Betty Ehrenborg-Posse wrote the text in 1851 to the tune of the German student song from 1819, "Wir hatten gebauet ein stattliches Haus".
[1] The Swedish adaptation is often sung in homes, in schools and sometimes in Saint Lucia's Day processions.
It was originally used by the Swedish free church movement.
The lyrics includes childhood references that were removed when the song was included in the hymnal Den svenska psalmboken (1986), and replaced with an adapted version of the lyrics that was originally published in 1906 in the song book Sjung svenska folk! [sv].
The song has been recorded by Agnetha Fältskog on her 1981 Christmas album Nu tändas tusen juleljus,[2] by Hasse Andersson on Jul i Kvinnaböske from 1986,[3] and by Kikki Danielsson on Min barndoms jular from 1987.