From the first advent we start to wait for Christmas and we light the first advent candle. Every Sunday up to Christmas Eve we light one more. In Finland Christmas is a religious festival but we have Elves and Santa Claus too.
Finnish people believe that the Elves peer behind windows and tell the Santa Claus how children behave. Naughty children get only twigs but to the kind ones Santa Claus brings presents. Our Santa Claus has a big white beard, a long red coat and a red hat. He's very very old and fat.
Somebody thinks that Santa Claus lives in the North Pole but the real Santa Claus lives in Finland. Santa Claus lives in Korvatunturi with his wife mother Christmas and the Elves. We count the days to Christmas Eve with the help of Christmas calendars. We get to open a new window every morning, and what do we find there? Just before Christmas the Finnish people clean the house and then we decorate our homes. The traditional Finnish Christmas decorations are straw ornaments etc. Just before Christmas Eve we decorate the Christmas tree and put a star on the top of it.
On Christmas Eve we usually wake up very early because everybody is so eager after waiting such a long time. In the forenoon we eat rice porridge. There is an almond in the porridge. The one who gets it can make one wish. One of the well-known Finnish Christmas tradition is sauna at noon. After sauna we dress up and then we start to eat our Christmas dinner. Our traditional Christmas foods are ham, sweede-carrot- and potato casseroles. We eat a lot of fish too. After dinner we open the Christmas presents and spend time with our families and relatives.
Information:
Author:
Nea, Eleonora and Noora, Suutarilan yläasteen koulu
Somebody thinks that Santa Claus lives in the North Pole but the real Santa Claus lives in Finland. Santa Claus lives in Korvatunturi with his wife mother Christmas and the Elves. We count the days to Christmas Eve with the help of Christmas calendars. We get to open a new window every morning, and what do we find there? Just before Christmas the Finnish people clean the house and then we decorate our homes. The traditional Finnish Christmas decorations are straw ornaments etc. Just before Christmas Eve we decorate the Christmas tree and put a star on the top of it.
