Behind the Barn Doors: Why Jul På Gården

I came across a photo album this summer as I was cleaning out our basement, it contained a rare snapshot of Francis with his four children gathered next to the fireplace in what is now our living room.

It’s the kind of photo that hums when you hold it- kids in PJs, tinsel glinting, soft laughter frozen mid-frame, the warmth of a time when everything important still fit inside one room.

These photos feel like the heart of everything we’ve built here at Wildberry.

The Heart of Wildberry

Long before Wildberry had a name, there was a rhythm running through this land: grow what you can, share what you have, make do beautifully. Francis, the red-haired farmer who bought this piece of ground at sixteen, and his wife Angelina, who filled it with food and laughter, set that rhythm for future generations.

They built community one table at a time. They hosted friends that became like family, fixed things for others, and gave even when there wasn’t much to spare. Their house was a place where you could always find a seat, a story, or a meal... and without realizing it, that spirit became the heart of Wildberry.

When we started the farm, we carried that same heart forward. We wanted to build a place where people felt they belonged. A place where beauty, generosity, and hard work could coexist. We used what we had, leaned on creativity more than capital, and believed that if we poured enough love into this place, it would pour back.

The Gift and the Lesson

And it did pour back, in many ways.

But the truth is, the same generosity that built Wildberry also stretched us thin. We gave and gave, sometimes beyond what was sustainable, because it felt like the only way to honor what came before us.

That’s the quiet truth woven through Jul På Gården: love built this, but boundaries will sustain it.

This collection isn’t a goodbye, it’s an acknowledgment.

An honoring of the beauty that came from saying yes, and the wisdom that now comes from saying no.

Why Jul På Gården

Why Jul På Gården

Jul På Gården, Swedish for “Christmas on the Farm," is our way of returning to the roots that started it all.

It’s about handmade simplicity, the art of using what you have (slöjd), and creating things that are meant to be touched, played with, and passed down (brukskonst).

It’s a collection built from the same materials that built this life: wood, wool, and heart.

The hutch Francis made now holds our pieces. The stockings are stitched from repurposed wool. The nativity figures are carved from the same tobacco sticks Francis once hung in the barns.

Everything circles back.

The Full Circle

That photo of Francis and his children now rests on the same hutch he built, beside the handmade pieces that carry his legacy forward as well as updated pictures of his children with their own children and grandchildren. The same light that touched their faces glows again in ours.

Jul På Gården was never just about Christmas; it was about continuity. About remembering that everything we needed was already here in our hands, our stories, and our soil.

As we close this chapter of Wildberry and step into what’s next, we do so with the same spirit that started it all: build community, use what you have, give from the heart.. but this time, leave room to breathe.

---

Visit us at the final Wildberry Markets this season to see Jul På Gården.

A Scandinavian Christmas, handmade on the farm.