Norwegians (and other Europeans) still look to America as ‘the land of opportunities’, where everything is much bigger – from cars, highways and hamburgers, to buildings lakes and shopping carts. And it’s true!
Some examples: The biggest bottle of soda you can by in Norway is ‘only’ 0.33 gallons compared to the US giant sized bottles. Another example is that you can fit at least 10 Norwegian Royal Castles inside The Pentagon. Even when it comes to passionate collectors, Americans are the experts. But now, they might face competition from Norwegian-born Lars Holdhus.
Mr. Holdhus, now living in Germany, owns a number of 150 different Christmas sweaters! Most Americans own at least one, but Mr. Holdhus has found his true passion in knitted sweaters with Christmas decorations.
‘I got my first Christmas sweater when I was about 10 years old. I really loved it and wore it all the time. In the end, it got dirty and thorn so I needed a new one. That’s how it all began. I started serious collecting about five years ago’, Mr. Holdhus tells Norwegian Broadcasting.
International press has shown their interest in the passionate collector’s addiction, and two of the biggest UK tabloids, The Sun and The Daily Mail, have written about him.
‘Personally, I think these sweaters are lovely, and I’ve always been a collector. This happened just by coincidence, but now I wear a Christmas sweater every day. All of the sudden, I owned 150 of them. After the newspapers started to write about me, people started sending me even more sweaters. I really want more. My goal is to get 500! Then, I’ll quit collecting. And I also want other people to get as passionate as I am’, the collector says to the press.
Many people have commented that Mr. Holdhus doesn’t smile in his photo series. ‘There is no particular reason why I don’t smile. All the pictures were shot in one day, and I wasn’t too happy in the first place. But that reaction is just normal when you’re shooting 90 pictures in a row’, Mr. Holdhus says.
He is not interested in selling his collection, and says he has spent a lot of time and money in secondhand shops across Europe and the US. His newest fascination is sweaters with Disney motives, and he already owns a small collection.
See the pictures of his collection here: NRK(Norwegian Broadcast)
Text by: Anette Broteng Christiansen, ThorNews
Photo: Lars Holdhus
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Categories: Quirky
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This struck me as so funny. I’m an American and I don’t own any Christmas sweaters but my stepmother does. I believe she has a Halloween one too.;) Quirky yes.