A Genuine Skåne Xmas Market

A top rated Xmas Market in Skåne at Hässleholmsgården

by Hushållningssällskapet Kristianstad

Skåne Xmas market at Hässleholmsgården.

Seasonal decorations.

Hässleholmsgården is close to the city center of Hässleholm (Google.com)

Visit Skåne is rating this particular christmas market as one of the most outstanding markets in Skåne.  It is organized by Hushållningssällsskapet in Kristianstad and held at Hässleholmsgården which is a former studfarm dating back to the 16th century. It is now owned by the municipality of Hässleholm and used for recreational activities. Mrs T and myself wasn't late to take the decision to spend this Saturday afternoon looking for presents and christmas decorations. We were welcomed by Bibi Larsen and her magnificent red dressed pucks, below. While Mrs T was contemplating on buying some I had my chance to photograph them, crowd allowing. Bibi said she is spending much of the year producing these for the annual xmas market. But she says there is a demand all year around and she also delivers abroad to many countries (www.bibilarsen.com). Bibi is working together with her husband who is an industrial designer.

Smiling pucks made by Bibi Larsen and her husband.

This is the high season for christmas markets held all over Skåne, often in castles or manors creating a special atmosphere that welcome the guests. Mrs. Elisabeth Lindgren is in charge of the event and I had the pleasure of talking to her briefly in the courtyard. She works for Hushållningssällskapet (Kristianstad) that is a large organisation covering all of Sweden. The office in Kristianstad has about 60 employees that offer advice to enterprises in the countryside.

The Xmas Market is spread out in all buildings of the manor.

About 100 quality handicrafters and small scale food producers offer their best products on this market. They are all carefully selected by the organizers. Below Gräsljunga Farm offer their produce and Skyltex display some of their extraordinary skilled handicrafts (bottom right) using birch-bark as raw material. My thoughts were that the bark is difficult to work on but I was proved wrong. The material is very soft and bends in any direction. Table trays, candle holders and christmas decorations that Skyltex manufactures surely cannot be found anywhere else.

We found quality handicraft throughout the market.

Another small family run business is the Flädergården / House of Pelargonia situated not too far from us at Vinslöv. We paid a visit to them early spring purchasing our Vancouver Centennial pelargonies from them. The choice was not easy as they offer 700 different varieties of pelargonies. This farm also was the first large farm to grow elder. They today offer different end products from mustard to jams that contain elder. We tasted their elder gluhwine and the mustard both quality products from their own farm. They organize different kind of activities around the year, keep a shop and a coffee shop. For more information visit www.fladergarden.se

Produce of Flädergården / House of Pelargonia professionally displayed.

As we walked the market we tasted different kind of cheeses (hard cheese, blue cheese...you name it) that were of utmost quality. Because we had already invested in our cheese for the christmas Mrs. T was hard on me ...."no more Mr. Nice Guy". However, we did buy a garland from "Skaparglädje by Katarina" that we intend to finish off ourselves by decorations from our woods - if we are successful it will hang on our door soon (fingers crossed!). Mrs T also met with Javier Deléon from deleonart.se and they made some private and confidential transactions.

Garlands by "Skaparglädje by Katarina".

This was a glimpse of the Christmas Market at Hässleholmsgården. We returned very pleased and congratulate the organizers for their work. More christmas feeling will follow from Bosjökloster and Åhus Mrs T (suffering from a heavy cold) and time allowing. Have you ever tried some Rooibos tea with saffron? Mrs T just supplied some (thank you Jahangir for the saffron) and seems that saffron is exactly what rooibos needs - delicious! Tomorrow is Sunday and it's time to clean some windows.

End of  Day - Early start of End of Year Season.

Next week - time allowing - an experience from Söderåsen in "Jack London Style". Stay tuned and have a very good working week everyone.

:-)