Time Travel: A Festive Twist in Advent Stories
Time travel and Christmas have always made for a strange, compelling mix. From “The Hunt for the Time Crystal” to “1,000 Years Until Christmas Eve” and “Mirakel,” advent stories have a habit of blurring the line between past and present in ways that feel oddly right for the season.
“The Time Thief” follows Clint, a boy on a mission to find his missing father using a time viewer that is, to put it charitably, not built for ease of use. By the second episode alone, we are already watching a very confused, candy-obsessed Gustav Vasa trying to make sense of a world 500 years beyond his own.
A Glimpse Behind the Scenes with Beautiful Bengtsson
Clint is played by Gusten Wickberg, and his relationship with Christmas is complicated — the holiday marks the night his father disappeared, and he has never quite recovered from that. His sister Vida, played by Blanca Eliasson, is his opposite: she loves the festive season and throws herself into it completely.
“It’s a whirlwind of excitement; there’s simply too much happening to not stay engaged,” says Wickberg of the series.
The two siblings grow up in Kråksjö, a town their mother Moa — played by Maja Rung, who works as its tourism manager — has taken to calling “Tråksjö” in a half-joking acknowledgment of how dull the place can feel. That quiet life gets upended when the eccentric Bildsköne Bengtsson, brought to life by Simon J. Berger, crosses paths with the pair and manages to lose the time binoculars, kicking everything into motion.
For an in-depth look at the cast’s experiences, be sure to check out the interview clip.
