Kravlenisser Kravlenisser. That is what you can find in the park surrounding the Danish Sunset Villa in Ontario Canada. The park has been the gathering place for Danes in Ontario for more than 70 years. This article is edited from the Sunset Villa Association Bulletin with permission from Lisa Olsen the writer of the article. Last year the Association created large wooden copies of famous Danish cartoonist Frederick Bramming’s Nisser for the new Neisse trail. The retro throwback to childhood in the 1950’s-1980’s was meant to spark joy with kids and all of us that grew up with these fun Nisser in our homes. We contacted Brammings’s family, as Frederik (1911-1991) had long ago past away, as has his wife Kirsten (1911-1993). His children, Bo(76), Michael(87) and Anne(79) are now the owners of his copyrights. From Bo we learned that Frederik was a very gifted cartoonist, who made drawings of politicians, famous athletes, football players, actors etc for the newspaper Politiken for many years. He was also one of the first to make short commercial cartoons in Denmark. Then he created his famous Kravlenisse (directly translated as Crawling Nisse) Nisse Folklore. For hundreds of years it was a tradition that a Nisse lived on farms and were responsible for the mysterious or bad things that happened if they were not treated well with porridge (called Risengrød.. if you haven’t tried it, you must). A traditional Nisse was drawn-like with long beards, teasing personalities and evil things on their minds. Bramming's Nisse were started as Bramming hated the mean concept and in 1947 just after WWII, he created his own version of Kravlenisser. He really loved the time around Christmas and he wanted to create some figures who looked energetic, full of life and always doing something amusing, innocent and with a positive approach-just like children. An so his Nisser were born. They were a huge succes right from the start, which took him totally by surprise. His warm and caring Kravlenisser are still availed for sale through pobra.com or select Danish Sisterhood News, June 2021
Christmas retailers in Denmark. So if you’re visiting Sunset Villa make sure to take a walk around the park and see these cheerful Nisser. A thank you to the Bramming family for their permission to display Nisser in honour of their father Frederik Bramming. Edited and submitted by Jonna Easterby with thanks to Lisa Olsen and Sunset Villa Association
Join us for the
75th Jubilee Celebration
of the founding of the Danebod Folk Meeting! This year’s meeting will be a virtual event, including speakers, singing, stories, and community Tentative Speaker Topics: Current events of 1946; History of the Danebod Folk Meeting; Climate Change; Danish Literature; Racism: How to Diminish the Gap; Politics of Healing Registration materials available at
danebodfolkmeeting.org
For further information, email or call: Danebod.Folk.Meeting123@gmail.com (507) 247-3000
SAVE THE DATE August 18-20, 2021 4
