When the Tomten Come Down - Grandparents.com

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Molly O'Neill is our Food Editor. She is the former food columnist for The New York Times Magazine. O'Neill is the author of three cookbooks, including the best-selling New York Cookbook (Workman Publishing, 1992), A Well Seasoned Appetite (Penguin, 1997), and The Pleasure of Your Company (Viking, 1997). She was the host of the PBS series Great Food, and edited the critically acclaimed anthology American Food Writing (Library of America, 2007). Her latest work, Mostly True: A Memoir of Family, Food, and Baseball (Scribner, 2006), recounts her childhood of growing up in a Major-League baseball family.

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by Molly O'Neill

The American Swedish Institute is located in an immense neo-Gothic mansion that took 200 twentieth century craftsmen four years to build. Under snow, its turrets, arches and towers make the place look like Gingerbread palace. Every year in early December, the scent of caramelizing sugar, toasting nuts and ginger begins filling all its nooks and crannies, the surest sign that the Christmas season has begun.

Tomte are mischievous little elves who live in attics, cellars, and seldom-visited closets. Their presence is felt — an upturned milk pail, a sock that’s wandered from its drawer — but rarely seen. On the first Saturday in December, grandparents bring their grandchildren to the Swedish Institute for a party that is designed to lure the tomte from their lair.

Tomte have a weakness for rich desserts, so a very special rice pudding is set out at the foot of the Christmas tree. Toddlers and young children, many dressed in red velvet dresses or knickers, and some in traditional Swedish vests and pantaloons, crane their necks at any approaching footstep.

Finally, after a little smorgasboard and a few rounds of Swedish folk songs, the lights dim and they appear. They carry large wooden spoons in their belts and scurry directly toward the bait. The children squeal and the Tomte realize, with a jolt, that they are not alone.

Charlie Jahn, a grandfather of two, has played the lead Tomte for over a decade. With his long beard and red knit cap, he looks like a cross between Santa and a Leprechaun. “But, as we all know, the tomte and Santa are not alike,” Charlie says, “The tomte are brats, and Santa is nothing but good.”

Mr. Jahn relishes his role. He’s studied the works that popularized the elves — folk art, fairy tales and Astrid Lindgren’s The Tomten.

Crying “god Jul!” (“Merry Christmas” in Swedish), Mr. Jahn and his helpers distribute wooden Tomte coins and sweets to the children. They read stories, lead the crowd in folk dancing and call for more rice pudding.

And no wonder: it’s no ordinary pudding. Thickened with whipped cream and almonds, this is a pudding that could pull anyone out of hiding.

And then, just as suddenly as they appeared, the tomte are gone. The children’s eyes are still as round and large as the Tomte coins in their hands.