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All Vilhelmina knows that it is open. Stefan Kvist has been celebrating Christmas Eve at his gas station for 58 years. – When parents say they are going to go out to buy the magazine, that’s where they come from, he says.
Stefan Kvist is always open on Christmas Eve. Where else would the elves go?
– The first Christmas I was there for two months. Mom and Dad had the station then, so you were probably lying in a stroller here in some lubrication hall, he says.
– When you were little, you probably didn’t work every Christmas, but you were always here and helped like a little Santa.
Stefan Kvist himself only has nice Christmas souvenirs from the Volgsjövägen gas station. A surprise from about 15 years ago heats up a bit more.
– A great memory is when my mother-in-law and father-in-law came here and offered a mini Christmas table in the staff room. My wife was in the box, so I had to eat a Christmas table at the station with all that goes with it.
But when it comes to his own children, Stefan Kvist has chosen a different weekend strategy.
– The kids haven’t been here that long at Christmas. It could be the other way around, that I tried to keep them away from here so they could celebrate a real Christmas. When mine were little, they tried to get ready before dinner, he says.
However, he himself has no plans to change his Christmas routines.
– It’s a tradition, says Stefan Kvist.
– Christmas Eve is very special to me. First of all, I can have a Santa hat. But there are also many returnees, Vilhelminabor, who have moved to Umeå, who come to wish Merry Christmas even if they are not shopping. They know you are here.
It is not only returnees who have learned to find the gas station on Christmas Eve. When Vilhelmina’s parents tell the children to “go out and buy the newspaper,” of course, they must have a place to go.
– Yes, then they come here. And it’s not a joke either. Everyone knows everyone here. Parents often go to the next door neighbor and then you change. Then they usually take the opportunity to come in here and talk for a bit. I usually see a lot of elves here.
