The Christmas Magazine – From the Game to the Goodies

Christmas Town Hafnarfjörður

Aron Pálmarsson is on duty in the Christmas Village this year. He has left the sport behind and taken on baked goods. He is looking forward to meeting all the people of Hafnarfjörður who have supported him through the years. The article appeared in the Christmas magazine of Hafnarfjörður.

“Yes, that is how it has been – and no less Haukamen than FH supporters,” says Aron, describing the necessary rivalry between the clubs and then the unity once you step outside the town limits. “Then the people of Hafnarfjörður stand together. I love this solidarity. It is incredible.”

This handball star, who played his farewell match between his teams FH and Veszprém in August, has bought Bæjarbakaríið from his family and now runs it. He has also stepped into the real estate market as a manager in a new way through the investment fund Aparta. He is also a professional advisor for the FH handball department, a mentor. “I am here if people need me.”

He is a family man, unlike before when he spent years alone from the age of nineteen as a professional athlete abroad. “I was fully focused on handball and felt comfortable being on my own.”

Threads of love through life

A Hafnarfjörður local. “Yes, through and through,” says Aron, who has put down roots again in Hafnarfjörður and lives with his childhood love, Rita Stevens. They have children together, and this blended family is still shaping its own Christmas rhythm.

“A Netflix story,” he says about how love has found its way back to him and Rita again and again. “We were both in Setberg School, a couple in the 7th grade and again in our first year of upper secondary school. Then she lived with me in Germany for a year and a half from when we were 22.” After that time they did not speak for six years. “Then we met by chance in 2020 and here we are,” he says.

Handball got in the way of love – or the other way around – he feels, when they were young. “My mind was only on handball. It always came first.” That has changed, and now they walk hand in hand.

Handball offered a routine life

Aron describes the highly structured life of a professional handball player. “I could always say exactly where I would be throughout the year. Now it is a certain challenge to decide for myself where I will be and what I should be doing.” Back in his hometown, where his childhood friends have established careers and families, he felt like he was starting from scratch.

“I still find it strange to look around and see that people take different routes to the same goal,” says Aron. “But I understand that the paths are different, even if I do not choose the easiest one.” Ambition and hard work still characterize him.

“Yes, those qualities have not disappeared even though handball is over. I still think one should put in a lot of effort, take responsibility, and reach their goal.”

But does he do everything with his heart? “No, I try to do as little as possible with that and as much as possible with my head,” Aron says, laughing. “As soon as you make big decisions with your heart, you can become blind. You need to think about the past, the present, and the future, whatever the decision is. Emotions. Never make decisions based on them,” he says, smiling and pausing to think.

“But my heart is always with FH,” he says. “And with Rita, the children, and Christmas with the family. And yes, I also stand in the heart itself in the Christmas Village during Advent.”