Book:
Peter and Lotta’s Christmas by Elsa Beskow
2002, Floris Books

Day 4 is Peter and Lotta’s Christmas.  This book is by Swedish author Elsa Beskow.  It’s about two children named Peter and Lotta who go to live with their aunts and uncle.  While there they experience their first proper Christmas.

The story is actually quite long for a picture book and covers two Christmases  and the year in between.  On their first Christmas Peter and Lotta don’t know anything about the holiday or its customs, so they are very excited about the Christmas tree, getting gifts, etc.  They are, however, very frightened by the Christmas Goat!

For anyone not familiar with the Christmas Goat or Yule Goat, you can read about it here.  It is certainly nice to have a story which examines  Christmas traditions which are somewhat different from the ones we usually see portrayed.  Because Peter and Lotta don’t know that the Christmas Goat is actually just their Uncle Blue dressed up, they are told a fairytale which causes them to go on some interesting adventures over the next year.

First Christmas

By their second Christmas the children have learned a lot.  They are no longer afraid of the Christmas Goat and learn who he is.  However, they enjoy this Christmas even more than the first, because this year they got to give gifts as well as receive them.

 

 

Peter and Lotta’s Christmas is a real treat, especially for Elsa Beskow fans.  It has her classic illustrations and lots of lovely details about rural Swedish life in this time period.  Because of this it is not a quick read, and is a bit like the Little House on the Prarie Books in that it is a detailed depiction of daily life.  The description of how the children made presents for their family is particularly nice.

As you can see from the illustration, Peter and Lotta have cake, saffron buns, and pepparkakor at Christmas.  We only had some zimtsterne, which are not Swedish but have all the right spices, and really any gingerbread would do.  Yule Goat is optional.