Christmas traditions in Lapland and Finland
Heading out to Lapland for your Christmas holidays means you can immerse yourself and your family in snow, Santa and sledding. But you may not know some of the more niche ways that people in Lapland and Finland celebrate the festive season. You might like to join in on a few of the traditions to add some extra quirk to your trip – Christmas Eve sauna anyone?
Getting ready for the big day
Much the same as in the UK, Christmas preparations start about a month before Christmas in Finland on the first day of advent, which is also when advent parades and Christmas markets take place.
Santa comes early
Christmas Eve is the biggest day for Christmas in Finland, marking when the big Christmas meal is served and Santa comes to visit. The festive food starts with a traditional breakfast of rice porridge and plum juice, before the main meal of the day is eaten in the evening. The feast can include baked ham, cured salmon, rutabaga casserole and beetroot salad, as well as plenty of homemade beer and glogi mulled wine.
After dinner it’s time for a visit from the man himself, and as Santa lives in Lapland, he visits Finnish children first before delivering presents all over the world. This means that the children get to see Santa as they’re still awake. Here Santa – or Joulupukki – always uses the door and on arrival he announces ‘Are there any well-behaved children here?’, to which the children naturally shout yes.
The Christmas goat
Although nowadays he’s very giving, the origins of Santa in Finland come from the story of a rather mean Christmas goat. The Finnish word for Santa is Joulupukki – meaning Yule Goat – as in times gone by a goat would scare the local people and take away their presents. Over time the goat mellowed, eventually giving presents rather than receiving them and only scolding children who had been bad, leaving them with a bag of coal in place of gifts.
Where Santa lives
Although British children tend to believe that Santa lives at the North Pole, anyone who visits Lapland will find out for themselves that’s not entirely true. In 1927, a Finnish children’s radio presenter revealed the exact location of Joulupukki’s home as Korvatunturi Fell, Ear Mountain, in eastern Lapland. But as that’s close to the Russian border, instead he comes down to the Santa’s Workshop Village at Napapiiri, near Rovaniemi to visit people.
Here you can see Santa’s helpers sort all his mail at Santa’s Main Post Office, head to Santa Park for elf workshops and sleigh rides, or even enjoy excursions with the reindeer and huskies at Salla Reindeer Park.