Ett Hem

I knew the minute I saw this, it would have to be something from Carl Larsson. Christmas for me is Sweden. And Sweden is Carl Larsson. Growing up in Sweden, when Christmas was always white, and the tomte would be sneaking around leaving no trace in the snow, checking up on boys and girls to see who had been good and who had been naughty. Candles would be lit in every window and men would be on rooftops shoveling off the snow. We would ski to school and skate on the flooded football pitch at the end of the day before going home for spiced gingerbread and hot chocolate.

Somewhere in our house in Sweden, I don't remember where exactly, was this Larsson print of the little girl on the 'spark' - the sort of sleigh thing you sometimes see the Same using in Lapland - a chair on blades basically. We had hours of fun on ours (usually pretending it was a horse), as well as using it for trips to the shop or as a buggy when my little legs were too tired to walk in the snow. And whenever I see this picture now I can smell the crisp freshly fallen snow on Christmas morning in our garden in Sweden and I can hear the metal of the blades on the spark cutting into the perfect surface. I can feel the swish of it under my arms and legs as my sister and I lay on our backs making snow angels, swallowing the gigantic snowflakes that fell onto our tongues.

In Sweden Christmas is a family time, a time for the children and a time for eating. I also remember it as a time for getting out into nature and a time to dance around the neighbour's Christmas trees (could take a long time if you lived on a long street!). But at the end of the day, the family returns and settles around the candles and the warmth of the home. And it is perhaps this that is the essence of what the Christmas spirit is for me. That miracle of somehow managing to get the whole family together in the same place, yet not with the pressure of having to 'do' anything in particular. I think this final Larsson picture sums up what I mean - they are all in the same room. They are all, more or less, sat at the same table. But they are engaged in their own pursuits, there is no pressure to take part in the card game. There is no pressure on them to perform or do anything to show their commitment to the family unit. Their very presence is enough to say 'I care'.

Carl Larsson may have produced some of the most wonderfully evocative portrayals of Swedish life, but he was also unwittingly the catalyst behind IKEA. In 1899 he published 'Ett Hem' - a home. He was a bit of a Lawrence Llewelyn Bowen of his day - an interior designer and artist, with a mission to show the world his perfect family home, but instead of going on Living TV to do it, he published a delightful collection of prints depicting his family life in 'Ett Hem'. The Swedish populace took him to heart, a nation styled its homes Larsson-style and this model of Swedish interior design became ingrained on the global psyche as utterly and typically 'Sweden'. It was but a short step to IKEA...

The house is now a museum and IKEA a legend. Perhaps a longer legacy than our Lawrence might manage..!

So as the nation settles down around it's IKEA flat-packs this Christmas, plugs in the triangular advent candle lights they all bought from IKEA (originated in Sweden also!), I hope it doesn't turn out to be a time of squabbles and family rows - the result of unrealistic expectations about how amazing Christmas is meant to be - but a time to just sit and reflect that we care enough simply to be there. And I'm not religious, but isn't that what the three kings and all the rest of it was about? They cared enough to be there to celebrate the birth of that little baby.

If you liked those Carl Larsson prints, check out more HERE... and have yourself a very merry Christmas!