Glögi And The Mystery of The Almond in The Porridge
On Christmas Eve you crave something warm to get your heat up, and what better way than with a hot cup of Glögi. It is similar to German and Austrian Glühwein and it can be served with raisins and almonds. You can get it ready-made at any food store in Oulu – just warm it up in your favourite pot. The Christmas rice porridge (riisipuuro) with hidden almond is another tradition. Whoever happens to find the almond will be the receiver of good fortune. In the middle ages, a coin or a bean would be hidden in the food instead, and whoever had the bean would decide who among the guests would be providing entertainment for all the other guests.
Stealing A Tree
An exciting adventure: sneaking into your neighbor’s forest and stealing a Christmas tree. I don’t recommend you trying this, however. That is, unless you know the owner of the forest and ask for permission; in which case it’s not technically stealing but you can pretend to make it more exciting.
The Snowman
No Finnish Christmas would ever be complete without the rerun of The Snowman on TV. Based on the popular children’s book by the same name which was illustrated in 1978 in the U.K., The Snowman was adapted to a 26 minute animation for television in 1982, and has since become a staple of Christmas with its touching story and gorgeous cinematics. The awesome song that plays in the middle of the animation, Walking in the Air, is composed by Howard Blake and more recently covered by the one and only Nightwish.
Christmas Calendar
One of the most fun things to do is to have a Christmas calendar, which normally is a rectangular box of chocolates with which not only you get to count the days left until Christmas Eve, but also you open the “doors” on certain days and you retrieve a present. It’s like Christmas Eve every day.
Joulupukki
Christmas wouldn’t be complete without our beloved old Nordic man with the big belly, the Santa Claus or as he is known here – Joulupukki. One of the origin stories from Joulupukki dates back to the 17th century and was previously known Nuuttipukki. Young men would dress in inverted fur jackets and leather masks and would go from house to house demanding the leftover foods and alcoholic beverages. If they were denied the goodies, they would threaten to trash the place. Nobody knows how the story went from a food stealer to a jolly gift giver but if I had to take a guess, I would say Santa had some rowdy young days and then reformed himself.
