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On Christmas Eve in 1836, Martinus Rørbye doubted he could manage the cooking. The Danish painter was in Rome with fellow artists, and a fever had come on after a day of running about.
In 1936, Ilmari Mannermaa sent a group of straw Christmas ornaments from Kestilä, in northern Finland, to the Dictionary Foundation.
In a poem attributed to the Norwegian poet Þorbjǫrn hornklofi, King Harald has already grown tired of sitting beside a fire.
In Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Halloween night in 1917 brought snow, disguises and an ultimatum at the front door.
In a Norwegian story recorded in 1909, Sterke Nils watched a man struggle up through the waters of Svartetjørn in Telemark.
The bearded man on the cover of a Danish Christmas book in 1866 had no presents to hand out.