Tomte

I've been meaning to post pictures of my Tomtes for ages and when Wendy posted about Swedish Christmas last week, I went into action.  Okay, not really.  After a couple of days I talked Pete into taking pictures for me, and now 3 days after that I'm finally posting. 

That picture up top is our biggest Tomte and he sits on the mantle.  Notice his lovely sweater! (which I did not knit.)  So, you're probably asking what a Tomte (or tomten) is.  Well, I found a definition of Tomte here and I found more Tomte info here.  But basically they are little elves that live in your house (on your farm. . . under the house. . .) and they are sometimes thought of as Santa or Santa's helpers.  Oh yeah, and they are Scandinavian.  Here's another. . .

This guy is a little smaller and more freindly looking! than the first one.  Our niece used to be scared of the Tomte in my in-laws house (he looked like the first one up there).

Then there are these little wooden tomtes (here's a website that sells all kinds of them) that come in all varieties.  The tall hat guy is Pete's and was given to him by a family friend years ago.  And here's mine. . .

We bought this a few weeks ago when we went up to Andersonville in Chicago.  While there we ate Swedish pankcakes with lingonberries at Svea and got lots of goodies from the Swedish Bakery. 

I must admit that I only have a touch of Norwegian in me.  However, Pete is almost entirely Swedish and I have loved learning about the Swedish heritage. 

And if you want a cute children's book about a Tomten  check out The Tomten by Astrid Lindgren it's one of Maddie's favorites!

Comments

[Lynn]

We love The Tomten book here too. DD's kindy teacher does it every winter and the kids make felted tomten beards at the end of the week after doing the story. I'm not sure when she's planning on doing them this year, but I'm looking forward to it.

[Wendy]

Thanks for the tomte photos! I love the little sweaters a couple of them are wearing!

Mmmmmmmm . . . lingonberries!

[Prudent Purl]

I enjoyed the pictures. I have not heard of Tomte before, thanks for sharing. I hope you are healing up nicely.

[Kati]

I love your elves or should I say tomtes. Nice to hear that your hubby is almost entirely Swedish. Sweden is next to Finland or Finland is next to Sweden here in nordic Europe. And I live in Finland. Yeay! :)

I´ve been reading your blog for a while now. And as inspired by you and couple of finnish bloggers I started my own also...

Btw, I love your Boogabag pattern. I have done already one, it waits just felting. And I have the yarn already for another.

[Vera]

Your tomtes are adorable!

I've never heard about these before, and it nice to learn about new things.

[Rachel]

wow! I've never heard of these before. They *are* a little freaky. Kind of like clowns! But cute at the same time. Nifty! Thanks for posting these photos.

[Oslofia]

Hi, nice tomtes! I'm a Norwegian living with a Swedish guy in Sweden...so when I saw your tomtes I just had to tell you what tomtes are called in Norwegian...if you don't know it already. Tomte is called Julenisse =)

[Tanya]

I love Lingonberries. I finally found some at a gourmet shop and stocked up at home. I think I'll have to make some swedish pancakes for breakfast tomorrow. YUM!!!

IM

[Thora]

I love the tomtens! You can buy the book and a kit to knit one at Weir Dolls:

http://www.weirdolls.com/knitdoll/knittedkits/kittomten.html

[Melissa]

The town in which I went to college is heavily Norweigan, and (I swear) half the houses in town had a Tomten (or, Julenisse) in one of their windows. It was so cute.

[polly irving]

it's xmas time and
my little red hat people are out. yippie

[Ralph]

Hi,
I am wondering if anyone knows of any clip art of tomtes or other Swedish/Scandinavian clip art. We have probably 100 tomtes which we have been collecting for over forty years.

[cynthia thompson]

Hi- I've been collecting these for tirty years- and am now starting collection for my three children. I'm looking for new and old. thanks so much Cindie