As promised, here is a short presentation of Jenny Nyström. She is the Queen of the Swedish tomte, the gnome that delivers the Christmas presents and just slightly resembles the Anglo-American Santa Claus. When Nyström created this character she was influenced by the folklore house gnome, that took care of a household if the family treated him nice — otherwise, things turned bad. This figure was grey, almost invisible and quite moody, if not plain angry. Nyström infused him with the Santa Clauses of Germany, Netherlands and Britain, and also with porcelain garden gnomes from Germany and Italy. So, on Christmas Eve it is this small, colorful and cheerful tomte that delivers presents to Swedish kids of all ages. He loves animals of all kinds, plays with children and help with the decorations. He works with many other tomtar, as they live together in large (mostly male) communities.

Jenny Nyström's tomte became popular nationwide since her illustrations were common in the new media of Christmas magazines for children at the turn of the century 1900. She did about 250 covers of different magazines. Today she is most famous for her Christmas cards, and from her first originals in 1898 until her death in 1946 she is believed to have made c. 3000 original paintings for these postcards. No wonder she made us believe!

In the next issue of RIG (2013:4) due in mid-January, you can read more about visual representations of Christmas celebrations in my peer-reviewed (Swedish) article: "Julfirandets ideologi och genus i svensk bildkonst från sekelskiftet 1900: Elsa Beskow, Carl Larsson och Jenny Nyström"(Ideology and gender of Christmas celebrations in Swedish art from turn of the century 1900).

With that I wish you all a Mary Christmas with a Nativity scene from the baptismal font of Grötlingbo church in Gotland. I will be back with new posts in the new year.

I quite enjoy December, even if it is dark and (occasionally) cold. Decorations and lights brightens up my day and I simply cannot resist the kitschiness of Christmas. It is also a season for annual public lectures, and I have two versions that I keep returning to since a couple of years. One is connected to the Imitatio Mariae-project and concerns images of the Nativity and the Three Magi. It focusses on the development of the visual representations of the Christmas story and its various contents and characters. But this year that particular lecture is hibernating.

My other public lecture in the December collection concerns visual representations of Swedish Christmas celebrations. At first it was a lecture I held with a colleague from literary studies under the title The Man in Red, where we used gender perspectives in the analysis of Christmas and Santa Claus in art, film and literature. Now I have dropped the title for two reasons: 1) there are not that many Santas (or tomtar as this figures is called in Swedish) in artworks, and 2) our witty intention caused some confusion as the audience did not seem to know about The Man in Black: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXRmJyIyJbM&noredirect=1.

The visual representations of Christmas celebrations are a vital part of celebration itself and particularly illustrations from the turn of the century 1900 is crucial in creating our understanding of "a real Swedish Christmas". It is a commercial, modern, aesthetic, nationalistic and urban understanding of a rural past, where the patriarchal father figure is compared with the farmer as the superior provider of all material goods for his family. Basically it is dad's money that makes Christmas possible, and mom's hard labour with food preparations, cleaning and decorating the house is kept in the dark.

The above image is an illustration from the book Spadarvet (1905), that was also the name of a small farm owned by the artist Carl Larsson. In the book one can follow the life on the farm during a year, and it ends with the feast of Christmas Eve. You can see a decorated Christmas tree in the background, but it is the laid table with food and particularly all the silver ware that are in focus. A veritable triumph of the farm and farmer (born an urban man). He really does not need a Santa Claus to satisfy his family!

Hopefully I can tell you the story of the Swedish tomte and its creator, Jenny Nyström, in a blog post before Christmas...

Today (in Sweden at least) we celebrate Saint Anna (or Anne), mother of the Virgin Mary and grandmother of Jesus Christ, so I post a quick post of this particular figure. Her story became popular during the Middle Ages with the increase interest of the Virgin when stories of Mary´s family was invented. This sculpture from the parish church of Skellefteå is an example of a common depiction of Anna. It is called Anna-själv-tredje in Swedish from the German Anna selbdritt (also known as Metterza in Italian), but I actually do not know if there is an English name for it. Please tell me if you know.

It shows Saint Anna holding both the crowned Virgin and baby Jesus in her arms. In this particular model mother and son is holding hands over Anna's chest, almost creating a heart-shaped form. If it is a heart it should be read as the love of God and the Salvation made possible through all three. There are variations in the Anna-själv-tredje, but this type can also be found in other regions of Sweden.

Saint Anna is patron saint for unmarried women, housewives, women in labour, grandmothers and more. She is celebrated in the Western church also at 26 July. But Anna-day, 9 December, is also part of folklore traditions concerning Christmas celebrations in Sweden. This is the day when the Christmas beer should be ready and when a particular fish dish (lutfisk) is starting to be prepared.