Merry Everything!

Oh, I love this time of year! It's so nice and festive and this year seems extra nice. It must be the absence of rain, at least here in London. It's a very busy time for us, with Advent, St Lucia and Christmas one after the other. The shop is filled to the brim with cosy, Christmasy stuff. We have Advent candlesticks, St lucia crowns and lights, beautiful napkin rings with angels, traditional clothes for the little ones and all the food you could possibly want for your Christmas table. Come in and see us!

Hark! The Herald Angel Sing
Or at least close enough. We have two fabulously good singers working at the shop, and on the day of St Lucia, Monday the 13th of December at 5pm, we'll have our own Lucia procession (very short!) as well as Gingersnaps and Glögg for you to enjoy. If you are a true Lucia junkie, you probably already had tickets to both Westminster and the Swedish churches, but one can never have enough Lucia! Or maybe this is your first encounter? In any case: Welcome!

Mia and Dagmar are both well established singer, you can read more about them at the end of this letter.

...snow on snow, snow on snow.
We apologise a thousand times to those of you who didn't get your deliveries, or got them very late the other week when the "snow chaos" hit. Courier services are bleak indeed! We had an email from a customer in Swallow Hall outside York. We'd like to share the enclosed photo with you. (see the picture on the homepace under "news") Talk about snow on snow!

Big success in Guildford
A huge thank you to all who came to the market in Guildford earlier in the month. It was a big success and the organisers managed to raise just over £2000, which will go towards building a dedicated teenage cancer centre at The Royal Marsden Hospital in Surrey. This means that when teenagers are diagnosed with cancer instead of being treated on a ward for adults or children they will be treated on a specialist teenage unit tailored to their needs.
If you want to check progress or get involved. Please visit the website at Teenage Cancer Trust

Web Shop closed
Scared you, huh! No, don't worry, we'll only close it for a couple of weeks over Christmas, from December 16th to January 4. The shop on Crawford Street is open as usual until Christmas Eve, and then our hours are:

Christmas Eve 11.00-14.00
Closed 25-28 December
29-31 December open 11.00-15.00
Closed 1-3 January.

Last but not least, we'll leave you with a recipe for scrumptious, Swedish ginger snaps and wish you a very merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. See you in 2011!

Swedish Ginger Snaps
Oven 225°C, Gasmark 6
Ground all whole spices

600g /10dl) plain flour
300g (3,5dl) sugar
250g melted butter
1.25 del whipping cream (use single rather than double if you don't have whipping cream)
125g (1,5dl) dark syrup
7g (1tbsp) Bicarbonate of Soda
7g (1 tpsp) Cinnamon
7g (1 tpsp) Ginger
4g (1 tsp) cloves
4g (1 tsp) cardamom
4g (1 tsp) seville orange

Mix the dry ingredients and then add the rest and mix well.

Divide the dough in two, roll to a sausage shape, cover with cling film and leave in the fridge for at least a week, up to three months

Take out as mush as you need, knead until soft and pliable and roll out directly onto bang paper with a rolling pin. The thinner the better.

Bake in the hot oven until nice eand brown, 3-5 minutes. They are very soft when they come out, so let them cool down on a rack before handling.

This recipe is not good for gingerbread houses.
For extra luxurious snaps, sprinkle flaked almonds on top of the dough before taking out your hearts and stars.

Meet our Singers!
Mia Karlsson is a professional singer/actress, who has played many lead roles in Denmark and Sweden. Her CV includes Christine in "Phantom of the Opera", Belle in "Beauty and the Beast", Cosette in "Les Misérables" and Tuptim in "The King and I", among others. She is also frequently engaged in concerts in Europe. This September she was one of four soloists at Tivoli, Copenhagen, for their prestigious event "The Last Night of the Tivoli Proms" with the Tivoli Orchestra. She will return to the Tivoli Orchestra for New Year Concerts in January 2011.

She has recently moved to London and is currently working on establishing herself and build a career here with the help of her new management - From Sweden Productions. Visit Mia´s website www.miakarlsson.com

Dagmar Zeromska
"I'm 26 years old and from Lund. This is my fifth year in London and I've been working at Totally Swedish from time to time during all these years. However, last year I went back to Sweden, where I studied singing at Vadstena's Folk High School. I'm back in London since the summer and am now studying classical singing at Guildhall School of Music and Drama. I am also a member of the Swedish Church choir."