Kalle Anka och hans vänner önskar God Jul
 

Sweden's tradition of watching Donald Duck cartoons on Christmas Eve.

http://www.slate.com/id/2239252

Wow, that's almost a "The Gods Must Be Crazy" story. To have this random show plop down into a foreign country's Christmas tradition and stick so mightily...

That is just so random.

It is, but so is the reason that It's a Wonderful Life is a holiday staple in the United States.

Copyright was mistakenly allowed to lapse. So TV stations could play it without paying royalties. So they showed it. After years of showing it, people got attached to a miserably treacly movie and decades later is comes to embody the event.

Many of our traditions are simply things that for some accident of history happened several times in a row and then the masses decide that because it happened three straight years it must now happen every year for eternity or somehow it is indicative of the end of society and loss of social cohesion.

I talked with a Swedish friend, he confirmed it.

Swedish people watch Donald Duck cartoons because Donald f*cking rocks!
Woohoo! I knew I liked Swedish men for a reason.
:)

Well, that'll explain why I get the urge to watch Donald Duck around Christmas time. :cool:

Aww, It's a Wonderful Life is a great movie, and it's actually a Christmas movie, so it seems more appropriate to me...but it's hard to not be biased.

I can confirm this one. The part of my family that still lives in Sweden is so happy that my favorite Disney character is Donald Duck, too :)

The evolution of a (Donald) Duck?

And even a video!