Elf Tojanteri and the strange Christmas guest

Annukka Kiuru 2017: Tonttu Toljanteri ja outo jouluvieras
illustrated by Sirkku Linnea

Elf Toljanteri is bitten by Grum-bee and it makes him act strangely. He snaps at everybody and refuses to do his chores. Naturally he tries to hide his condition so Santa will give him presents.

Luckily Elf Niilo, who looks just like Toljanteri comes and agrees to play Toljanteri's double. This creates all kinds of silly situations.

The Treat department is busy before
Christmas

I have been reading this to the boys and now I can see that they are listening. Every time a grown-up snaps or shows temper they say he (notice it usually is a he) is bitten by a grump-bee.  I also like the colorful language that is used. We also learn about tuhmaikä (a version of uhmaikä which children get in the age between 1-5, when they learn independence and defy all orders given to them.)

Grump-bee aka Äkäampiainen

Little Darling and Star Bear

Inkeri Karvonen: Pikku-kulta ja Tähtikarhu
illustrated by Kati Vuorento

Story for every month. In January Little Darling wakes up in the middle of hibernation and meets another little bear from the stars, Star Bear.  Little Darling admires the beauty of winter and then falls back to sleep. In February the forest elf meets freezing fox and gives him a job in keeping the paths in the forest clear from snow. In return the elf gives him warm socks, mittens and scarf.

March is the time for the Blue Cat calls Kitty Lavender for dinner. They fish up gold fish from the frozen pond. They have a magical night as cats in March do.  In April the Moss- men are cleaning up their apple tree house.  In May vole Höntynen is waiting for the meadow elf to wake up the meadow. Mrs. Mouse knows that meadow elf has been frozen in and he cannot get out. Höntynen helps him out and soon the meadow is in bloom.

The bugs will rest with  flower bulbs. 

In June the elf of water plays her flute all through the night and in July the cloud plays with a small boy for many days. In August we learn about the secrets of the river.  In September the catebillar is exhausted about getting ready for winter.  He has found a sleeping place from a fence pole, which guards its sleep.

In October the sleepwhisperer has been fluffing the dirt and ironing the poppy petals for the flower bulbs. Soon the small bugs are welcome to spend the winter. In Novermber the snow lilies decorate the ponds. The book ends with December and the elfs serving animals with food.


Stories about animals and elves and the illustrations are as delicate as the wings of fairies.  I must say Kati Vuorento is one of my favourite illustrators.

Elf Toljanteri and the secret misson from Santa

Annukka Kiuru 2016: Tonttu Toljanteri ja joulupukin salainen tehtävä
illustrated by Sirkku Linnea

Elf Toljanteri is a beloved character from Christmas calendar (Joulukalenteri) broadcasted by YLE between 1998-2013.  Now we can enjoy Toljanteri's life in a book.  The example link is from 2007, when Toljanteri is taking over Mrs. Clauses activities, because she has caught the sleep bug and only sleeps.

The book is written by the scriptwriter of the series and the plot of this book is from the last season of Toljanteri's adventures, where Toljanteri takes over the tasks of the elves' elf, which means he has to write down, which elf is naughty and which is nice. Meanwhile Christmas is coming, but Santa's sled is worryingly empty. Trouble is caused by inspector elf Irmeli, who thinks all the toys are too dangerous to be given to children.

Toljanteri helps Juuli, the elves' elf.

In the tv-series Elf Toljanteri is played by Kunto Ojansivu in all nine seasons of Joulukalenteri. I do not think any body else can ever play the role of Elf Toljanteri. Toljanteri is a very lovable character, because he is silly, makes mistakes, but learns from them. In the book he thinks about what to write to the naughty or nice list and make astute observations about, what actually happend and what is actually his interpretation of the situation.

I appologize for the fuzziness of the images.

Toljanteri's masterpiece: a frankfurter cake.

Finnish elves for all seasons

Kirsi Manninen 2012: Tontun vuosi
photographs by Aki Paavola
English translation Malcolm Hicks

This book has also been published in English.
These elves live in Tyynelä. They show us what elves do, when it is not Christmas time.

The Finnish elf is the protector of the forrest and animals and some take part in the human activites in the household chores.  The elves cultivate hay and celebrate Kekri, the Finnish Halloween.

The elves harvestin

The book also includes old recepies for all seasons from Shrovetide pea soup to Christmas porrigde and potato casserole.

The book is illustrated with lovely photographs, which sometimes look very Swedish to me. But most of the Finnish Christmas traditions come from Sweden.

Christmas at Tyynelä

Tales from the old church

Sari Kanala 2007
English translation Tony Melville
watercolor illustrations by Iida Pihl
Photographs by Ismo Hannula and Simo Peteri

Tales from the Old Church of Petäjävesi.
The stories tell about an elf, who rings the bells at night, micshievous crows that learn a lesson and the church getting ready for Christmas.

The illustrations are photograhps that have watercolor elements in it. Sometimes it is really hard to tell apart the watercolor from the actual photo. The old church has a fairy tale charm to it.

We Finns take our wood seriously.  Stones were used scaresly since they were so expensive. And so we made our churches from wood. This wooden church is part of the World Heritage Covention.

When I visit the grand churches of Europe, I always wonder how much money was spent on them. How many people could have been fed or educated with that money? On the other hand, I admire them and am very glad that they still exist and that they are not torn down because of some idealism.

Satu bathes in sauna

Marja Vuorio 2012: Satu meni saunaan
Illustrated by Marjo Nygård

Satu walks to sauna, where the sauna elf is cleaning. Satu asks him, if she can help. The elf is happy to accept. He is kind and shy, so you can seldom see him.

The towels will be changed next week. The Sauna elf says good buy and disappears through a small door under the bench. Satu asks if she can follow. The elf takes her to the laundry room, where Satu and her mother have been doing laundry. A neighbor arrives, but she cannot find the matches. The elf is perplexed: he has borrowed the matches and forgot to bring them back. This has never happened before! Satu tries to comfort him, every one forgets sometimes. Satu asks would it be easier if the sauna building had electricity. The old sauna elf is very upset, all sauna elves are suspicious about electricity.

The sauna elf tells Satu about the other sauna elves that are part of the Sauna Elf Guild. There are barrel sauna elves, smoke sauna elves, electric sauna elves and more unusual rock sauna elf and dugout sauna elf. All of them have days off, when the household does not bathe.

Satu asks more about the smoke sauna. The sauna elf tells her that there is no smoke, when it is ready to be bathed in. You heat it up and since there is no chimney the smoke fills the room. When the fire is died out, the smoke is let out. He suggest that they go meet a smoke sauna elf. The smoke sauna elf tells them that they cannot come in yet, there is the stone cleaning steam though going on. Then you absolutely not can be in the sauna.

The other elves gather on the porch. The electric sauna elves are leaving for summer houses and need advice to for heating up wood burning stoves and the smoke sauna stoves. Many smoke sauna’s have burned to the grown, when the sauna elves have not been watching them. Suddenly they see people coming to bathe and they all leave. Satu is asked to join the neighbors to the sauna.

“Satu meni saunaan”, the title of the book is also a children’s rhyme. It is also a song that is used to teach children play musical instrument.

There is a huge debate about the right temperature of a sauna. I think it depends. The electric saunas might not have as big of a variation as the wood stove saunas. I have experienced the two extremes: my sister’s sauna is very comfortable at 100 degrees Celsius, but I cannot stand my mother’s sauna, if it is over 60 degrees Celsius. My mother refers to my sister’s sauna as the cow breath sauna. She likes to bathe in very hot and dry sauna, whereas my sister and I prefer humid and gentler air. The right temperature also depends on, who has heated the sauna and what kind of wood he/she has used. Heating a sauna can be tricky: sometimes the weather is so high that the fire practically swallows the wood and sometimes it is so low that the wood don’t seem to fire up at all. Not to mention if you happen to take the wood out of a pile that has not dried yet, burning fresh wood does not work. It takes some experience and knowledge of the particular stove to get the best possible bathing experience.

Any way, sauna is sacred to us Finns and we are proud that the English word is sauna and not bastu (sauna in Swedish). More information from the Finnish Sauna Association.

Elves of Marjaliisa Pitkäranta

The land of Santa Claus -cover

Heli Karjalainen 1987: Joulupukin maa
illustrated by Marjaliisa Pitkäranta
Heli Karjalainen 1989: Joulumaan tonttujen tarinat
illustrated by Marjaliisa Pitkäranta
Anna Nuutinen 1992: Joulupukin tarinoita
illustrated by Marjaliisa Pitkäranta:
Kari Keränen 1992: Joulupukin jäljillä
illustrated by: Marjalisa Pitkäranta also published in English: In search of Santa
Annikki Marjala Heli karjalainen 1998: Korvatunturin salaisuus
illustrated by: Marjaliisa Pitkäranta also published in English: The secret of the magical mountain Korvatunturi
English translation: Margaret Vainio

Santa's workshop

The Land of Santa Claus 

Four children from different countries get to know how Santa’s works shops operate. Finally they get to meet Santa himself.

The stories of the elves in
Christmas land -cover

Stories of the elves in Christmas land 

Several stories about different elves. One elf has come all the way from France and is trying to find a home. The Mailmaster Elf brings good news to an elderly man who lives alone. Stone elf is looking for a special blue stone. Nessi the Elf dreams about living in a castle, her brother Jussa helps animals that are hurt. In the last story the reindeer elf Peski gets mad at stupid humans.

The feast Simeoni arrange for the fores animals

Santa’s stories 

Samta tells stories about three different elves. Simeoni arranges a Christmas feast to the forest animals. Temppu is trying to build a remote control car, but doesn’t quite succeed. And Tappura gets caught from hie beard when chopping wood. Luckily Liisa saves him Tappura then takes her to see the Korvatunturi manor.

In search of Santa 

The elves get a ride from the Snow Girl and get chaced by wolfs

Aunt Marja-Liisa has drawn two elves. They decide to find Santa. They travel all around the world to find it. The book teaches us the different Christmas habbits. It is remarkable how many countries even in Europe do not expect Santa on Christmas day. In Czech Republic good king Wenceslaus comes December 16th, in the Netherlands Sinterklaas brings gifts De
cember 5th. In Spain the three kings bring gifts in January as well as the wicht Belgana in Italy. In Russia the Grandfather Forst as well as Babushka bring gifts in January.

Jussa and Unna help a reindeer

The secret of the magical mountain 

Jussa, the ship elf, has heard a mysterious invitation. He cannot explain what it is, but he has a compelling need to travel north. On his way he meets other elves that help him to get to Korvatunturi. There he meets Santa Claus who has a special assignment as the ambassador of goodness.

More of Marjaliisa Pitkäranta can be found at Marjaliisa's fan pages and at Marja-Liisa Pirkäranta foundation. Marjaliisa's elves are known to all Finns. And they are seen in popular Christmas cards.

The Book of Finnish elves

Kunnas, Mauri 1979

This is the first Mauri Kunnas book. It tells about the different elves that guarded the household buildings.


If the elves were treated with respect, they would behave and even help the people. But if they felt they were disrespected, the consequenses could be unimaginable.

Elves lived already before Santa Claus. Mostly they stayed out of sight and appeared only night time. This is a book collects some of the stories that were told about elves.

Fiddler elf 
 The landowner has enough of the fiddle playing and loses temper, so does the elf. End result: no one sleeps.
Ceiling Feetu
This elf is used to getting bread from the matron of the house. A new, greedy maid takes the bread and Feetu gets none. Needless to say there was a huge mess afterward.




Other stories include: Home elf Sarapäkki,  angry Elf woman, sauna Elf Nokinokka, grain elves fighting,Grain elf and buttons, barnelves new clothes, stable elf and beans, drying barn and bear, mill elf and elves Christmas.

Basically this book tells about old time beliefs and stories that were told, when there was no tv, just like the Koiramäki books. This book was presented in tv as an animation in the childrens program Pikku Kakkonen.