Helena's hundred Year Christmas
Helena Sigtryggsdóttir recalls stories from times past, but she will be 100 yeras old next year. mbl.is/Ásdís
In a family house in Kópavogur, the 99-year-old Helena Sigtryggsdóttir, a mother, grandmother and great-grandmother lives. She invites a reporter into her home, where her two daughters, Jóna and Alda, are present. They bring old photographs to recall old memories and Christmas celebrations in Siglufjörður. The home has a number of family portraits and beautiful objects that have accompanied Helena for a long time. Helena is a quiet, beautiful woman, who wears her age well. There is a lot to remember, but she is now living through her 100th Christmas.
No ornaments on the tree
“Yes, I remember Christmas there at Eyrarbakki,” Helena says.
“I remember a man in the village, called Kristján in Sæborg, who made us a Christmas tree that was painted green. A candle could be attached to it, and it was lit on Christmas Eve. But there were no Christmas decorations on the tree because at the time few things were available. I don’t remember getting anything for Christmas, but we had Christmas dinner,” she says.
Here Helena is with her great grandchildren, the twins Alma Jóhanna and Vigdís Salka. mbl.is/Ásdís
“Kristján then made us a belly sledge. My brother Karl was lying on his sleigh, and I strapped on his back. This is how we slid on the sledge for a day and a half, ” she says and smiles at the memory.
“One time I almost had an accident. I was on my own, charging down the slope. I could not sense the danger and almost crashed into a pond. What came to my rescue was that I hit a pole and was thrown off the sled,” she says, saying that it was probably the only danger she had as a child.
“By the way, I don’t remember Christmas that well, because it wasn’t celebrated that much. But we always had good food and we made leaf bread. This was during the time when there was nothing available in the shops and nothing was imported to the country. Neither food nor anything else. Poverty was widespread."
No gifts in the shoe
Helena, however, recalls a good memory of the Christmas of her youth.
“I remember there was a children’s entertainment down in Hjalteyri, and the son of the couple on Eyrarbakki, Gústi, carried me on his back down to the meeting place because there was so much snow that winter. We danced around a Christmas tree and sang and we got chocolate and red apples,” says Helena, who says she does not recall believing in Santa Claus.
Helena worked during the "herring years" in Siglufjörður where she lived as a young woman.
Asked if she put a shoe in the window, Helena laughs.
That tradition had not even started back then, but there was talk of Grýla, Leppalúði and their treacherous sons, the yule lads.”
Lived a good life
This Christmas, Helena is going to have dinner with Kristján’s family on Christmas Eve, as she has done so many times before, but twice she’s been in Sweden for Christmas. The first time was at Alma’s in Lund, and she attended the cathedral’s mass at that time. The second time was at Åkarp with her granddaughter and namesake, Helena Sveinsdóttir, who is a surgeon.
It is nearly noon, and the reporter is invited to sit in the kitchen, where a delicious aroma of freshly brewed coffee is waiting and fine accompaniments. We discuss all Helena’s descendants, but her grandchildren became fourteen and the great grandchildren are now twenty four.
“It was fortunate that Helena’s sledge did not end up in the pond!” the reporter says hearing about her luck in children.
“I could have drowned there,” says Helena, “and I’m very grateful for my good family and descendants.
​Helena's youngest children, Kristján Möller, who was a member of Parliament and a Minister of the Government and Alma, who is the current Director of Health. Here the siblings are in their Christmas outfits in the year 1966. Picasa
“It’s nice to watch over all my people and be the matriarch of the family. They’re all very good people who’ve finished their studies. I hope I’ve done well in my life’s work. My mother once told me, 'The Creator has trusted you with these children, my Helena.' I hope she was not disappointed."
Now you’re about to live your hundredth Christmas. Don’t you think that’s a bit strange?
"Yes, it is very strange. I never thought I'd reach this age ever."
