Hello!
I have recently found out about the visiting Christmas Elves and couldn't wait to introduce them! We are a British family living in Sweden and the Swedes already have resident elves ... so I'm going to mixing in as much as possible of the local traditions!
The tomte (singular) tomtar (plural) are the elves of the land, the actual plot of land your home is on ... Wiki suugests that they are linked to the spirit of the person who first settled the land. They are sometimes also considered forest elves, but usually seem to make their homes in barns, stables or other outbuildings.
They are a bit like the Scots brownie, or boggart, in that they are generally benevolant and even helpful to the farmer - particularly where animals are concerned - but they can play tricks or actually cause a lot of trouble if they get offended.
They appear all over everywhere at this time of year! (Shops selling them, cafes, decorations in homes) They are becoming more and more like Santa but more traditionally have grey, natural, black or brown trousers and boots/clogs with a splash of red somewhere and always a red pointed hat.
So! We have a pair of tomtar visiting to check on our Christmas preparations and whether the boys are naughty or nice, and to report back to Santa ... ours live here in the village (I've told the boys that the tomtar move in from the forests in the winter and are found closer to, and sometimes inside, human homes) but they have the passports from Organised Christmas suitably adjusted to let them travel to the North Pole for meetings, training courses, or to make reports to Santa!
Looking forward to learning from those of you who have done this before, and reading all the adventures of your elves!
Helen (and Robin and Joseph)
I have recently found out about the visiting Christmas Elves and couldn't wait to introduce them! We are a British family living in Sweden and the Swedes already have resident elves ... so I'm going to mixing in as much as possible of the local traditions!
The tomte (singular) tomtar (plural) are the elves of the land, the actual plot of land your home is on ... Wiki suugests that they are linked to the spirit of the person who first settled the land. They are sometimes also considered forest elves, but usually seem to make their homes in barns, stables or other outbuildings.
They are a bit like the Scots brownie, or boggart, in that they are generally benevolant and even helpful to the farmer - particularly where animals are concerned - but they can play tricks or actually cause a lot of trouble if they get offended.
They appear all over everywhere at this time of year! (Shops selling them, cafes, decorations in homes) They are becoming more and more like Santa but more traditionally have grey, natural, black or brown trousers and boots/clogs with a splash of red somewhere and always a red pointed hat.
So! We have a pair of tomtar visiting to check on our Christmas preparations and whether the boys are naughty or nice, and to report back to Santa ... ours live here in the village (I've told the boys that the tomtar move in from the forests in the winter and are found closer to, and sometimes inside, human homes) but they have the passports from Organised Christmas suitably adjusted to let them travel to the North Pole for meetings, training courses, or to make reports to Santa!
Looking forward to learning from those of you who have done this before, and reading all the adventures of your elves!
Helen (and Robin and Joseph)
