Elsa is my favourite Disney princess. If you can have a favourite Disney princess at 47. She can make it snow. She’s fine with being along if it means she can finally be herself. I also agree with Mind the Flap that there’s a strong case for Elsa being autistic. But back to snow.
Some of my favourite childhood memories are of playing in the snow. My grandparents lived in an apartment complex that was built in the 1950s – a time when playgrounds, wide-open spaces for children to kick balls around, and the creation of artificial hills for tobogganing in winter were a priority in town planning meetings. It was an amazing place to grow up. I’d rush home from school, collect my toboggan from under the stairs, and hurry off to one of the hills. I didn’t have my watch because it would get wet when we went flying over bumps, but I knew to come home when it began to get dark.
When I got back, damp but happy in my snowsuit, my grandmother would make me hot chocolate and there was usually a slice of homemade cake to go with it. Then I would sit and read or play until my parents finished work and came to pick me up.
Snow makes me feel calm. A deep, lasting calm. The world slows down, everything stops feeling so hectic. When I took my dog for a walk earlier this week, it was still dark, but everything was much brighter. Suddenly, out of nowhere, music sounded. There was band playing in the snow. Someone was a celebrating an anniversary and their friends had gathered to wake them up with song. I stood still for a moment, just listening and smiling quietly, my dog by my side. A moment of such pure happiness.
There are two buildings in Rudkøbing that I think would be so utterly perfect for The Story Cellar. When I walk past them, covered in snow, they make me happy. That same calm happiness I used to feel as a child. Like I could sit there for hours with a book and a cup of hot chocolate. And definitely a slice of cake. A big one.
Yes, it’s a dream.
But when the world is covered in snow and a band suddenly strikes up a tune, it feels like the kind of place where wishes might just come true.
One day.