and cared greatly of her fellow human beings. She never wanted to be in the way of anyone and she knew that every kid in the town wished for a lot of Christmas presents. As the big-hearted child she was, she felt really sorry for the manufactures, in this case the elves, who had to work 24/7 just because the children should get their presents in time. She thought this seemed unfair and wrong that some people could just get a gift not been included in the production at all. Because of this, and with the values she had, Lucy decided not to wish for anything this year.

The snow fell evenly over the quaint houses in the little county Carrol in Delphi. The Christmas-rush didn’t look like anything but a rough-and-tumbled flock of reindeer, being chased by sanguinary dogs. As parents of every kid in town were buying loads of gifts, two of them still were home, sitting at the dinner table and didn’t know what to do.

Lucy’s parents felt frustrated and stressed about the prevailing situation, asking themselves repeatedly how they would be able to give their one and only child gifts for Christmas, without giving her bad conscience or devastate her great belief in Santa. They were discussing over and over but couldn’t find out any way to fix it and felt disappointed at themselves. Instead, they decided they should focus on community this year and not least the lovely Christmas food. Especially the meatballs which were Lucy’s favourite dish on the Christmas table, and this year she and her mum would cook homemade ones – and Lucy had been looking forward to that moment all autumn. Now, only one week was remaining for Christmas. Lucy’s parents hugged each other and felt this was going to be a good Christmas after all.

1

In the evening Lucy’s mum went by car down to the post office, put Lucy’s wish list in an envelope and sealed it. The wish list was blank. She decided not to think about it anymore and to go back home. She had promised Lucy they were going to watch the Christmas channel. Though, she couldn’t remove the emotion of being a bad mother, not even being able to give her own child presents for Christmas. Suddenly, she felt a feeling of disgust.

Disgust of herself, and she wanted to escape. Escape from reality, which didn’t collaborate with her.

She sat down again in the car and drove fast – fast but smooth. A little tear, you couldn’t see it if you didn’t look very closely, fell down her cheek and she wiped it off with her cold pale palm and continued to drive, faster, with a speed of 110, through the motorway, brushing against the speed limit of 90.

In a small brown cabin deep in the woods, somewhere in America, Santa and his six little elves were brewing coffee as they sat around a fireplace they’ve made by themselves, just next to their own little factory. As Santa read the thousands of letters, his little elves were smiling and continued sipping from their coffee cups.

The sun was on its way up and at this moment, six days from Christmas, the sunbeams hit the white reflective snow scattered all over the frozen landscape. It couldn’t get more winterly.

The atmosphere was the same as every Christmas, and just as Santa was about to read the last list which was the one they would start to fulfil, he opened it and became quiet. The wish list was blank, and he thought there must’ve been something wrong. But, at the bottom of the envelope a name was signed. It said, “Wellness before gifts. Merry Christmas from Lucy, don’t get exhausted”. Santa read the envelope to his elves and they all got affected. All of them dropped a tear and they realized Lucy had misunderstood everything about their profession. Now, they decided to take care of this issue as fast as possible to make Lucy’s Christmas turn out to the best one she had ever experienced.

Lucy was just on her way go to bed, with only a couple of hours until Christmas would occur, when she noticed a light shadow cross the wall in her bedroom. She walked to her windowpane and pulled up the blinds. She looked out over the county and searched for anything that may have caused the light on her wall. Lucy couldn’t see anything weird in the neighbourhood, but when she looked up in the sky, she saw two reindeer, dragging a sleigh, and in it Santa himself sat. He waved at her to come out and she couldn’t believe her eyes.

Santa was literally in the sky, at her house. He was real, and she could see him as clear as crystal.

As Lucy opened her window carefully, she couldn’t tear her eyes off this amazing sight. She could almost smell the fir-trees of the forest where Santa came from, and Lucy had never felt a longing like this before. She had to follow them, ensure to make use of this likely dream which could end any minute. Like a child on Christmas eve, Lucy climbed up on the windowpane and reached for the sleigh to come along. In a second, the sleigh was placed right next to her and she could easily get in. As she sat down, she glanced at Santa and for the first time in her life, she experienced a feeling of being real in a likely dream, thus still scared to happen pinch herself.

2

The fact about not being able to move faster than the speed of light, contradicted to Lucy when they finally reached the final destination in a time of less than a minute. She appreciated the distance from home was at least 50 miles, considering the great amount of snow. The white powdery cover of snow resembled a lump of big, cosy clouds. Lucy could remember sitting in the airplane together with her mum and dad, travelling to the Maldives.

Her father and she had fantasied about how it would be to jump around on the massive inviting lumps of cotton. Now, Lucy could touch it, feel it and breathe it. She knew, and it was an overwhelming feeling of both happiness and alacrity.

Santa helped her out the sleigh and she got to go and see his two, well trained and cute, reindeers. As she patted their muzzles, one of them actually licked on Lucy’s hand. She almost flinched a bit, but Santa just told her they liked her a lot and that she had no reason to feel scared. Lucy laughed relieved and looked at Santa, with his big fluffy beard.

She wondered for a second where his voice actually come from, though she couldn’t distinguish even the slightest mouth. The white beard was almost similar to the fluffy snow, covering all of the forest, and she wondered how it must feel to have your own cloud, until she realized it wasn’t even a cloud to him. It was more like a snowflake, comparing to his body size – but still. The beard was however surely keeping him warm when swishing through the cold winter climate, handing out all of the Christmas presents, in the speed of light.

They walked through the forest, for at least two miles, and finally reached a small brown cabin, next to a fireplace and another house resembling a factory Lucy used to walk by at home, on her way to school. She had always wondered what it would look like inside, and this one was just like a copy. Next to the fireplace, there was used firewood and grey ash, but she could still distinguish live coal was remaining there. Foggy smoke rose up in the sky, reaching the cotton-like clouds and together shaped a dissolution of misty air.

Lucy realized there’ve must been someone here recently, and soon, we’re talking about a hundredth of a second, she perceived it must’ve been the elves. As she got to think of to meet them, she almost couldn’t face waiting. She started to talk fast, ask Santa a lot of questions and actually jumped on the spot. Santa laughed and put his hand, covered by the largest glove Lucy had ever seen, on her shoulder and tried to calm her down a bit. Of course, she would meet his elves, he said, but first of all she had to prepare herself of an astounding event. It would maybe upset her conception of the Christmas factory she’d always believed in, but above all she would get a true picture of it.

A couple of seconds later, Lucy had been taking some deep breaths, still don’t understanding what was going to come about. Santa took her little hand, covered by a striped tiny glove, with his big woollen paw – like Kala embosomed Tarzan, feckless as the little baby he was, protecting him from Sabor.

As Santa picked up an enormous key from his pocket, brought it into the keyhole and turned it two revs to the right, the doorway slowly opened. Lucy stood with her eyes wide open, excited but high-strung of how the factory behind the doors would turn out like. She squeezed Santa’s hand even harder and they walked in.

3

Lucy expected to see all of the elves sit down at each desk, building toys or whatsoever, not really in the speed of light but nearly, regarding to the great amounts of presents they had to produce before Christmas. As Santa told her before they walked in, Lucy’s imagination didn’t fit at all comparing to what they were facing right now. There were no elves.

No workers or labour were moving around in the ward or creating anything. They were not in sight, but an even more fascinating view appeared to the little blue-eyed girl with long blond hair, usually dressed in pink dresses.

There flew toys on conveyor belts and dye was all over the place, splashed in perfect dots right on the toys. Instead of manufacturers, tables were constantly turning around in the hall, moving to the exactly right place at the right time. Everything worked systematically and above all, the production went so fast. “This is how we actually fabricate all of the presents for Christmas, to get in time.” Santa said. “In fact, no one has to struggle with this, even if I’m sure my elves wouldn’t have anything against it. You can feel calm Lucy; my pixies just help me read the wish lists and hand out the presents to all the amazing children around the world. We love our job and we’re all good. There’s no chance in the world we would ever get exhausted.” Lucy stood quite next to Santa Claus. She didn’t know what to think. All she knew was that she felt such an enormous relief and mercy. It was okay to wish for Christmas.

Just as they were about to leave, a dull sound spread all over the building. All of the elves ran into the ward. Lucy almost couldn’t count them all, maybe twenty she guessed just before she got served an excess of papers and pencils. She picked one of each and wrote her own wish list, directly from her heart. She wrote it at the same time as she laughed together with the elves and Santa, who gave her a wink. She wrote it without blaming herself, although she just wished for pleasure. And above all, she wrote it with good conscience.

The next morning, Lucy woke up in her own bed feeling placid as never before. She recognized she actually was smiling at the same time as she opened her eyes. She glanced at her blinds and saw they were drawn down. The window was closed, and her striped tiny gloves were gone. She stated the night must’ve just been a dream, just like one that every child gets the night before Christmas. Though, just when she got out of bed and placed her feet on the floor, she heard a splash and got soaking wet – melted snow. There was a small cold puddle on the floor and she could distinguish a note being placed in it. Lucy picked it up as it dripped and pronounced the letters which together formed a word on the very small area; “Downstairs, /S.” it said.

As Lucy, eagerly but gently, walked down the stairs, she faced a familiar smell of Christmas – mommy’s meatballs. Her little tummy made a great sound she well enough recognized.

Though her hunger disappeared in a twinkle, just as she got down the stairs.

Lucy eventually discerned a fir-tree, probably the biggest one she’d ever seen, occupying almost the whole living room. As she approached, she almost lost her breath. Right in front of her eyes stood the most coveted sledge in town – the one she’d wanted for years. Behind it, there laid plenty of presents and she almost couldn’t count them all, maybe twenty she guessed just before she noticed a pair of striped tiny gloves adorn the top of the fir, resembling a star.

Tove Ordqvist 4

Why you should celebrate Christmas early As Halloween comes to an end and the pumpkins have started rotting, the leaves have all fallen off the trees and the days are getting awfully short. There needs to be something to light up the gloomy days of November. Christmas is almost two months away and it feels like it’s never going to arrive. My solution to this, start celebrating it early.

As soon as Halloween is over you should start putting up decorations, go out shopping for presents and begin the Christmas celebrations.

It is probably just a sales tactic to get customers to buy more things but in recent years, stores have begun to advertise and sell Christmas things earlier and earlier. What I see as the good thing about this however is that it gives you a lot more time to buy all the things that you need for a

successful Christmas. This means that you can spread-out your budget a lot more. You don’t have to save up a lot of money and buy everything in one week or so, only to realise that you didn’t save up enough and now your 12-year-old son won’t get that PlayStation game he wanted, or your teenage daughter won’t get that new phone that she wanted. It would be much better if you bought all the stuff you needed over a much longer period so that you don’t have to save up as much money and it becomes a lot easier to gauge how much everything will cost.

Another advantage to starting all the Christmas preparations early is that you have lot more time to enjoy Christmas when it finally arrives.

You don’t have to stress yourselves

out over everything that needs to be done because you started preparing a week before. You have time to spend time with loved ones; family, friends and lovers.

Up here in the north, around the time of Halloween, it starts getting dark and you might start to feel a little depressed as the days get shorter and shorter. If you start celebrating Christmas as soon as Halloween, you won’t have that same problem; or at least it won’t be as bad. You’ll feel like you have something to look forward to when it starts getting dark at four in the afternoon.

as soon as Halloween ends. In countries where you celebrate Thanksgiving, I still think you should do the same thing because you get the build-up to Christmas that you otherwise would not.

To conclude, I think that Christmas is the greatest holiday of the year and it should be celebrated as early and for as long as possible. Doing this means you have an easier time budgeting for all the Christmas expenses, you have more time to celebrate, you’re happier in the dark gloomy days of November and it creates a build-up that otherwise would not exist.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year //Tim Gybrant

Well, you might think; what about Thanksgiving? And to you I say: “No one cares about Thanksgiving”, at least not here in Sweden. In Sweden we don’t celebrate it which makes the almost two months between Halloween (which isn’t even a major holiday here) and Christmas feel like an eternity.

That’s why I again, think that the Christmas celebrations should start