Quite apart from Christmas, the last thing the Moomin family does before getting back to their season long sleep is to lay out the mittens the Hemulen misplaced right back at the beginning, in a spot where he can’t miss them. Jansson was a writer of ludicrous delicacy and a master of detail. Aghast at how much food must be prepared for the Christmas that is coming, they ask each other: ‘Do you think Christmas is very hungry?’ Fortunately, the other woodland creatures between them give the Moomins the help they need and the whole thing works out well for everyone.Ī small Woodie ‘swallow some tea the wrong way from pure shyness’. The Hemulen’s Aunt tells them: ‘Better get yourself a fir tree before dark.’ But to the innocent Moomins this only means that: ‘The danger comes by dark’. Sleepy-headed and amid the rush of their neighbours’ festive preparations it seems as though ‘something awful is happening.’ Hence, when they are prematurely woken from their wintry slumbers by the Hemulen, they are most disconcerted by the foreboding news that Christmas is coming. This accounts for the fact that the Moomin family are neither aficionados, connoisseurs, nor even passing acquaintances, of Christmas. As everyone knows, the Moomin is a hibernatory creature.
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