Traditional Finnish Christmas Foods
Christmas is the time of giving, togetherness, and food. This blog, however, is all about the food. Traditional Finnish Christmas feast is an inclusive multi-course experience to all senses, which formerly aimed to be the very best meal of the whole year. It’s the season when no one’s allowed to count calories and eating round the clock is considered completely normal. You can read my previous blog about other Christmas traditions here.
Christmas table
Traditional Finnish Christmas day usually starts with rice porridge in the morning, which is also called Christmas porridge, since it isn’t usually eaten outside of Christmas season. Lunch and dinner is a buffet, which includes several casseroles, such as potato, carrot, beetroot, liver and turnip. Different fish in many forms are also very popular, as well as salads, Karelian hot pot, and different types of bread. However, the most important dish is the Christmas ham.
It needs to be prepared in the oven for several hours, preferably overnight, to reach the perfect temperature and texture. It’s always served with mustard and enjoyed with the rest of Christmas foods. If there’s leftover ham after everything else is gone, it’s brilliant on bread, for example. Most of Finns prefer to spend Christmas at home, but it’s also the busiest tourism season, especially in Lapland. Therefore, there are plenty of places to have Christmas food if you’re traveling.
Dessert & drinks
Everyone who loves dessert, should love Christmas. There are so many options to choose from, and some of them are usually available for weeks before the holidays. The most popular ones available everywhere are gingerbread and Christmas tarts, which tastes the best with glogg/mulled wine or coffee. Finns tend to drink glogg without alcohol, and you can buy it from every grocery store and café. However, it’s not totally unusual to have some spiked glogg, or other special Christmas drinks with alcohol in it. Chocolate is also very popular during Christmas, and the selection gets huge by the end of November with many flavors available only during this time of the year. Many schools, companies and groups have pre-Christmas gatherings as a way of saying thank you for the past year’s work and accomplishments, as well as spending time together before people go to their homes and families for the holidays.
⇐ By Erika Katainen / Visit Lapland ⇒
