by Noella Noelophile®
(Graphic ©2015 by Sanna Wilkinson, , and used with permission.)
Gingerbread, saffron bread, dancing around the Christmas tree, crafts and games.
Sound tempting? You’re invited to experience all of the above, this Sunday, December 13th, as SWEA Los Angeles’ thirty-sixth Annual Swedish Christmas Fair comes to its new location in Torrance!
Vendors will be on hand, offering Swedish handcrafted gifts. There will be a children’s corner, with crafts (and Santa, of course!). Best of all, there will be two performances of the traditional candlelit “Lucia pageant”–with a choir procession and traditional Swedish music.
And it all started with a gifted organizer who missed the culture of her native Sweden.
(Graphic ©2015 by Sanna Wilkinson, and used with permission.)
Swedish Women’s Education Association International Founder and Chairman Emeritus Agneta Nilsson came to the U.S. from Stockholm as a newlywed in 1963. According to an article in the program for SWEA Los Angeles’ 2014 Christmas Fair, Nilsson had had the idea of starting a club for Swedish women married to non-Swedes, to preserve her native tongue.
So, when a friend called Nilsson in 1978 to ask if she could stage a Swedish Christmas fair in December, that request proved the catalyst to achieving her goal.
That first Christmas fair, held in the Pacific Design Center of Los Angeles, was hugely successful. The event raised sufficient funds for Nilsson to start Swedish Women’s Educational Association International–a global nonprofit network for Swedish-speaking women who live or have lived abroad–in March of 1979.
And as they celebrate their culture at Christmastime, you’re cordially invited to come and experience Christmas in Sweden–without the jet lag!
SWEA Los Angeles’ thirty-sixth annual Christmas Fair happens Sunday, December 13th, from 10 am to 5 pm in the Ken Miller Auditorium of Torrance Cultural Arts Center, 3350 Civic Center Drive, at Madrona, in Torrance. Parking is free; donation $10 for adults, with children under 12 admitted free. The Lucia Pageant takes place at noon, and at 3:00 pm.