Sweden Coloring Pages
In Stockholm the winter sun is up for just over six hours a day, and in June it stays up for more than eighteen. All that darkness makes Swedes very good at cosy things, like candles in every window and stories about a little farm spirit who stays up all night.
Jump to: Christmas in Sweden | The Dala Horse | Swedish Animals
Christmas in Sweden
Swedes fight the winter dark with light. All through Advent, the weeks before Christmas, windows glow with candles and star-shaped lanterns. Up in the far north, the town of Kiruna doesn't see the sun rise for about three weeks around midwinter.
In Sweden, Santa Claus began life as a tomte, a tiny farm spirit with a long beard who kept watch over the barn at night. A poem and a painter turned him into the Christmas gift bringer, and his story comes with a Yule goat and a hungry fox...
Swedish Animals
Sweden hasn't officially picked a national animal, but Swedes keep voting for the moose. There are more moose here for the size of the country than anywhere else in the world, and they're strong swimmers, so a couple have even swum across the sea to Denmark.
The brown bear is Sweden's biggest predator, and its cubs are born in the middle of winter while their mother sleeps in the den. They're about the size of a guinea pig, and they stay snug in there until spring.
Swedish families dance around the Christmas tree singing Räven raskar över isen, which means The Fox Runs Across the Ice. It's a dance game, and the verses have everyone acting out different people, like the baker and the chimney sweep.
The Swedish Vallhund nearly disappeared in the 1940s. Two dog lovers went looking for the last ones on farms in southern Sweden and helped rebuild the breed, and the Swedish Kennel Club recognised it in 1943.
