Our Christmas 2014 - in Finland
I always get rid of the Christmas decorations around 6th January. For me that has always been the last day of the Christmas period, the day when the holidays properly stop and the New Year is well underway. I didn't have the time to write about our Christmas celebrations before as we have been busy traveling, so I thought it would be about time to do it now, on the Twelfth Night...
We try to spend every other Christmas in Finland, in my home country, and every other here in the UK. It is a nice tradition to have - both of us get to experience the Christmas the way we remember it from our childhoods. Every other year it is turkey, crackers and stockings, and every other year it is plum tarts, gingerbread biscuits and slow-cooked game.
This year we went to Finland and spent the Christmas at my parents second home in the countryside. I was really excited about it - it was the first Christmas my little one would have in Finland. There you celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve, have a dinner and then open the presents. Santa makes a home visit to families with small kids (and daddy always manages to miss him, having to go and get milk few minutes before Santa gets there...). This time we didn't have Santa popping over, but we did enjoy the Christmas tree found from the nearby woods, and a gorgeous table topped with local delicacies. My absolute favourite Finnish Christmas foods are plum tarts, and white bread with butter and roe, and I ate my belly full of them. My husband prefers the slow-cooked game and gingerbread biscuits, and was happy to have plenty of both.
After some rice porridge for breakfast, we popped out to play in the snow.
In the evening we had a lovely meal - smoked salmon, roe, deer, traditional potato, swede and carrot casseroles, cold meats, salads... Lots of different things, all equally tasty!
And then it was all about relaxing and opening the presents. While we didn't have Santa making an appearance this year (his costume had been misplaced somewhere...) we did have plenty of presents and our little elf was helping us in finding out the contents of each package. And then we had dessert too - gingerbread biscuits, cheeses and chocolates.
Little mischievous elf had trouble keeping her fingers to herself...
And as most folks do on a Christmas Eve, we went to a traditional Finnish sauna in the evening - what a lovely way to end to the day.
I hope you had a wonderful Christmas too! How did you celebrate Christmas?
Hello ! Wish a very happy New Year both to You lovely family and to new blog!
ReplyDeleteI was already afraid You stop writing and leave us, but this new way seems interesting. I have stopped my blog just because the reason that life in Finland and all surrounding things start seem so usual.
You Christmas in Finland looks lovely and its an extra pleasure to have family holidays in two ways - finnish and british.
Sorry about my poor english, but tried to write in english. This is one possibility to work out my forgotten skills. Katrin, Porvoo.
Glad to see you here Katrin! :) I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and New Year.
DeleteYes, definitely, it is nice to have the ability to do two different types of Christmases - in fact, when we stay in UK for Christmas we usually have a Finnish-inspired dinner on the Christmas Eve and open at least one present as well. And you're English is great!
What a lovely tradition! And so wonderful that you had a snowy Christmas! I am very jealous!! x
ReplyDeleteI was wondering if we would get white Christmas... For a long time it looked like we might not get any snow, but luckily we did! In London we never really get a white Christmas, so it feels a bit more special :)
DeleteOh my word! I cannot begin to explain how jealous I am of your Christmas!! The snow, the traditions, the house, the sauna, the food... Please can I join you in 2 years time???
ReplyDeleteHah ha, I'll reserve some space in my suitcase for you ;) It is such a lovely country to visit, in fact, all of Scandinavia is lovely, if you ever get the chance it is worth visiting!
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