Not everyone looks forward to Christmas. The single mother who cannot afford to buy presents. The child who knows his or her parents will drink too much and fight their way through Christmas. The child swimming in presents but gasping for love from distant though present parents.
Read an article by Eva Franchell* on the
Nordic Council site that made me reflect for a moment.
Her piece is titled
Three images of Sweden just before Christmas 2009.
Rosengård on the outskirts of Malmö - Children living in misery and pure poverty. Cockroaches and mold. Ten people in a two-bedroom flat. 10% of Swedish children are considered poor** - in Rosengård it is 60%
***.Nyfors, Eskilstuna - Young people looking for jobs that are not to be found. 7% unemployment. Young people start their life as adults with a trip to the welfare office. Or resort to crime.
Stureplan, Stockholm - A handbag still costs over 10,000 SEK (920 euros). The international crisis is not to be seen. The shops are expecting record sales also this Christmas.
Eva writes that the market analysts in Stockholm are saying that the crisis is over. But, she continues, for many people around Sweden it has just begun. The share of Swedes on welfare benefits has increased with 20% compared to last year - but most of them do not live in Stockholm, at least not in the centre, instead they live in industrial towns where some companies, usually those supplying other, bigger industries, have had to close or lay off workers. The municipalities have received their share of the national rescue package but often it is only enough to cover the additional welfare benefits expenses.
Eva makes the issue political - and rightly so; politics is about people's different views about people and society - but I'm not going to do that today. I just want to highlight that there are people even in Sweden, both before and after the economic crisis, who are not that well off and could do with some help. And what better time than Christmas to think of a fellow human being. Because I do believe that we're all the same deep down irrespective of where we live, in the rich suburb or on the street. We all have the same needs to eat, sleep and love.
So, buy some presents for your loved ones as you usually do - I will - but for every gift you buy, send a thought to those less fortunate in society and preferably a monetary gift too.
For example, to/through
Stadsmissionen:
Or Rädda Barnen:
* Probably most known as the best friend of Anna Lindh, the Swedish Foreign Minister who was murdered in 2003
** This is in an international comparison very low but it doesn't make their plight more bearable.
*** But there is also hope in Rosengård. The now world-famous footballer Zlatan comes from Rosengård. But, as Eva rightly points out, Zlatan is not only a symbol of hope and success despite humble origins; but also of growing inequalities between rich and poor
Show & Tell
I should also say that Nilla is our Show & Tell hostess for December. You can see the rest of her topics in one of the right-hand column.
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Secret Santa, aka Lala i Umeå, sent me this nice Christmas gift - tea and a muffins baking kit. Thanks (a bit belatedly)!!
I made some homemade pickled herring, a first for me! I have always thought it was difficult but it wasn't at all! I will definitely pickle again for Easter or Midsummer!
Herring pre-pickle
I tried two kinds of orange and cinnamon /or/ ginger pickle recipes
This is the first year we have our own Christmas tree
The tree at my parents' house and this year's collection of presents
Lots of them! 
Peter arrived from lunch at his parents in time for presents. I was "tomte" and passed on the presents from their slightly hidden place under the tree and behind the sofa, usually to Dad first who then passed it on to the right recipient (I'm a lazy Santa...) 
Belgian beer goes well with Christmas presents; Dad, Granddad and Peter drank most it though while the rest of us had julmust 
Peter was very happy for one of his Christmas presents, maybe it was Guitar Hero 5 for Wii, my present to him (in addition to tickets to Raw Comedy), or the Martini glasses from my parents
Time to eat! From left: Peter, my grandfather, by brother, my mum and my dad
"My" herring
The birds were also fed
Lunch on Christmas Day - still at my parents. In the evening we had dinner at Peter's parents' apartment together with his sister, her fiance, their uncle and two cousins, but the pictures didn't turn out :( 
