The story about Pippi's Christmas was published in a Swedish magazine in 1949, and was re-discovered in Astrid Lindgren's archive in 2002. For the first time in Sweden, it's now published as a picture book called "Pippi Saves Christmas"!
Fact
In 1949, the young German publisher Friedrich Oetinger was in Stockholm to meet the author Gunnar Myrdal. In a bookstore, he happened to hear about Pippi Langstrumpf. The rest is history – he requested a meeting with Astrid Lindgren and obtained a German option for the Pippi trilogy. Verlag Friedrich Oetinger in Hamburg still publishes all of Astrid Lindgren's children's books, and her great popularity in Germany remains intact. The film adaptations of her books were, in several cases, German co-productions, and they are still shown on German TV, especially around Christmas. Several of Astrid Lindgren's songs are very well known in their German translations, such as "Hey Pippi Langstrumpf!".