Christmas in Finland is celebrated on the 24th of December, Christmas Eve, and a traditional dinner is one of the highlights in the festivities. Finnish Christmas is mainly a family event and much of Finland shuts down for Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day as people spend time with their closest relatives.
Traditional Finnish Christmas Foods
On the evening of the 24th Finns gather together with their families for a traditional Christmas dinner. Most Finns simply could not imagine a Christmas dinner table without some traditional items: oven-roasted Christmas ham, Swedish turnip (rutabaga) casserole and beetroot salad.
Oven-baked Christmas ham (joulukinkku) is always the centrepiece of a Finnish Christmas dinner table. The ham is baked in the oven for hours, often overnight, and glazed with mustard. It is served with a variety of oven-baked vegetable casseroles and stews. The most traditional is the rutabaga casserole (lanttulaatikko), but carrot casserole and potato casserole are also common. In some parts of Finland, especially in East Finland, Karelian stew (a meat stew) is a popular Christmas dish. Most Finns also eat rosolli, a salad made with beetroot, carrot, gherkins and apple.
The Christmas menu usually also includes a variety of fish: lutefish – a Scandinavian tradition and an acquired taste, freshly salted or smoked salmon and a range of pickled herrings. Sweet Christmas bread is served in some parts of the country and rye bread is always popular.
Traditional Christmas Desserts in Finland
Rice porridge that has been simmering on the stove for hours is a typical Christmas dessert and is usually served with cinnamon and sugar, or sometimes with a sweet mixed fruit soup. A single almond is often hidden in the porridge and the person who gets the almond can make a wish.
A wide variety of cakes and biscuits are served on Christmas in Finland. Many families have their own traditional sweets and biscuits but the most popular is the gingerbread, simply called Christmas biscuits (joulupiparit) in Finnish. Christmas tarts (joulutortut) are pastries filled with prune jam and almost as popular as gingerbread. If you visit a Finnish home during Christmas you may also get to try other types of biscuits and shortbreads, fruit cakes, pulla (buns) and chocolates or homemade sweets.
Glögi the Finnish version of mulled wine and is made with red wine, vodka, blackcurrant juice, sugar and spices: cinnamon, cardamon and cloves. Glögi is always served warm with almonds and raisins. If you’re visiting Finland in the weeks before Christmas, you can try glögi almost everywhere: in bars, cafés and restaurants and at Christmas markets. It is often served together with gingerbread.
Where to Try Christmas Foods in Finland
Although Christmas is a family event, many hotels in Finland (especially in Lapland) offer Christmas packages for visitors wanting to enjoy some Finnish Christmas traditions and try a traditional Finnish Christmas dinner. Before Christmas you can also sample many traditional foods at Christmas markets. The This is Finland website has recipes if you want to make traditional Finnish Christmas foods at home.
