Empress Wu Designs with Wilma

  14 December Christmas Countdown #25envelopes - tonttu Of all the places where I’ve lived , no other country does Christmas better than Finland ... today’s envelope features tonttu which is a mythological creature from Nordic folklore associated now with the winter solstice and the Christmas season. They are generally described as being short, having a long white beard, and wearing a conical or knit cap in red or some other bright colour. My tonttu is free motion stitched with coloured pencil and collaged with other fabric . Best wishes to all my Finnish friends and host families - hyvää joulua PS. Some readers  may know of these little folk as tomte ( Swedish) or nisse (Danish) 

A little Finnish surprise for you today.....  T is for tonttu  A tonttu ( or tomte in Swedish)  is a mythological creature from  Scandinavian folklore  today typically associated with the  winter solstice  and the  Christmas  season. It is generally described as being no taller than three feet, having a long white beard, and wearing a conical or knit cap in red or some other bright colour. They often have an appearance somewhat similar to that of a  garden gnome . [1 ] from Wikipedia.  In the past, i n Finnish households  there were guardian spirits known as elves (tonttu) Each type of building had its own sort of elf.- household elves, sauna elves, stable elves, storehouse elves, barn elves and mill elves. When treated with respect, they brought good fortune, but if they took offence, there was no predicting the consequences. All commonly were active after nightfall,but individual tonttu were often notorious for thei...