"Hostess Gifts" for Swedish family from U.S.A.?
 

My family is staying with Swedish friends during a Norway/Sweden vacation this summer. Any ideas about what we could bring from the U.S. to thank them for their hospitality? For example, someone recommended maple syrup. They have two boys (12 and 8) and we'd like to bring them something too .... videos, CDs? We will be traveling through Norway first, so realistically can't carry a lot around with us. Thank you for your suggestions!

Mary: The maple syrup is a good idea, as long as it
is authentic, from Vermont. Your hosts also might
enjoy a premium bottle of our fine California wines.
Since the family has two boys, how about some
t-shirts with a logo from your area of the U.S. or any other major city? Have a wonderful trip!

For the boys: Caps with icehockey logos is a great thing here.
For the grown ups is a bottle of bourbon also appreciated.

Hi, Mary,

As most things american are available in Sweden, it's kind of hard to find anything original. It may sound a bit silly but I would suggest you bring Peanut butter for the kids - which is quite unusual here.
Enjoy Scandinavia.

Niclas

I like the peanut butter idea! We had my nephew from Holland here and of course he wanted Levi's. That is a bit much for a gift though! He liked the CD;s we took him. Europeans love the 50's era American music. He knew all of the words to every song on the radio here. We also took them American silver dollars with statue of libery in little velvet cases and they returned by giving us special Mac Arthur coins commenurating the union of Holland and USA after the war. Wine is a good idea. They loved that. In Holland it is quite the thing to own an American Flag so I took my father one. They said if they leave it out it will get stolen. Don't know about the Swedes. CD's are interchangeable but our videos will not work in their video players. Have fun! Oh, Disney stuff is popular too!

<BR>Just returned from almost 3 weeks in Norway and Sweden, visiting alot of friends. As hostess gifts, I brought alot of things related to the history of my state that I bought in the gift shops of several historic homes: Cat's Meow houses, brass trivets, coasters, ladies scarves, matted prints - all of recognizable places in US. For children, anything Disney is hot but I took little books of stickers of different Indian tribes and Civil War uniform patches. Small "coffee table" type books on your state/USA or picture cookbooks are also great- everybody reads English there and are highly literate. Don't bring pewter - Norway has beautiful (and expensive) pewter.

Because I have relatives in Sweden, the best responses I ever received for gifts was when I brought bottles of American <BR>Whiskey-- and the ladies loved American <BR>cosmetics- Revlon, Estee Lauder, Calvin <BR>Klein etc. (All these items are VERY <BR>expensive in Sweden). <BR>

American cosmetics- Revlon, Estee <BR> Lauder, Calvin Klein etc. Hm thought they where french??? About american Burbon , most swedes prefer Scotch Whisky...wHAT TO BRING , HARD QUESTION, <BR>T-shirts, hm , some would love them , outher think that that is very workingclass... Same goes for Caps <BR>with icehockey logos.... <BR>Peanutbutter, why not, that's exotic or maybe marple-syrup, or bloody-mary-mix.. Levis and CD's is avaible in every shop, not that good... <BR> <BR>Indian stuff or Cookbook or "coffee table" type books on your state/USA, thats very good , best so far... <BR> <BR>Myself i can't come up with anything... <BR> <BR>Wasa