Okay, I know Christmas was a few months ago.. but if you’re still interested in knowing how we in Finland celebrate it (continue reading).
So to start off Finns don’t celebrate Christmas on Christmas day, it is celebrated on the 24th causing Christmas Eve to be on the 23rd. But for anyone back in Oregon it was the 22nd of December when we were celebrating Christmas Eve because of the time difference (weird, huh?). On actual Christmas day I binge-watched the Harry Potter series and ate Chinese food with my host mom, which was definitely strange but hey I’m not complaining!
The 24th (Christmas Day) did not feel like Christmas at all, there wasn’t any snow, people didn’t decorate their houses with tacky lights, and I wasn’t with my family. It felt like a pretty ordinary day.. in the afternoon I added all the last minute touches to the gifts, ate a few too many Christmas chocolates, and hurried out the door to go to the cemetery with my host mom and her son (not very jolly). At first, I wasn’t too stocked to be walking around a graveyard on Christmas, but once I got there I realized what a beautiful tradition it is. Almost the entire town was there, yet it was silent. Everyone was walking around peacefully lighting candles on headstones of loved ones and veterans, it was so lovely I almost didn’t realize I was standing outside for 2 hours in below 0-degree weather. Once we paid our respects, we hopped back in the car and drove to my host mom’s parent’s house.
It started to feel a lot more like Christmas once we got there, the fire was going, there was food in the oven, there were plenty of lights and even a tree. Although the family is what made it really feel like it was the holidays. Even though it wasn’t my family they were just as loving and happy! After the fishy dinner and breakfast like dessert, an old man decided to give us a visit (not in a creepy way) it was Santa Clause. In Finland, it is normal to hire someone to dress up as Santa and come by to deliver the gifts to the children and let them sit in their lap. In our case, the old man was my host mom’s kind and very tall friend.
Once we opened all our gifts we Facetimed my host mom’s daughter (Aurora) who is currently in Oregon on exchange and my family in Oregon. It was such a weird feeling being on the other end of the Facetime. Always on Christmas/ Christmas Eve, my family (including me) Facetimes our family members living in other places and me being one of those family members was one of the strangest feelings in the world. It got pretty late pretty fast, time really does fly when you are having a good time. Late at night, we decided we better go home. Once we got home we all changed into comfy new PJ’s we got for Christmas and started a game of monopoly. I munched on some Trader Joe’s peppermint Oreos my family included in the Christmas package they sent me since I was feeling homesick and those Oreos somehow make everything better. After we decided to give up on the monopoly game that lasted hours, we went to bed wishing each other “Merry Christmas” and just like that Christmas was over before it even started (the 25th).
Celebrating big holidays such as Christmas in a foreign Country with a foreign family is something I definitely recommend, it’s the good kind of weird.
My ‘Christmas’ was great, I hope yours was too!