The Swedes have always prided themselves on their sense of lagom when it comes to most things. There is no direct translation for lagom, but perhaps the best explanation I've seen is in Christer Amnéus' book Lagom, The Very Unofficial Guide to the Swedes. He says it is a perfect description of the Swedish mentality. It's meaning can be said to be "just about right" or "no more no less". Everything in Sweden should be lagom.

And this extends to Christmas decorations, too. One must have "just the right amount" and certainly NO MORE. That wouldn't be lagom and so would be very un-Swedish. As a foreigner, I've had to listen to endless criticism of the completely over the top Christmas lights in other countries. I'm lucky they know next to nothing about Australia so I don't have to admit to things like The Lobethal Christmas Display in Adelaide (a small sample pictured here) *bows her head in shame*, or places like this.

*SHUDDER*

Fortunately, they firmly believe that all things tacky are American, so I just nod along with them and hope they NEVER hear about our Australian decorating habits. I just mumble something about it being summer so they think we have no lights.

On one level I agree with them. I abhor for example the the proliferation of PLUBJLOs - Plastic Light-Up Baby Jesus Lawn Ornaments. I just can't see how "Baby Jesus" and "plastic light-up lawn ornament" belong in the same phrase together... let alone in the front yard.

And then they are combined with PLUVMLOs, PLUJLOs, (Plastic Light-Up Virgin Mary Lawn Ornaments, Plastic Light-Up Joseph Lawn Ornaments). Most, however, also include PLUTWMLOs and PLUCLOs(Plastic Light-Up Three-Wise-Men and their Plastic Light-Up Camel Lawn Ornaments), as well as two kinds of PLUSLOs (Plastic Light-Up Shepherds and their Plastic Light-Up Sheep Lawn Ornaments), a couple of PLUDLOs (Plastic Light-Up Donkey Lawn Ornaments), and some PLUALOs (Plastic Light-Up Angel Lawn Ornaments), all nestled in a giant plastic stable, surrounded by still more PLUSLOs (Plastic Light-Up Snowman and Plastic Light-Up Santa Lawn Ornaments) and possibly a few PLURASLOs (Plastic Light-Up Reindeer-and-Sleigh Lawn Ornaments). I didn't know that Santa was in on the birth of Jesus. You learn something new every day!

So okay, the Swedes have a point.

But today, I have my revenge thanks to the daily afternoon newspaper Aftonbladet. There is a contest on to vote for the best decorated house in Sweden. And let me tell you, the Griswald's have been busy! I can't wait to forward the article Du kan rösta på finaste julehuset to all of my Swedish friends. Especially those who are so smug about Swedes being so lagom.

You can vote until Sunday night too if you like. Click the link that says "Här kan du se de 10 finalisterna" to check them out. Then go to the box underneath headed "Vilket hus är vackrast?" and cast your vote. You can press "Se resultat" to check the progress. Now, numbers 5, 7 and 11 are truly indescribably tacky and at the time of writing, the leader (number 9) wasn't much better. The only one that I thought was okay was number 6 from Österskär.

I'm eagerly waiting to see what Lars-Göran has to say about this. I have a feeling he'll be sporting a black armband for the rest of Christmas.

And my useless Christmas fact for today (and very apt, too):

Thomas Edison introduced the first Christmas lights on December 22 1882.

So we CAN blame the yanks!