Gnome Invasion

Yesterday was grey and wet, and I did not get out at all. While I was busy with doing laundry, Barbie and Skipper were allowed to decorate their Christmas tree at last...

This is where they live (a book shelf next to my TV). A new neighbour also moved in upstairs from them yesterday. Or rather, a regular seasonal guest... ;-)

Other corners of my flat were also invaded by gnomes yesterday:

This family occupies their usual space on a picture shelf above my sofa. (Knitted by my mum, once upon a time. She made lots of similar dolls for annual Christmas markets held by the local history society in the village where my parents lived in their senior years. But these were part of her own Christmas decorations at home.) 

1,2,3,4,5 little ones have also taken their usual places on the corner shelf in my kitchen. (The other items sit there all year round.)

Some prefer the top of my cooker hood.

Some are still hiding and won't come out until even closer to Christmas. How many do you think this tiny house may contain? (The answer will be revealed in a few days or so. Some  observant reader with extremely good memory might even remember - so I'm not making a competition of it...)

Winter Starts Here

Today I woke up to the first snow for this season. Just very small powdery snow flakes in the air today, but still marking the beginning of winter.

And yesterday, I noted that the Christmas Tree in the main square downtown is up: 

 
More snow to be expected, but the latest forecasts say that tomorrow, most of it will probably fall north of here; and the day after, on the east coast, moving north. (Far up  north, I think many places have already had snow for a while now.) 

Anyway, 1st Advent Sunday is only 1½ week away now. Frosty/snowy weather might inspire me to make my usual change of kitchen curtains already this upcoming weekend... (I always like to start with that, before putting up other decorations.)

The Christmas Tree is Up

 

My little Christmas tree is up again, in its usual place on top of an old chest of drawers in my living room. It is nearly always the last decoration I put up; still kind of following the tradition from my childhood, when the (real and full size) tree was not taken in and decorated until just before Christmas Eve... 

I have two different chains of led lights in it now; one with 10 led lights inside baubles of different colours, and another with 15 tiny plain led lights. (Both run on batteries.)

 

The trains were both "fun" gifts from me to my dad once upon a time, because he was a train enthusiast. (I found them when clearing out my parents house before we sold that.) 

The Fairy and Unicorn piece was a gift from a friend in England (some years ago).

Countdown to Christmas

 

One never knows with winter around here. The past few days we've been back to rain, and all the snow we had earlier in December has thawed away. They say it might get colder again tomorrow, though - in which case we might get a refill of snow for Christmas, but perhaps also difficult icy/snowy roads for those who have to be out and about. For my own part (not needing to go anywhere, and not having guests either), I just say "Que sera, sera" - "What will be, will be"... Had my usual bi-weekly (fortnightly) delivery of groceries today (and nothing essential missing); so am prepared to hibernate for a while if necessary! ;-)

The wall hanging (above) was made by my mother some time back in my childhood, and nowadays (at Christmas) hangs on the door between my living room and study; next to the corner where I'm also in the habit of displaying incoming Christmas cards (below).

Some cards that can stand for themselves have found their place on a nearby shelf instead.

The table runner on this bookshelf in the hall was also made (embroidered) by my mother:

 

My "forest gnomes" have moved into this corner shelf in the kitchen this week, as usual.

And Santa Claus + family are celebrating Christmas on a wall shelf in my living room. (Another example of my mother's handicraft.)

Back in my childhood, the Christmas tree (back then a full size 'live' tree) was always the final touch to the Christmas decorations, and not taken in until a day or so before Christmas Eve. In my own home (as a grown-up), I've never had a real tree, but this little one is celebrating its 36th Christmas with me. It's still always the last of my Christmas decorations that I put up; and not too long before Christmas. (This year I decorated it on Tuesday, in time for the Winter Solstice on Wednesday.)

I wish everyone a Happy Christmas (but since I'm not going anywhere, there's a good chance I'll be back to repeat that over the weekend...)

The Christmas Trees

Taking photos of my little Christmas tree is quite a challenge - with or without flash! This is the tree's 35th Christmas with me. I remember when I bought it (and also where), as it was for the first Christmas after I moved to Borås.

The locomotive under the tree is a one that I once gave my dad for Christmas - he was a big railway/train enthusiast (he even wrote books on the topic). I found it when we were clearing the house after he died and then took it home to add to my own Christmas stuff. The elf came with some Christmas flower arrangement at some point in history, I don't remember when. He decided he likes to live under the Christmas tree with the locomotive. 

 

I have another Christmas tree (even smaller), which for some reason is red instead of green. I bought that one perhaps a couple of decades ago, in an ordinary Swedish department store. Not sure where it was made, but the tiny wooden ornaments look 'German style' to me. 

Daytime Downtown Decorations

The rain passed during the night, and today I woke up (...late...) to blue skies, and even a glimpse of the sun. To make the most of the daylight, I went out for a walk around noon. Having no special errand, I thought I might as well walk into town anyway, to have a look at the Christmas decorations, even if the lights wouldn't be on at that time of day, and most shops are closed on a Sunday.

The Christmas tree in the square has some new golden balls in it though, doing its best to look festive even in the daytime.

They had put up a giant umbrella on the platform in front of the old court house that serves as stage for various outdoors concerts and events this time of year. Probably a wise move! 

So far this season we haven't seen any snow here, but in the park there is an (artificially frozen) ice-skating rink:

Footbridges over the river are decorated as usual.

The trees all bare now.

Remains to be seen what winter will be like this year.

Something Has To Go

In Sweden, it's customary to throw out the Christmas tree on January 13th; also known as St Knut's Day. I'm not sure the roots of the tradition really goes any deeper than Knut rhyming with ut in Swedish - which is the Swedish word for "out"...

Anyway, after my brother left on Sunday, and before doing anything about "throwing out" my own little Christmas tree (or rather, in my case, packing it up and putting it back in storage again for the next 11 months), I went out for a walk. It was another grey day and I wasn't expecting to see anything exciting, so didn't bother to bring my separate camera. But as it turned out, I was glad that I had at least brought my mobile! :)

???

???

From my unexpected finds, I could only draw the conclusion that if you have no Christmas tree to throw out, some people seem to think you have to throw out something else instead...

Inspired, for St Knut's Day I decided to finally do something about my Giant Geranium - which had been doing its very best to stop me from trying to throw it out before Christmas...

21 December 2019

13th January 2020

... but by January 13th seemed to have finally resigned to the idea that perhaps a little trim might be a good idea after all...

Remains to be seen whether it will recover from the rather radical tree surgery I ended up giving it.

The Tree Is Up

My Christmas Tree (60 cm high) has been with me for 32 years now – its little chain of (10) lights included. I have replaced a few bulbs over the years. But this year, it turned out more than just one or two were broken. So I ended up replacing all of them with a complete ‘new’ set of spare bulbs (bought a few years ago) – and voilá – it worked. Now I pray these will last a while (at least over this Christmas!) as I’m not sure they make this kind any more… (Ah well… One year/problem at a time!)

December 21 - The Christmas Tree

My Christmas tree is 60 cm high, and is celebrating its 30th Christmas with me this year. Originally it came with the lights and twelve litte balls (six red, three silver, three gold - which are still all intact). I've added more decorations over the year as I've found things in the right size. I pack them all away carefully every year in January and always redecorate the tree anew in December. It's usually the last of my decorations to be put up - a few days (up to a week) before Christmas. 

The first ten years of my adult life I did not have a Christmas tree of my own at all. I always went home to my parents for Christmas anyway (and we did not live in the same town/area back then). Sometimes during Advent time I had a few branches of pine in a vase. 

My parents always had a full-sized Christmas tree. Back in my childhood it was not brought into the house until the day before Christmas Eve. There were very few changes in decorations over the years. Theirs were chiefly (besides the lights) plain glass baubles in different colours (later a set of plastic ones were added, because every now and then one of the fragile glass ones would get broken), and tinsel - and Swedish flags.

I also remember that the trees in my grandparents' houses were differently decorated. In my paternal grandparents' tree they had even more flags (not just Swedish ones but for all of the Nordic countries); and crackers made of thin tissue paper (which were never actually cracked open), and little gnomes (tomtar) made of red yarn (not knitted, just tied together).

And from my other grandfather's tree, I remember a different kind of tinsel, and the electic lights being covered with some fluffy stuff called angels' hair. 

This is a photo from my very first Christmas (1955); with me (4 months old) sitting on my paternal grandmother's lap - in front of her tree with all the flags.

And this is my grandmother and my dad, in 1931! (And then, in the tree, real candles - but unlit.)