– I am a Santa Claus. Enjoyed everything about Christmas. The Christmas booklet has been a big part of my childhood. So I have collected instead of heaving. Tore Øvreeide from Bjørnafjorden in Vestland has brought us along to show his impressive collection of Christmas booklets. – About 1,600 booklets in total. A little more than I managed to read in one evening. When you first get bitten by the bug, it’s nice, says the 57-year-old proudly. The stacks are usually in plastic boxes in boxes and cupboards. Now he has laid out part of the booklet on the table, neatly stacked in chronological order. Photo: Leif Rune Løland / news In the decorated part of his lair they lie in a row: Smørbukk, Tuss and Troll, Truls and Trine, Stomperud, Vangsgutane, Nils and Blåmann, Soldat 47, and many, many more. – I have most of “einognitti Stomperud”. There I have 75 contiguous vintages. I have most of the other series down to around 1967. Flipping through the pages with devotion Then he leads us to the table with his greatest treasures. – Here is the oldest I have. Nils and Blåmann from 1941. Øvreeide flips carefully and devoutly. – Nils is an orphaned boy in an orphanage. In this story, he has been given three toys: A boat, a car and a plane. With them, he dreams away of going out into the world in search of a princess. Dreaming away, so does the collector himself. There is a sparkle in his eye. – The way it is drawn and written. Then I’m suddenly back to my childhood. That’s the wonderful thing. Then I can sit and dream away and just look at a drawing for a long time. Nils and Blåmann from 1941 and Stomperud from 1942 are among the oldest treasures in the collection. American raccoons from World War II. Nils and Blåmann are still going strong. Here from the 1980s. Neatly stacked stacks in chronological order, and under the table are full plastic boxes with the rest. He says that his finest copies can cost NOK 5,000 for one leaf. He believes his entire collection is worth over NOK 100,000, perhaps closer to NOK 150,000. – But it’s not that easy to sell. Then I have to find someone who is worse than me. I don’t know if that exists. “Kallemann” has 51,000 But yes, there are crazier people than Tore Øvreeide. According to the My comics website, which sells many thousands of different series, there are 26 major Norwegian collectors who have over 20,000 cartoon series booklets (not just Christmas booklets). At the top is “Kallemann”, with over 51,000 booklets. – The biggest ones will be anonymous. It’s mostly men, and often the wife doesn’t know about it. The best and rarest booklets can cost NOK 12-13,000. That’s what a – yes, anonymous – middle-aged man in another place in Western Norway says, who claims that he is not as keen a collector as he used to be. – My impression is that interest among collectors has declined over the past 10-15 years, he says. To get in the right mood, Øvreeide has had her friend Øyvind Tøsdal be Santa and come to the door with this year’s Christmas booklet for him. Photo: Leif Rune Løland / news The wife got “Santa on the load” The booklet on display at Tore Øvreeide is only a small part of his entire collection. – I have much more than this. Full stamps under the table. And inside a little cone that I didn’t have room for. His wife Anne Austefjord Øvreeide joins the “archive” to carry out some of the boxes from the hut. – It’s heavy on lead! she sighs. She wasn’t aware of the full scope, but she knew that the old man is crazy about Christmas booklets. When she married Tore, she got the Christmas booklet with the purchase – like “Santa on the load”. He tries his hand at an excuse that the mailbox lives its own life. His wife Anne notes that Tore has hidden away plastic boxes with old Christmas booklets both here and there. Photo: Odd Arne Olderbakk / news But he admits that he looks for a Christmas booklet on finn.no once a week. – Where did you get this stack, for example? – Eh. Don’t think. Yes, I found them just now, in the cupboard in there. The disaster The most dramatic event came early in the Christmas booklet collector’s career. His weasel brother had nailed a self-made picture to the wall. – No one noticed that the nailer had hit a power line inside the wall. I only understood that later. Whether Tore is most upset about the house or the Christmas booklet must be left unsaid. – But in any case I had to start collecting again. In the cajote with Stomperud Jula 2022, however, everything is harmonious and Christmas peaceful in the shelter at Øvreeide in Hegglandsdalen. Tore and “the Santa” Øyvind sat down each with an old Stomperud booklet and a plate of porridge. Now it is important not to spill the booklet. – Then it’s right in the drawer, Santa! Life imprisonment, minimum. But if you bring some Stomperud with you, it will be fun there. Øyvind Tøsdal and Tore Øvretveit enjoy old editions of “91 Stomperud”. Photo: Odd Arne Olderbakk / news
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– Reading old Christmas booklets is like entering heaven – news Vestland
