Notes From A Finnish Christmas

Hello all. Hope you had a wonderful Christmas. We have really embraced a typical cold and wet UK Christmas, with all the trimmings.  I’m fascinated with Christmas traditions, so I was thrilled when fellow expat Aleasha, of style and travel blog Little Traveller Things, agreed to share some of hers. She grew up in New Zealand but is currently living with her young family in Helsinki. A private home visit from Santa on Christmas Eve was just one of the highlights of their first Finnish Christmas…

How was your first Finnish Christmas?
It was a really mild few days in the build-up to the holidays but there was a very definite wintery festive vibe in the city with Christmas markets, sparkling lights, a carousel and windows glowing with candle light. We had a cosy little celebration with a few special family members visiting from London. We picked up a festive bouquet on the 23rd of December. It was wrapped in green paper to protect the flowers from the chill outside. We didn’t get the white Christmas we had been hoping for but we had a snow flurry on Boxing Day which was good enough for us. On Christmas Eve we had arranged for a Santa Claus to visit our house to deliver the presents which is a fun Finnish tradition for the children. Finns celebrate with a family dinner and gifting on the eve of Christmas.

What were the highlights for your toddler?
We stuck to our own tradition of gifting on the 25th of December, apart from one gift each which Santa brought to when he visited our house on the 24th. Our almost three-year-old daughter was very excited to see that Santa had visited again in the night to deliver more gifts. At first she said none of the gifts were for her as she was happy with the small Mickey Mouse Duplo set that Santa had delivered on Christmas Eve. She then got into the swing of opening more gifts with the ripping of wrapping paper still being the highlight of her morning.

And most importantly, what did you eat?
We had a mid-morning feast of pancakes which almost failed after using Finnish baking soda instead of powder. I can’t read Finnish so that can always lead to little blunders in the kitchen. We had a mid-afternoon Christmas dinner with Finnish ham and all the trimmings of a traditional roast dinner. Having her uncle and aunt here was a huge highlight for our daughter, as we have no other family in this part of the world.

Are there any traditions you recreated from home?
My mum makes a killer steamed pudding which I haven’t seen in Finland. I cheated a bit and got my sister-in-law to bring a M&S steamed pudding over from London but I probably shouldn’t admit that -shhhh. We also had mince pies and Christmas cake which we always eat at home, but we served them with a warm glass of Glögi which is Finnish mulled wine served with a handful of Christmas nuts and fruit at the bottom.

What did you miss most about a Kiwi Christmas?
Seeing all the sunny celebrations on social media makes me really homesick. Warm summer Christmas days still make the most sense to me. I have got used to a wintery Christmas now but I love a summer BBQ at Christmas time with all the kids running around in the back yard with bare feet and the smell of fresh cut grass.

It can be especially hard to be away from home at this time of year. Do you have any tips for bridging the distance from family?
Skype is pretty great for bringing families together. We spent a lot of time on Skype with our family in New Zealand as they were finishing their Christmas Day and we were just getting started. We also took loads of photos and videos to share with the family. We use Tiny Beans which is a private photo sharing website to share all the little family moments of the day. The grandparents get such a kick out of that, it’s the next best thing to being here. I would also say have a holiday booked to reunite with family some time early in the new year. It can be expensive to travel at Christmas so often we don’t go far but it’s nice to have a trip on the horizon to look forward to.

Aleasha is an online editor and mother of two – her eldest daughter was born in Beijing and her youngest in Finland. You can read more about her family’s global adventures at Little Traveller Things or find her on Instagram.

What a beautiful cosy, Finnish Christmas – with a private visit from Santa Claus. Amazing! Thank you so much for sharing Aleasha. I’d love to know your special Christmas traditions. Did you spend Christmas at home or away this year? What were your highlights?  Have a fabulous New Year and I’ll see you in 2016, Bex x