Time for Tomte

Published 20 December 06 01:18 PM | wayne.griffiths 

Whilst I had been getting into the Jul spirit here in Sweden with my advent calendar, furious writing of "God Jul" cards to some of the students here, and the seven-candle light display, I had also heard mention of this Tomte fellow. I didn't know what it was all about, but thankfully Paul O'Mahony at thelocal.se was able to answer my questions. You can read the article at http://www.thelocal.se/5842/20061218/.

Since I'm leaving here tomorrow, I'm going to have to cheat and open all the remaining doors on my advent calendar tonight! But I consider it as my reward for getting my first draft finished. Although I'm so glad to be going home, I think I will miss being here in the heart of the Garden of Sweden.

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Comments

# Sanna said on December 20, 2006 9:27 PM:

"No, (The Yule Tomte) usually knocks on the door a few minutes after dad has gone out to buy the newspaper on Christmas Eve."

Our Joulupukki always arrived just after Dad had gone out to hold the reindeer for him. :-)

Every single year we'd have to "sing or recite a poem" for Joulupukki before we got our presents. The older we got and the less we believed in magical old men of gift-giving fame, the more we were convinced our parents hated us.

One of the best things about Christmas was that the food was not put away - the whole idea of Christmas eve is that you can get up at any time of the night and eat, it was like the law of Christmas. You also sort of had to, because Joulupukki never arrived until after dinner - so we were of course very fidgety eaters for that evening, and desperately needed a decent meal at midnight.

...what will your blog be called once you leave Sweden? ...Or worse, graduate?

# wayne.griffiths said on December 20, 2006 11:47 PM:

Ummm I hadn't thought about that....maybe Thesis-related Paraphernalia from Australia? I haven't decided yet.

"Hold the reindeer". How cute. I can just imagine it in a movie (perhaps something to The Santa Clause) where the Dad goes out, actually does hold the reindeer, but the reindeer get impatient (maybe the battery in Rudolph's nose needs replacing?) and decide to whisk the Dad away on their world tour instead of Joulupukki, who is then stuck with the rest of the family.

I think that would be the ultimate episode of "Crash Test Mommy" or "Wife (husband) Swap".

I think my imagination is getting too carried away, or maybe it's because I'm tired.

# Sanna said on December 21, 2006 9:48 AM:

Oooh, yes - and the family would have to join forces with the real Santa to find Dad, and that would be a bit tricky because they can't achieve anything until the very difficult 15-year-old goth daughter believes in the magic of Christmas again. Somewhere along the way the shy 10-year-old son stands up to his bullies, the mother and the mother-in-law make up after years of snidey comments about each other and decide that if they work together they can create the best Christmas  feast, ever! ...somehow they get Dad back, everyone's happy and a bit wiser, roll credits.

# Krys.Haq said on December 21, 2006 1:22 PM:

I have a great idea for you two post-PhD - Script writers for Hollywood holiday movies with enough imagination to change the formula.

# wayne.griffiths said on January 4, 2007 2:11 PM:

Yes Sanna, I think you should make that phone call to Sony Pictures Entertainment, and see if they know anyone who's got an opening as a script writer (probably a bit much to expect a directorial job straight up, but you never know). You'd be great at it. I haven't seen The Santa Clause 3, so I don't know if there is scope for it, but perhaps this could be the outline of "The Santa Clause 4: Tomte in Trouble", with the slogan "Jul be back for more" or similar.

# Sanna said on January 9, 2007 4:26 PM:

As long as you come up with the slogans, I think we'll have a marketable product on our hands. :-)

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About wayne.griffiths

I started at UWA in 1997, completing a Diploma in Modern Languages (Italian) in 1999. By 2001, I had completed a Bachelor of Computing and Mathematics degree with Honours. In 2002, I worked part-time in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics. From 2003 to 2007, I studied for the qualification of PhD in Electrical Engineering at the Western Australian Telecommunications Research Institute (WATRI). My thesis title is "On A Posteriori Probability Decoding of Linear Block Codes over Discrete Channels", and it is currently under examination.