Today is a special day here in Sweden: St Lucia’s Day, the celebration of the beginning (along with Advent) of the Christmas season. In almost every school around the country, children clothe themselves accordingly, wear fake candles on their heads, and sing Santa Claus songs. Today was Freya’s first school Lucia Day.

Needless to say, many proud and excited parents turned up with more technology in their hands than the C.I.A. have at their disposal, to record this special moment in every parent’s child’s life, and we were not to let the side down.

It was a heart-warming occasion, with the added bonus of an available CD purchase of the children practising the songs at an earlier date. The quality is moot, though the sentiment very much appreciated.

Despite Freya being ill, she managed to sing along to the songs as best she could. Even a few hand movements were spotted, though in her weakened state (and, perhaps, with the presence of so many people peering) she did not give it her best effort. We have seen here singing the songs at home, where she was both vociferous and whatever the word is for using lots of hand movements.

We left after Freya wanted to see the on-site Santa. She refused to go in the room to get her present, but she was happy to watch from afar. Santa asked me if I was a good dad, and I replied that I thought I was; he should, of all, people, know, so the question was a purely social one.