Christmas preparations start early in Finland with ‘Little Christmas'. Little Christmas or "pikkujoulu" means a certain kind of pre-Christmas celebration, for example many companies offer their staff a restaurant outing (often with alcoholic beverages) before Christmas. It can also be thought of as a period of time in late November through early December when such feasts most often occur.
There are three other Advent Sundays before Christmas. One candle is lit and put either in a special candlestick that holds four, or as the first of the four candles on the Christmas tree. Other times, the four candles of Advent are placed in the home often near a window where they can be plainly seen.
Children get their first Christmas present then. Small children get an Advent Calendar with a window to open each day before Christmas.
Everyone helps to make "piparkakkuja" or gingerbread, shaping it into stars, hearts,
moons, pigs and other figures. Cold ham, salted meat and pickled herrings are also eaten, as is herring salad with chopped carrots, turnips or salted cucumber. (The ham is usually 5-10 kg in weight, is coated with mustard and equals to a Christmas turkey as known to the Americans; very few Finns eat Christmas turkey.)
Tulips, hyacinths or poinsettias or gifts are given to friends. Families gather at home around the tree and drink a cup of glögi, made of red wine, spices and raisins.
The main Christmas celebration starts at twelve o'clock on December 24th by the Mayor of Helsinki, who says everyone should pay their respects to the Christ Child's birth. So early on Christmas morning, around six o'clock, every body gets up and goes to church. The churches are lit with candles at all the pews. When the snow is extremely deep, the service is watched on television.
We will tell you about Christmas in Finland. We have a Christmas
tree in the house. We eat very much ham, salad, potatoes and
everything tasty, chocolate, of course, and sweets. Santa Claus
usually comes with his presents on Christmas Eve. Santa Claus
has a long beard, red clothes and a silly hat. Santa Claus lives in
Korvatunturi, Finland. There are a lot of brownies helping him.
Christmas is very traditional celebrations in Finland. People spend Christmas in 24.12. At that time is usually snow and frost in Finland.
At Christmas people buy a Christmas tree and then they decorate it. People buy presents to each other, pack them and then put them under the Christmas tree.
Traditional Christmas dishes are ham, Swede casserole, escalloped potatoes, carrot casserole and rice porridge.
At Christmas people bake ginger biscuits and Christmas cakes. There is plum jelly in the Christmas cakes. On Christmas Eve evening Father Christmas comes to give presents for everyone. Then everybody sing Christmas songs and they open the presents. Everybody is happy at Christmas.
Christmas in Finland. One day before Christmas we 
usually go into the forest and cut down a good Christmas tree.
We put that tree inside our home. Then on Christmas Eve
we put a golden star on the top of that Christmas tree
and other beautiful things on it. We decorate our homes beautifully. On Christmas Eve we go to the Finnish sauna.
Father Christmas visits every family and gives presents.
He is an old, friendly man who wears red clothes.
And we have a Christmas meal, too. It is ham, rosolli salad,
carrot cassarole, rice porridge, plum pudding and ginger
bread and tarts. Early in the morning on Christmas Day we go to Christmas church where we listen to Christmas songs.
2 comments:
Carla Díaz-Salazar Iglesias:
Xmas in Finland is very beautiful. I like their customs.
What they have in common with Spain is Chrismas tree in the decoration.
But I think in the end we all have the same spirit.
Elena Casado Estévez:
The most interesting thing of the article is the Finnish sauna,because,in Spain it is very strange go to the sauna at Chrismas.
Carolina Patiño:
I was surprised when I read the text because it is very different from us ,in Spain.
Sara Costas:
The diference between Finland and Spain is the food and some traditions.We have a big dinner on Xmas Eve with king prawns or other type of shellfish
Pedro Guerra:
I really liked this article because it is very interesting to know what are Christmas in other countries.
The Finnish Christmas are similar to the Spanish Christmas. The differences are: we haven´t got any advent calendars, we eat shellfish, the 6th of January the Three Wise Kings come with presents. The similarities are: we have the same special days (Chirstmas Eve, Christmas Day…), we go to church on Christmas day and we also sing Christmas songs.
Hello! I'm portuguese so I could have mistakes in this coment.
I liked what you say about Christmas in Finland. Their tradictions are beautiful.
There are things very cutes in Finland. Their Christmas is very diferent from Portuguese Christmas.
I want to say that you know what you're doing in this blog.
Congratulation for our blog nd Merry Chrismas!
Thanks for reading.
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