Christmas with the Finnish touch

Not everyone celebrates Christmas, but for millions of people around the world it is the most important festival of the year.

In Finland Christmas is a big festive occasion on both the religious and the commercial level. That is why the Virtual Finland website devotes a fair amount of effort and space to highlight Christmas every year.

The Virtual Finland Christmas season formally starts on the first Sunday of Advent. That's the day when the first window of the Advent calendar can be opened to reveal...well, open it and see for yourself.

Even if the Advent calendar leaves you cold - so to speak - don't log off yet! If you do you'll miss the seasonal songs, the moving Yuletide poem "Christmas Eve" by Aleksis Kivi, read in English, the online greeting cards that you can send, the photo gallery of Finnish winter scenes and a real, live video starring Santa Claus himself.

As ever, the Virtual Finland site offers Christmas fare and recipes and then there is the historical proclamation of Christmas peace that has been read to the people of Finland since the Middle Ages. That's the signal that it's time to say Hyvää Joulua! Merry Christmas!

Virtual Finland(Link to another website.) (Opens New Window)