Problems with Santa

[Guest guest]

The Swedish Santa doesn't ride a sledge, or go down a chimney. He will knock on a door or a window, and asked to be let in (and, of course: ask about the presence of "good children"...), and when he has been let in the house, he will deliver the Christmas gifts. He/it is known as tomte, or more precisely as jultomte, i.e. a Christmas tomte (jul=Christmas). A tomte is a mythical being in old Scandinavian folklore, small in size, believed to live, in or near the farm (every farm had it's own), and would be your worst enemy if you made him angry, but your best protection as long as you stayed on his good side. The key to staying on his good side was treating your animals well. After Scandinavia was Christened, the tomte came to be associated with Christmas and Christmas gifts. Some stories have him grow to human size during Christmas Eve (which is practical, since it makes it so much easier for a grown up to dress up as the tomte and do the delivery of Christmas gifts...).Anyhow, this past Christmas, my brother "went out to buy a news paper" (that's how you explain the absence of the person who is going to impersonate the tome, to the children), and came knocking on the terace door with (some of the) presents. He did a real good job, actually. Great costume. And the children did not see it was him (ok, the kids are between 1 and 3 years old, but anyway....).One of Pixie's favorite Christmas gifts this year was "The book about the body" (teaching small children the names of differents parts of the body, like "the nose" etc), that her mother bought for her. And the other day she wanted me to "read" it to her when she was home sick. She showed me the book and said "The tomte gave me this". I said "Oh, that's nice! But I think it was from your mother." She corrected me: "No. This is how it was. We were at granma's house, and a tomte came to her house, and he gave this to me. It's from the tomte." Well, the logic is irrefutable, isn't it... And then you expect the kids to remember who gave them what gift... Hardly. The tomte will get all the credit. That's the problem with him...love/Reb