Christmass Events in Stockholm.

Skansen Christmas Market

Skansen Christmas Market. Courtesy of Stockholm Visitors Board

When:

27 Nov - 19 Dec 2010; Weekends only (annual)

Where:

Skansen

Opening Hours:

10am-4pm

The Skansen Christmas Market is one of the biggest in Sweden and dates back to 1903. Visitors can admire craft products in the Town Quarter, buy Christmas ornaments and sweets, and warm up with glögg wine, the traditional Swedish Christmas drink.

For many Stockholmers, Christmas begins with a visit to the event, and every Sunday the fair attracts around 25,000 visitors.

Christmas Fair in the Old Town

Christmas Fair in the Old Town of Stockholm

When:

20 Nov - 23 Dec 2010 (annual)

Where:

Stortorget

Cost:

Free

Opening Hours:

Daily 11am-6pm

1914, the main square in Stockholm's Gamla Stan has hosted a traditional Swedish Christmas fair. Stock up on presents and warm up with candy and glögg. Surrounded by snow and medieval architecture, you can't get more Christmassy than this.

The stunning surrounds of 800-year-old Gamla Stan make an appropriate setting for this festive event. As Stockholm's old town, its narrow laneways and cobbled streets add an authentic old-world atmosphere to Christmas festivities.

Avoiding much of the crass commercialism found during Christmas in other European capitals, Stockholm's Christmas Fair comprises a cluster of wooden stalls that sell traditional toys and local delicacies where both children and adults can while away happy hours exploring the curios and trinkets on offer. Pick up a handmade memento before making your way home by candlelight.

Drottingholm Palace, Stockholm

Stockholm

View of the gardens and facade of Drottingholm Palace, Stockholm

Stockholm Attack: Bomb Blasts Shake Swedish Capital (Video)

One dead in suspected suicide terrorist bombing

 

[ Police Say Sweden Blasts Were Terror Crimes -

STOCKHOLM—Two bomb blasts shook downtown Stockholm on Saturday afternoon, injuring two and killing one, in what has been described as a terrorist suicide bombing, the Swedish security police agency SÄPO has said.

Around 5 p.m. local time on December 11, SÄPO and Swedish news agency TT received violent threats in the form of emails and sound files. Ten minutes later, a white Audi exploded in the very heart of Stockholm's shopping district, where Christmas shopping was in full swing.

Only a few minutes later and a couple of blocks away, a man that SÄPO has since called a "terrorist" set off a bomb strapped to his own body, killing himself, but injuring no one else.

Two people received minor injuries in the first attack.

The bomber, Iraqi-born Taimour Abdulwahab al-Abdaly, said in his threats to TT and SÄPO that he was targeting Swedish civilians because of Sweden's participation in the war in Afghanistan as well as the country's non-response to the Muhammad cartoons drawn by a Swedish artist that caused widespread protests in the Muslim world.

SÄPO said after the bombings that their assessment of the threat level against Sweden remains unchanged, but the agency is currently reviewing the issue.

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Stockholm attack: A man points at the corner of Olof Palmes Gata and Drottninggatan streets in central Stockholm, where an apparent car bomb exploded on December 11. (JONATHAN NACKSTRAND/AFP/Getty Images)

Magnus Ranstorp, terrorism expert at the Swedish National Defence College told TV channel TV4 that he finds it hard to believe that this was the work of a single individual, considering the difficulty of the operation.

“A car bomb was set off and a man was strapped with pipe bombs in a separate operation. Several threatening messages were delivered to the Swedish public. I do not believe the planning and execution of all this is the act of a single individual," he told the news channel.

Six connected pipe bombs were found on al-Abdaly, but only one was actually set off.
"If it had gone off on Drottninggatan [the main shopping street in Stockholm] it would have been a massacre," a source told Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet.

Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt commented on the incident on Twitter, calling it “a very worrying attempt at a terrorist attack in a heavily populated part of downtown Stockholm."

"Failed," Bildt tweeted, referring to the attack, "but the consequences could have been catastrophic.”

At a press conference on Sunday, Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt stressed the importance of taking a stand for democracy and giving the justice system time to conduct a thorough investigation before jumping to conclusions.

“Let us not act based on speculation,” he said.

If the bombings were indeed a terrorist act, the attack would be the first of its kind in Sweden.