Christmas-gnomes

[Mike Pohjola]

	He did it again...

MIKE:

>     Well, if the gnomes had red clothes and hats they probably were the
> ones I meant. If you have read the Dutch book "Leven en werken van de Kabouter"
> then you could be quite close. The Christmas gnomes however are a bit different
> from those gnomes. They are often considered like children of Santa Claus and
> have no beard.

In the story the gnomes have beards and look very much like "David de 
kabouter" from Rien Poortvliet (artist of that book?). There are also 
women-gnomes and young little gnomes among them. But I still think 
they're the gnomes you mean. To me the Dutch dialogue seems to omit 
the Christmas-origin of the gnomes. 

Grandma tells the others she forgot to leave a plate with pap one 
*Christmas* and then everything went wrong. As far as I know you'll 
get the same problems with the Christmas-gnomes when you forget 
leaving a plate at Christmas. That's also a reason for me to think 
the gnomes in the story are those Christmas-gnomes.

(In the Dutch version they have *no* red clothes, but I don't think 
that counts, because maybe the Dutch publishers did the coloring 
themselves.)

What do others think? Does anyone know this story?

Have a nice day!
---Daniel 2




--

	Mike - The Finnish Trekkie