Tjuvarnas jul

This year I bought my very first Christmas calendar. It's a calendar with numbered flaps that correspond to the days in December, as well as a television program that airs every night during the month. The very first calendar aired in 1960 known as Titteliture, and children have watched it ever since. I still have vague memories of Klasses julkalender in 1992, where Klasse lived in a house high in a tree. We moved out of the country very early on, and I was deprived of any more series, though my grandmother was kind enough to tape Pelle Svanslös in 1997. When I was still a wee bairn in Sweden, I wanted to have a calendar, but we had little money and could not spend it on frivolous things. My sister reminded me just today that we did have one--Bamse the World's Strongest Bear calendar--though it wasn't official and had no corresponding television show. We, however, did pull it out every Christmas and opened the numbered flaps with the same enthusiasm as if we were seeing them for the first time.

Kurre and Charlie

This year's calendar is Tjuvarnas jul, or Christmas of Thieves, a Dickensian tale of a band of thieves. (I found the following information on this site.) It will be set in the 1800s, just as Christmas is at the door. Madame Bofvén is the leader of a gang known as the Package Snatchers, which includes the likes of Bongo, The Shadow, Troll, and Kurre, who is arguably the worst pickpocket of them all, despite having grown up under Madame Bofvén tutelage.

But the first of December brings some unexpected news. Outside his hovel, Kurre finds a young girl, his daughter Charlie. Kurre doesn't know what to do with her, until Charlie accidentally saves the Package Snatchers from the police and becomes the gang's mascot. Madame Bofvén orders him to teach his daughter their criminal ways, but should Charlie really grow up in a gang of crooks? And how can Kurre, who can barely take care of himself, take care of Charlie?

I'm stoked.

Spot the numbered flaps.