Tuesday, December 18, 2012

From Slate: Sweden's Bizarre Tradition of Watching Donald Duck Cartoons on Christmas Eve

Via John Walkenbach on Google+, an article from Slate from a couple of years ago about the fact that on Christmas Eve in Sweden at 3:00 pm about 1/2 the total population watches a Disney special: Kalle Anka och hans vänner önskar God Jul (literally "Donald Duck and his friends wish you a Merry Christmas" though the English version is known as From All of Us to All of You").
Kalle Anka, for short, has been airing without commercial interruption at the same time on Sweden's main public-television channel, TV1, on Christmas Eve (when Swedes traditionally celebrate the holiday) since 1959. The show consists of Jiminy Cricket presenting about a dozen Disney cartoons from the '30s, '40s, '50s, and '60s, only a couple of which have anything to do with Christmas. There are "Silly Symphonies" shorts and clips from films like Cinderella, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, and The Jungle Book. The special is pretty much the same every year, except for the live introduction by a host (who plays the role of Walt Disney from the original Walt Disney Presents series) and the annual addition of one new snippet from the latest Disney-produced movie, which TV1's parent network, SVT, is contractually obligated by Disney to air.
It's actually not just a Swedish tradition. From All of Us to All of You is also popular in Norway, Finland, and Denmark; indeed, Donald Duck is sort of to nordic countries as Jerry Lewis is to France or David Hasselhoff is to Germany.

Here's the introduction (1 minute long):

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