Every December for over 30 years, I have done a program called “Festival of Lights” which highlights beautiful holiday traditions worldwide. All people seem to crave lights and the brightness of smiles to break through the winter gloom.
Many individuals and families have shared their unique traditions with me, plus I have done extensive research. My files are overflowing. But the latest tradition I recently discovered is so bizarre it made me laugh out loud when I read about it. So what is this extremely popular Christmas tradition? It’s none other than Donald Duck.
In Sweden at 3:00 PM on December 24, half of the entire population will be glued to their televisions for one hour. They all will be watching the same program, a 1958 Christmas special from Walt Disney, “From All of Us to All of You”. In Sweden it is called, “Kalle Anka och hans vänner önskar God Jul”. That translates to “Donald Duck and His Friends Wish You a Merry Christmas”.
It all started in 1959 when TV was new and Sweden only had one channel. No other American cartoons were aired at that time. The Swedish population was enchanted by Disney and has remained so every year since. This mass viewing is thoroughly ingrained in Swedish culture and is honored with a display in Stockholm”s Nordic Museum.
“Kalle Anka” consists of Jiminy Cricket presenting “Silly Symphony” shorts and clips from Disney classics like Snow White, Cinderella, Bambi and the Jungle Book. Each year, one new snippet from a current Disney movie is aired, but the show is essentially a nostalgia trip on steroids.
The Swedish people take “Kalle Anka” seriously. Several attempts by the network to cancel the show (mostly because of excessive violence in the cartoons) have been met with public outrage. The viewing time is so sacred that a curator at the Nordic Museum states, “at 3:00 in the afternoon, you can’t do anything else, because Sweden is closed”.
I am a believer in traditions, even crazy ones such as this. Whenever a nation comes together for one happy event, that’s a good thing. The man who gives Jiminy Cricket his Swedish voice says, “like a fairytale when we were kids, there’s something familiar. Kalle Anka offers security in a confusing world”.
Who doesn’t need that at this moment?
The Swedish version of this would be more fun, but Disney blocks the copyrighted rebroadcasts of Kalle Anka on Christmas Eve to American viewers… as far as I and my computer guru can determine. If you can find the Swedish version that can be shared, let me know.
Thanks for some positive reinforcement at Christmas. [I was afraid for a moment
that the “Donald” might be someone else. Donald Duck is so positive.]
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year’s.
Jim
Merry Christmas to both of you. Yes, we all need to work hard to find all the positive news we can. But there is always some to be found!