Christmas in Finland

Yesterday I already returned to England, but it's nice to go back to the holiday feeling in Finland for a little while. I collected some photos from my Christmas celebrations for you to see. The weather was extraordinarily warm and there was only a little snow on a few days, but it was nice not having to freeze the whole time. There were some nice sunsets every day, which happened around 3pm, the wonderful supermoon also appeared in the sky.

I felled a Christmas tree with my partner from Granddad's sustainable forest. It was stuck between three aspen and birches that can now grow more freely after removing that spruce. It's always exciting to search for a tree in the forest and we managed to find quite a good one again. My nephew mainly decorated the tree and the lovely tontut made by my mum were placed in the house again.

Obviously there was a lot of eating and drinking involved. I made a halloumi, pomegranate and cashew salad, small parsnip, carrot and chestnut nut roasts, a sweet potato casserole and mini pepper, onion and cheese tarts for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. I also detected some new drinks, a really lovely Christmas cider that I came to regret for only having bought one bottle, great quality mulled wine and a festive variation of the Kekkonen beer.

There is a tradition bringing candles to graves of loved ones on Christmas Eve, and we do this every year. The graveyard looks so nice all lit up by hundreds of candles in the evening, a very serene scene.

I spent a little time in Helsinki on the way back from home. On Boxing Day Helsinki got its first cover of snow for this winter and people seemed quite happy about it. The city was nicely decorated for the festive period.

So this was my small break in Finland, now I'm luckily off to Oxford for a few days and can relax further. Did you all have a lovely Christmas time?

Your VegHog