
Nordic Quack (2009) - urvader
https://slate.com/culture/2009/12/sweden-s-bizarre-tradition-of-watching-donald-duck-kalle-anka-cartoons-on-christmas-eve.html
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skocznymroczny
In Poland, we have a "bizarre TV tradition" of watching Home Alone during
Christmas on one of the main TV stations (Polsat). Usually Home Alone 2 is
played the next day.

One year the station wanted to play a different movie during the holiday
season and people wrote petition to bring it back.

~~~
ramchip
Home Alone is popular all over. It gets broadcasted in Japan, too.

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moksly
We’ve done it for 50 years in Denmark, and the show doesn’t really change
except for a few snippets of upcoming Disney movies at the end.

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lkramer
Why is this bizarre? Most countries seems to have traditions relating to
seasons. In the UK It's a Wonderful Life and The Snowman are iconic and
broadcast every year.

Japanese traditionally eats KFC at Christmas. I'm sure most countries have
quirks like these. They are harmless, they create a sense of togetherness and
humans in general likes traditions and rituals. Considering how big especially
Donald Duck is in Scandinavia, it seems natural that there would be a
Christmas tradition that incorporates that.

The only bizarre thing is the condescending tone of the author.

~~~
AznHisoka
Another tradition is that Jews eat Chinese food on christmas. Don’t find that
bizarre at all.

~~~
beerandt
Chinese restaurants (or maybe more accurately restaurants run by Chinese
immigrants) used to be the only places open on Christmas. For _anyone_ wanting
to eat out, it was a defacto non-choice.

It might be seen as a tradition now, but like most traditions, the origins
were practical.

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s_dev
In Germany they watch that old British sketch about a blind old woman and her
butler having dinner with guests who aren't there.

~~~
tilt_error
They do likewise in Norway, on the 23:rd, even though the sketch itself is
about New Years eve :)

~~~
wodenokoto
It's a birthday. Her 90 year birthday. It doesn't have any relation to New
Years or Christmas.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinner_for_One](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinner_for_One)

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detaro
Do these things really still count as "bizarre", given how many countries had
them for how long?

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bakoo
We have the same tradition in Norway, probably stole it from our neighbours.

~~~
simendsjo
I'm Norwegian too, and remember watching it on a Swedish broadcasting channel
when I was a kid. We had two channels, the Norwegian state funded broadcasting
channel, and the Swedish state funded broadcasting channel. Good times!

~~~
mads
I watched it on all the Nordic channels, when I was a kid. Couldn't get enough
cartoon back then apparently. when it wasn't an abundant "commodity" like
today.

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tcgv
There are several films that are probably streamed throughout the world during
christmas.

One that I used to watch every year on cable TV here in Brazil when I was a
child (you can guess I'm not that old) is "Jingle all the Way"[1]

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jingle_All_the_Way](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jingle_All_the_Way)

~~~
sidpatil
_Jingle All the Way_ is one of my personal Christmas favorites, along with
_Trading Places_.

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ydnaclementine
Sweden has a bunch of lovely Christmas traditions. My favorite is this huge
straw Christmas goat (Gavle bocken:
[https://www.instagram.com/gavlebocken/](https://www.instagram.com/gavlebocken/))

Interestingly, there is (semi-)traditional vandalism to burn the sucker down
every year:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%A4vle_goat#Timeline](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%A4vle_goat#Timeline)

Hopefully he survives this year!

~~~
1ark
It stands, third year in a row! Arsonists are busy burning cars.

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JeanMarcS
In France, when I was younger, it was on new year’s day (Well the night
between the years) and a channel always runned Tex Avery cartoons.

Every year. Don’t know why or if it’s still true (not living in France)

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raverbashing
It sounds as weird as watching Die Hard.

People are focused on cooking dinner and/or getting ready for the Christmas
parties, it's not weird that some different customs will come up at that time.

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secondo
What’s further confusing is that this is broadcast on state owned TV which is
required to be ad-free. Yet, this section is riddled with ads for upcoming
Disney movies.

~~~
vidarh
Foe many years it was the same fixed version every year. The 'previews' came
after they lost the contract and had to renegotiate a new one. I presume it
avoids the ad rules as the channel licenses the show rather than get paid to
show it.

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germinalphrase
In Canada, there is an aviation ghost story radio show called “The Shepard”
that is played each year.

~~~
stan_rogers
Played now. Alan Maitland used to read it afresh each year. That and/or O
Henry's *The Gifts of the Magi". That goes back to my childhood, and I haven't
been a child for half a century. I can't remember now whether they were both
done each year or alternated.

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lokedhs
I moved overseas 15 or so years ago, and when I left I felt that this
tradition was already on the way out. As far as I understand, it's been going
away even more since then, but I don't have much in the way of evidence.

When I wad a kid in the 80's, they barely ever showed any Disney cartoons on
TV. This meant that the Disney on christmas tradition was a big thing. These
days it's available everywhere so there is really nothing to drive the
tradition, any i believe that the only ones who even care about it are my age.

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AnnoyingSwede
It's not only Donald Duck, it's a random collection on Disney clips. The only
"bizarre" thing about it, is that every year seconds are cut away as the
removed clips are no longer considered politically correct.

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Kipters
Italy has something like that too. Since 1989 one of the major TV networks
broadcasts Trading Places on Christmas Eve night.

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lawn
It's nowhere near as common today as it was just a couple of years ago. Nobody
I know watches it anymore, but everyone used to d it. Of course, it may just
be our social circle.

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dang
Christmas Eve 2014:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8792328](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8792328)

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kuu
That's funny. Sometimes we're quite irrational. We're still primates in some
aspects (I mean no offense to Swedish, we all have strange traditions in our
countries)

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memling
out of curiosity, what about this strikes you as a quality specific to
primates?

~~~
kuu
Did you hear the story about the primates and the stair?

[https://wiki.c2.com/?TheFiveMonkeys](https://wiki.c2.com/?TheFiveMonkeys)

~~~
memling
is there any study or experiment that goes with this story?

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Someone
It is possible that will change when Disney starts selling their subscription
service in Sweden.

Disney will likely use its huge archive to sell subscriptions.

That likely is the reason Home Alone isn’t on public tv in the Netherlands, as
_tinus_hn_ says in
[https://news.ycombinator.com/reply?id=21871486](https://news.ycombinator.com/reply?id=21871486)

If they play it hard, a lot of traditional Christmas movies will move behind a
paywall. For example, Die Hard and Jingle all the Way, commented on this page,
all are from 20th Century Fox, which is Disney owned, as is The Sound of
Music)

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elfexec
...on Christmas Eve.

And this article is from 2009 for christmas's sakes.

