I think I have checked Once Upon a Christmas Time out of the library almost every Christmas since 1983 - it's a favorite little retelling of Christmases in Sweden at the turn of the 20th century. And back then, no doubt, Christmases had been celebrated much the same over the years.

A perfect children's book retelling Swedish Christmases of long ago is Astrid Lindgren's classic Christmas in Noisy Village. The two go hand-in-hand.

new to us this year, very good, scandinavian christmas stories