Christmas Differences - England and Finland

Christmas is almost upon us and there are plenty of things to look forward to! It's always fascinating to note the differences between two cultures, big or small. We also have similarities and in this post I am going to list some of the similarities and differences between England and Finland during Christmas time.  

Similarities
Time spent with family
A big meal together
Christmas decorations
Christmas trees
Giving gifts
Turkey for Christmas dinner
Father Christmas (Santa)



List of things Finland has at Christmas that England does not: 
Christmas markets
Although they are starting to appear in London due to the multi-nationality, we do not have many and they are not traditional for us. I really enjoy the markets and I think the Christmas tree lighting in the centre of Turku was a beautiful way to start the Christmas holidays.

Glögi

This is a grape based drink, similar to Gluhwein found in Germany. The drink does not have to be alcoholic, but it's possible to make the drink with red wine.

Ingredients:

• 1 litre red grape juice (we used home made grape cordial)
• A few strips of organic orange peel
• 1 Cinnamon stick
• 6-8 whole cloves
• 4 cardamon pods
• 4-6 whole all spice corns (or 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice)

Skiing or skating
People apparently go skiing (cross country or downhill) on boxing day, we have no snow in the South of England so this is unfortunately not possible




Special winter deals on chocolate
I am currently seeing special deals on chocolate everywhere, which definitely encourages you to indulge in some of the sweet stuff.






Christmas pastries
joulutorttu is a star shaped pastry made of puff pastry with plum jam in the centre. 








Rice porridge and plum juice

Rice porridge and plum juice is typical for breakfast on Christmas morning in Finland. 

Fish
Salt Fish is apparently served as a starter for Christmas Dinner and sometimes salmon as a main

Cemetery
People go to the cemetery and leave candles or lanterns for the deceased



Sauna
Going in the sauna on Christmas eve, which is a custom that I would definitely like to spread to the UK.









Snow for Christmas
The likelihood of getting snow for Christmas in Finland is a lot higher than in the UK!














List of things England has at Christmas that Finland does not: 

Christmas pudding
Christmas (or Plum) Pudding is the traditional end to Christmas dinner in the UK. However it was not originally like this! Christmas pudding originated as a 14th century porridge called 'frumenty' that was made of beef and mutton with raisins, currants, prunes, wines and spices. Now there is no beef in the pudding.










Stuffing
Stuffing is delicious and simple to make. It is a sausage meat based dish that's full of flavour, I have attached a recipe below and I strongly recommend it! 

Ingredients

• 2 onions
  
  
  

  
  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  , sliced
• 25g butter
  
  
  

  
  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
• 1 small Bramley apple
  
  
  

  
  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  , peeled, cored and diced
• 2 x 400g packs meaty Cumberland sausages, removed from their skins
• handful sage
  
  
  

  
  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  , leaves chopped, plus extra for topping
• 140g granary breadcrumb

1. 
   
   Recipe
   Fry the onion in the butter for 5 mins, then add the apple and cook briefly. Cool, then mix with remaining ingredients and seasoning.
2. Use to stuff the neck end of the bird, then roll any leftovers into balls. Or, pack the whole mixture into a 1kg loaf tin and top with extra sage leaves. Bake with turkey for 30-40 mins. Drain off any fat and serve sliced.

Carol singing



walking from house to house singing Christmas carols















Stockings
A Christmas stocking is an empty sock hung above the fireplace on Christmas Eve, this way Santa Claus can fill it with small toys, candy, fruit, coins and other goodies! 

A Christmas Cracker is a cardboard paper tube, usually wrapped in some kind of decorative patterned paper as seen in the photo. There is a small banger inside the cracker that ignites somehow when pulled by the two people pulling each side of the cracker. The winner is the person that still has the majority of the cracker after it ignites. The winner will usually get a hat, a joke written on a piece of paper and some kind of prize.

Christmas cake
Is a fruit cake that is covered with marzipan