| Christmas has always been a very special time of year for me and I have always liked making my own cards and table-decorations, but since a few years I have added the making of tree-decorations to my "repertoire" so to speak. Another thing of which I have made an acquantance with while in Denmark is something called a "nisse". Most people know elfs, Santa's little helpers, I guess that that is the closest thing you can come to with a "translation", eventhough it's the furthest you can get from the truth. Nisser are around all year, they live on farms, in houses anywhere where there are people, though there are also nisser that keep to forests and other places away from people. The nisser that live with people, live with them in secret and they usually help out. Unless you don't treat them well, then they will taunt you, make things go lost and tease the people and animals, as well as make the milk go sour . The best way to treat a nisse is to basically take good care of it, and occasionally give it it's favorite food: "risengrød" (rice-porridge with cinnamon and butter). The ones you see around christmas wear very bright clothes, but otherwise they tend to wear earth colors and they always wear a pointy hat and they love to have fun. They have become somewhat of a part of the christmas inventory in Denmark, and there are very few houses that don't have at least one nisse with their decorations |
