Looking Back on Christmas Eve

 

In Sweden, for most people - and especially the children - it's Christmas Eve rather than Christmas Day that is the "main" day of Christmas celebrations - not least because that is when Jultomten (Father Christmas) comes bearing gifts here (or, if we have outgrown believing in that, we just open those that we bought for each other...) 

In my childhood, Christmas usually involved visiting both sets of grandparents (living around 100 km away from us), and no church services were included in the schedule. Nowadays, spending Christmas on my own, I often try include at least one church service - and my favourite has come to be the one at 11 a.m. on Christmas Eve, in the church above (the oldest in town, from the 17th century). 

I can't say I have attended it every year - for one thing, it depends a great deal on the weather conditions if I feel up for the walk. This year, it was a grey day, but neither rainy nor icy, so no problem with that. The service is rather short one, centered on the Nativity of Jesus, in a way that also actively involves the attending children, who get to help with bringing the various figurines up to the nativity scene; between readings of the texts from the gospels, and traditional Christmas hymns sung. This year, the Bible texts were also actually read by two quite young children (who did it very well!). 

(I took my photos before the service began, which is why the stable is still empty.) 

 Christmas tree in the foyer.

One rather strange Christmas Eve tradition here in Sweden is a certain TV program, a Disney special (From All of Us to All of You), that has been broadcasted at 3 pm every Christmas Eve ever since 1960. (Parts of it have been exchanged over the decades, but most of it remains the same.) 1960 was the year that my parents bought their first house and we moved in there, and I think that's also probably the year when they bought their first TV (a bulgy b&w thing, and there was only one channel back in those days, so the only choice was to watch whatever was on, or not watch at all).  

 

My maternal grandparents had got their first TV a couple of years earlier (my m. grandpa was always quick to get whatever was new - he was also the first in our extended family to get a colour TV when those were introduced). My paternal grandparents did not have a TV, though - I think it wasn't until after my p. grandpa died (1969) that my parents bought one for my grandma. So depending on in which home we happened to be at 3 pm on Christmas Eve, I may possibly have missed the Disney special a few times. But if there was a TV, we watched it - even in later years when there were no longer any young children in the company. And even now I still find myself turning it on, even if these days, I'm likely to keep nodding off to it as much as I "watch"...

 

A bit later, around 4:30 pm, I turned my TV into a fireplace (it's a DVD), and spent about 1½ hour with my brother via a Skype video call. It's a tradition we created after our parents died and we stopped actually getting together IRL for Christmas. And after that, I also talked for a while with my aunt (on the phone, no video). Also a tradition. (While my mum was still living, it was the two of them who used to call each other.)

A more recent TV tradition (only since a few years) is that on Christmas Eve, we get to see/hear our Crown Princess Victoria reading the Nativity text from the gospel of Luke, from the church/chapel in the royal castle in Stockholm. (I don't think that's broadcasted live, but pre-recorded. But recorded anew each year, though.)

Later in the evening, this year, I ended up watching Downton Abbey - the Movie (from 2019), also broadcasted on our 'SVT1' channel. The movie is about the family at Downton expecting a visit from the king and queen. Many of you have probably seen it. I too have seen it before, but only remembered the main theme. And it soon became clear that I had indeed forgotten the details of the plot - so it kept me awake throughout... ;-)