A taste of the North in Southland

Swedes -- and the Scandinavian at heart -- throng Costa Mesa for a Christmas fair.Walking into the Costa Mesa Neighborhood Community Center on Sunday was like walking into a foreign country.

More than 800 people -- many of them native Swedes or of Swedish descent, some just interested in Scandinavian culture -- attended Orange County’s annual Swedish Christmas Fair, a fundraiser for the local chapter of the Swedish Women’s Educational Assn.

The fest featured vendors selling a wide variety of Scandinavian gift items, including jewelry, Christmas decorations and Swedish coffee beans. And no Swedish bazaar would be complete without a clog table.

Fairgoers feasted on traditional Swedish foods including pickled herring, red cabbage, ham with Swedish mustard and Jansson’s Temptation -- an anchovy and potato dish customarily served in Sweden to dinner guests before they leave to ensure they have something warm inside them during the cold journey home.

The adults sipped on glogg, a mulled wine served warm over raisins and toasted almonds, popular during the cold winter months in Sweden.

Huntington Beach resident Patrick Dunn said he enjoys coming to the Swedish Christmas Fair to reunite with friends from the old country.

“It’s kind of nice because you get to hang out with all your friends and have some authentic food,” said Dunn, a Sweden native who sells Swedish coffee made by Lofbergs Lila.

The Saint Lucia pageant is a highlight of the festival each year. Sixteenyear-old Anna Fletcher -- this year’s crowned Lucia -- headed a procession through the crowd, wearing a white robe and a wreath of candles on her head.

Dozens of young carolers, all dressed in white, followed her singing Swedish Christmas songs.

“It’s a big tradition in the Swedish culture,” said Fletcher, whose mother is from Sweden. She said the Lucia tradition is for the oldest daughter to perform for the family on Dec. 13, but it has evolved over the years and has become more of a pageant for the entire village.

Fletcher, who lives in Newport Beach and attends Corona del Mar High School, said she visits Sweden every summer and hopes to study there someday.

“I really like coming here [to the festival] because it just reminds me of Sweden,” Fletcher said.

All the funds raised at Sunday’s event will go toward the Swedish Women’s Educational Assn., which funds a scholarship program that sends students to study in Sweden.

Founded in Los Angeles 26 years ago, the international association has grown to 77 chapters in 34 countries, said Manhattan Beach resident and association founder Agneta Nilsson.

“I’ve never given up the old country,” said Nilsson, who has lived in the United States 42 years. She said Christmas is a good time for local Swedes to spread their culture in their neighborhoods. Each chapter holds a similar Swedish fair.

“I think it’s great. This is how we spread our knowledge about the culture.”

* LINDSAY SANDHAM is the news assistant. She can be reached at (714) 966-4625 or lindsay.sandham @latimes.com.

20051128iqn4vzknPHOTOS BY DOUGLAS ZIMMERMAN / DAILY PILOTDOUGLAS ZIMMERMAN / DAILY PILOT(LA)Young girls sing holiday songs while taking part in the Saint Lucia pageant at the Swedish Christmas Festival in Costa Mesa. Below, Alfon Bergstrom of the Swedish Folk Dance Club of Los Angeles plays traditional music on his accordion. Santa Claus, aka Peter Phillips, hands out a gift to one lucky girl as more children line up behind her at the Swedish Christmas Festival, which is sponsored by the Swedish Women’s Educational Assn. 20051128iqn4x7knNo Caption20051128iqn4wukn