Sagan om Karl-Bertil Jonssons julafton

Sagan om Karl-Bertil Jonssons julafton (lit., "The Tale of Karl-Bertil Jonsson's Christmas Eve") (Christopher's Christmas Mission) is a 1975 Swedish animated short film directed by Per Åhlin, adapted from Tage Danielsson's short story of the same name, telling the tale of a boy who steals Christmas gifts from the wealthy to give to the poor people of Stockholm while working in a post office on Christmas Eve. The short story is also published  in English with drawings by Per Åhlin by Trollboken AB 2018. The film has gained huge popularity in Sweden, and is broadcast every Christmas Eve on Swedish and Norwegian national television. It is also often shown on Christmas Eve by FST in Finland.

The film was dubbed into English in 1987, with Bernard Cribbins as the voice-over.

Plot
14-year-old Karl-Bertil Jonsson lives with his father Tyko and his mother, Mrs Jonsson. Karl-Bertil works at the Swedish postal service, sorting and delivering items. On one Christmas Eve, Karl-Bertil, who highly adores Robin Hood, secretly decides to sort Christmas presents addressed to rich people into a separate bag and instead deliver them to many different poor people. After being asked by Mrs Jonsson about a porcelain plate meant for Tyko that had been delivered to another family, he decides to be open and honest to his parents about what he has done. This turns Mrs Jonsson into tears and makes Tyko seriously upset at him for what he’s done, calling him a communist and deciding that he has to go to bed early that night and will not get to see the end of the film airing on TV and forcing him to go and visit every person whose presents had been misdelivered to apologise. When he and Tyko visit these rich people the following day, they are met with exclusively positive reactions from everyone. Karl-Bertil is eventually celebrated as a hero by the various negatively-affected people by being jumped into the air in the midst of screams of ”hip hip hooray”. The short film ends with Tyko proclaiming Karl-Bertil a good man.

Cast
 Tage Danielsson as narrator
 Per Andrén as Karl-Bertil Jonsson
 Toivo Pawlo as Tyko Jonsson, Karl-Bertil’s father
 Marianne Stjernqvist as Mrs Jonsson, Karl-Bertil’s mother
 Åke Fridell as H.K. Bergdahl
 Catrin Westerlund as Mrs Bergdahl

Criticism
A Swedish debate about the tale's moral nature has sparked every few years ever since SVT started broadcasting it annually, with critics arguing that it is too political and that stealing is not really on par with the traditional Christmas spirit and others defending it. Danielsson himself was embarrassed by too serious analysis of the tale.

References

External links 
 
 

Category:1975 animated films
Category:Swedish animated short films
Category:Films directed by Per Åhlin
Category:Swedish animated films
Category:Swedish Christmas films
Category:Swedish-language films
Category:Swedish short films
Category:1975 television films
Category:Swedish television films
Category:Christmas television films
Category:Animated Christmas films
Category:1975 films
Category:Swedish films
Category:Robin Hood
Category:1970s Christmas films