The First Christmas Fair - Starting Up SWEA In San Francisco

It all began back in 1979 when Agneta Nilsson arranged a Christmas Fair in Los Angeles, realizing there was a huge interest among Swedish women to keep in contact abroad. Subgroups started to pop up in San Diego, Orange County, Santa Barbara and Toronto. When Barbro Osher introduced the organization in San Francisco in 1982, there were already 70 members signing up at the first meeting and 120 members within the first year. Bridget Strömberg-Brink took part in the committe from the beginning. In an article in the organization's newspaper, SWEA-nytt, she tells the story about the start-up and the first Swedish Christmas Fair in San Francisco in 1984. With its 1,700 visitors, the Christmas fair was a success, just as it had been in Los Angeles. The organization now had a starting capital and since then, it has just kept on growing. Today, San Francisco is the next biggest SWEA community with its close to 400 members. SWEA International has 80 local chapters in 40 countries and 8,500 members worldwide.

There are two criteria for being a member of the organization: you have to speak Swedish and you have to be a woman. “I do not think men have the same need to meet without their wives or, if so, they would just meet over sports,” Ulla Reilly, SWEA San Francisco’s vice president, speculates. “But maybe that is just a prejudice.”

To become a member of SWEA, you have to send an e-mail to Anita Benson, writing about yourself, where you are from and what you miss about Sweden. The annual fee will be $55 from November this year. SWEA has a web site that is supposed to prepare Swedish women for the difficulties they might face when moving to a new country – the SWEA Guide. It consists of articles about culture shocks and advice on how to “survive” life abroad. The SWEA-members living abroad have put up their own diaries and check-lists on the web site before leaving and returning to Sweden. There are articles about finding new friends, killing prejudices that one might have about the new country and what to expect when returning home. Advice is given on how to help the children adapt to the new country and information about differences in school systems is presented.

One of the purposes of the organization in San Francisco is to raise money for a scholarship to someone who is doing research on a subject related to Sweden. This is done through different events, and of course still through the Swedish Christmas Fair, which is now held in St Mary’s Cathedral in December every year.