By Andrew Solomon First, advent calendars; then gnomes; then the tree; and then Christmas itself ... a novel festive touch by a Swiss friend with Swedish tastes, had collected more than a hundred ...

Swedish Christmas gnomes are a perfect gift for friends and family back home. Photo: Jurek Holzer/SvD/Scanpix Swedish Christmas decorations are minimalist but 'mysig', with the lights appearing in ...

creating the Christmas Tomten. In the 1880s, Swedish artist Jenny Nystrom drew the jultomten as a white-bearded gnome in a red cone cap, the image now reproduced in everything from china to marzipan.

has been gaining traction in Sweden and has largely claimed the name of 'Tomten', the traditional Swedish 'jultomte' (Christmas gnome) was indeed a little old gnome with a long grey beard. Today ...

Among the abundant Christmas décor, gnomes (nisse in Norwegian, and tomte in Swedish) are bestsellers. There’s a separate needlework room with skeins of yarn, knit sweaters, kids’ clothing ...

By way of background, a major highlight of this pageant comes when my buddy Bob reads the story of The Tomten, a legendary Swedish Christmas gnome the size of a canned ham that creeps around in ...

They’ll also have gifts and decorations available to buy including “tomte,” the popular Swedish Christmas gnome. The event runs from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. each day and costs $30, which includes ...