My traditional Christmas in Finland

 December 2022

A real winter fairy tale awaited us when me and Petri celebrated Christmas in the Finnish countryside with his mum and her husband. 

The travel itself was incredibly romantic. Four hours in the train, a snowy landscape with frozen lakes passing by, and we were excited for Christmas. For the first time in my life, I was in a dining wagon. I had already discovered that Finns are not used to prepare homemade sandwiches. However, they don't mind buying something in a shop, where they often reach for a karjalanpiirakka, but they won't prepare the classic bread with something. That's why they need trains with a dining wagon, which are not common in the Czech republic, because there we have supplies from home. When we travel in the Czech republic, our backpacks are stuffed with food and the only reason someone would visit a dining wagon is for a beer. I am a classic Czech who doesn´t travel without at home prepared snack. So, the day before our trip I was thinking out loud whether I should prepare our sandwiches in the evening or in the morning, what kind of bread we had at home and what I would put in them, just the classics. Petri didn't look too enthusiastic and said we would buy something in the train. And it was very nice, we had a coffee, a mozzarella bun, a cinnamon roll and mango yogurt. On the way back we had coffee again, a rye sandwich – me with cheese and Petri with ham, and a joulutorttu as a dessert. And I was glad to have experienced something new.

Christmas in the countryside was traditional and wonderful. The day before Christmas Eve we went to the forest to get a tree. Petri´s mum and her husband own lands around their house, so it was possible. In Finnish Christmas tree is joulukuusi, which means Christmas spruce. I suggested we look for a pine tree, which I like very much, thinking that spruce was just an expression for any coniferous Christmas tree. It's not, it really must be a spruce. In fact, they don’t even sell much anything else than spruces, so if anyone would want to buy any other kind of tree, he would have to search all over the place to find one. So, Petri rejected the pine idea, we took the saw and headed into the forest. We were walking in the snow and digging into the snow drifts looking for the optimal tree. And of course, we found it. Petri got snow in his shoe, which he commented with a lot of Perkele. It is a Finnish swearing meaning something like evil spirit.  On the way back, was falling mixture of snow with rain and I felt light on the soul and happy.

In the late afternoon it started to snow, and it snowed overnight. In the morning we had to dig up dig up the potatoes from the snow-covered cellar.  We needed them for our Christmas Eve dinner. Then it was necessary to bring wood into the house, to make the paths accessible which was done by tractor with snow plough, and we also needed to shovel snow off the steps. I put seeds into the bird feeder and hang some tallow balls, because birds had hungry bellies after a frosty night.

At noon we had riisipuuro, a rice porridge, which Finns eat on 24^th December, often sprinkled with cinnamon. In the pot with rice porridge is hidden an almond. There is a saying that who finds can have one wish. I was the lucky one who found it.

Before dinner I lit the classic candles on the tree, and we were singing carols. Then it was time to set the table and make the final touches on dinner. In Finland, typical meal on Christmas Eve feast is roasted pork kinkku. Although I am a vegetarian, I watched its preparation with fascination. The roast was baked in the oven for wood. Before it was almost done, it was taken out from the oven, spread with mustard, sprinkled with breadcrumbs, cloves were put on and then kinkku returned to the oven for a moment. It was so big it wouldn't even fit in a normal electric oven. We had a few side dishes which are typical in Finland for Christmas Eve, namely slowly bakes mushed potatoes perunalaatiko and then lanttulaatiko in which are instead of potatoes turnips. We also had boiled potatoes and peas. Another traditional Christmas meal is rosolli, which is a salad of diced cooked carrots, beetroots, potatoes, raw onions and pickled cucumbers. Usually, it is served with a mayonnaise dip with is in a side bowl, so that everyone can have it according to their liking. The Christmas Eve table also includes fishes prepared in all sorts of ways. Smoked, pickled, fish salad, even caviar. Furthermore, we had not very typical, but very delicious artichoke soup. Especially because of me, Petri's mum prepared a beetroot strudel and cabbage pastries.  It was very nice of her, and I enjoyed it very much. It really was a feast, and it was delicious.

The presents are brought on Christmas Eve by Joulupukki, which is Santa Clause, but the direct translation is Christmas goat. This name pukki = goat comes from the harvest festival of Kekri, where youngsters dress up as Kekripukki, visit houses and ask for food. It reminds a little bit Halloween, except there is no fixed date, but it depends on each family's autumn harvest time. This tradition is not celebrated much these days, but there are places where they are trying to bring this tradition up again. Joulupukki is moreover mixed with Nuuttipukki, which is a kind of vagabond, dressed as a goat that goes from house to house in January begging under threat for leftovers from Christmas. Joulupukki, however, does not take the form of a goat, but is a typical Santa Claus as we know him, who has his elf village in the Korvatunturi mountains at the North Pole in Lapland.

On Christmas Day we had a feast again. I liked everything very much, but I am not such a big eater, so I was full quite soon. All in all, our side of the table, where I was sitting with Petri's mum's husband was weaker in eating. Petri's mum was asking us to add more on our plates, that we hadn't eaten anything. Her husband replied that he had two potatoes, a piece of fish, a roasted meat and listed a few more dishes, for which he was rewarded with the words "No hyvää", “Well, good”. Then it was my turn. I also listed all the things I had eaten, I highlighted that I had two portions of baked leek and was rewarded with "No hyvää", which meant I passed. In the end, Finnish Christmas didn’t very much differ from Czech one, it was all about being together and surrounded by good food.

It turned out that all mums are the same, whether Finnish or Czech, and so we left with a bag full of treats. My mum always packs a lot for me too, especially heavy items like jams, syrups in glass bottles, a bag of apples and so on. In the train, Petri excitedly informed me that he had a piece of kinkku in his bag. Well, it was no surprise to me, I think that not only me, but some other passengers had to sense its presence. There were three of us in the train. Me, Petri and kinkku.