Christmas in Noisy Village

From Merry Christmas in the cottage

The Christmases of my childhood – were they really as glorious and bright as I remember them? Yes, I suppose they were, otherwise why would I depict them so vividly in my books, whether they are set in Noisy Village or Villa Villekulla or some other place. My Christmases in the first decades of this century were spent as a farm kid at home in Småland on a farm called Näs. There I had it all: baking gingerbread, collecting the Christmas tree, the Christmas corn sheaves outside the window, the Christmas washing and baking, all the blessed Christmas food, ham and ribs and traditional curd cakes, Dad reading the Christmas gospel and always sticking to Quirinius, Mum singing ‘Hail Christmas Eve, gloriously clear’, the Christmas presents, which were not particularly numerous or expensive but still – what a joy! And the Christmas parties, the Christmas games with our cousins, the sleigh rides home in the dark night. I must have had some kind of Christmas poison in my veins because the memories linger so long.’ From Merry Christmas! Astrid Lindgren’s most beloved Christmas stories by Astrid Lindgren