Skansen Part I

 

 

If you ever visit Stockholm on one of the weekends in December I would totally recommend that you visit Skansen for the Christmas market. I’ve been wanting to go there again for ages but haven’t gotten around to it until this past weekend.

 

 

Skansen is our open air museum and zoo and it’s a beautiful spot to visit any time of the year but it’s particularly nice during the Christmas season. I do advise you to be there early when they open at 10 AM because by lunchtime the place is packed.

 

 

Skansen is quite a big attraction and you can easily spend a whole day there but Sanna and I  skipped the zoo part and turned our attention to the market and the town block. The town block is where there are genuine salvaged houses that have been moved to Skansen from different parts of Sweden and they form like a little town quarter with cobbled streets between them. You can go inside and there are re-enactors  who play the parts of the people either living in the houses or working in them.

 

 

It was pretty cold and windy the day we went, –5 C, so it was wonderful to enter the houses where it was nice and warm with real fires in the fireplaces. Where possible things are authentic at Skansen so the smell of the fires in the work shops, the aromas of the spices in the pharmacy, the baked goods in the bakery, the tarred  string in the hardware store etc were so cozy and inviting and so Christmassy. I wish this were smellavision so you could experience the houses we visited like we did.

 

My favorite store in te town quarter is the grocery store as you can imagine. The white exterior with green accents, the simple but Christmassy window display, the white tiles. Love it.

 

The little post office with living quarters attached really got me into Christmas mode. More on Skansen and the Christmas market itself in a couple of days!

Comments

[Diana]

Hello Benita, Happy Christmas. How wonderful to see your long post - I miss your old posts that I would devour daily. Thank you!
Diana from San Francisco

[MelD]

Love this - whenever I finally get to Stockholm you can be sure that's where I'll be!

Although as Swiss we object to being mixed up with Swedish, it still amuses me to see the similarities, especially historically LOL maybe it has to do with neutralism haha!!

We have something like this in central Switzerland called Ballenberg, though I think it's closed in the winter - Christmas there would be beautiful. There's something about the simple, minimalist life in these historical places...

[Irene]

Thank you for this lovely post.

[Anne]

Oh, maybe I will try to got there as well this year. I have always loved Skansen! I actually got engaged there long time ago (and it was December and all christmasy), the marriage didn't last but my love for Skansen remains untouched.

[jja]

Everything looks so nice!:-) This really would be a reason to visit Stockholm in a cold season. What I never considered before.
We have something similar but much smaller in Germany in the area where I live, only in the woods next to the city. With amazing Erntedankfest, Easter celebration, Christmas market, also originated from different parts of Germany and moved all to one place...also with some domestic animals walking around...

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/99/Hessenpark_08-01.2.JPG

http://static.panoramio.com/photos/original/402665.jpg

http://www.goldenergrund.org/portal/foto/ausflug/2004_04_12_005_lahn_dill_ohm_60.jpg

http://imageshack.us/a/img355/3051/hessenpark045lg.jpg

[Sandy (USA)]

Smellavision????!!! Oh my goodness Benita ... you made me laugh out loud while sitting at my desk at work. Here I am trying to be discreet and you throw that in there. You're too funny! Love everything about your blog. Thanks for the laugh.

[Leena]

I have visited skanssen when I was a kid and I loved the zoo, but did not really enjoy the museum back then. I should visit again now as an adult, I bet I would appreciate it much more not.

[Leena]

Not=now. Ups.

[rakefet]

Skansen is AMAZING. We have visited there last year in the summer and it was an amazing expiriance. There was also a map of Palestine look in the classroom ( if you looked through the window). Also we have met there a woman in the little Gardner's house that has a family that live near us in Israel. It was a fun day.

[Erin]

Oh! I want to go! I really love this kind of thing and really enjoyed the post!

[Sol]

On my list for next December maybe. Lovely pictures. Cant wait for the next post

[Kristen B]

I LOVE this post. Great photos. I love looking at packaging (old and new) from other countries. The old general store with all the hardware and enamel kitchen items looks lovely!

[Jill]

Thank you Benita! This is just what I imagine Christmas to be. I wish I could go there now!

[Kelly]

Looks like a wonderful place to visit! This may be a silly question but in the last photo what does the art on the wall say? I'm Canadian and tried to google translate it!

[Sarfik]

Wonderful post. I enjoyed looking at all the photos. So beautiful! Thank you for sharing it!

[Carlos]

Kelly - It says "God is Love".

[gail]

Thank you so much for these beautiful photos!

[Dusa]

I'm in love with all these images. Question? In the picture with the large wrapped gift and the radio, is that a handicraft fabric basket with a wooden frame?

[Benita - Chez Larsson]

Dusa - I don't remember and I can't tell from the photo but it sure could be!

[qlka]

What a great place!
Thank you for sharing.
Greetings!

[enannanhelena]

Hm, har för mig att jag skrev en kommentar här, men jag ser den inte? Jaja, den kanske hamnade någonannanstans. Hursom helst så ville jag mest tacka för fina nostalgiska och stämningsfulla bilder. Längtar intensivt efter Skansen när jag ser dem! Får väl bli ett kompensationsbesök på någon lokal julmarknad i helgen kanske. Synd att Stockholm ligger en bit för långt bort. För en dagstur alltså.

/helena

[Emma]

I love your pictures throught them I feel myself there . Thanks for sharing

[Catherine]

Oh, I really want to go here now! Looks just like something me and my sister's would absolutely love.