Finnish Christmas happens on the 24th. Not the morning of the 25th — the evening of Christmas Eve, when the ham comes out of the oven, the sauna is heated, and Santa knocks on the door in person and asks whether there are any well-behaved children in the house.
That shifts the whole vocabulary. Jouluaatto is the word that matters, joulupäivä is the quiet day after, and a good quarter of the words below are food.
Joulu and the Days Around It
Christmas
joulu
Christmas Eve
jouluaatto
Christmas Day
joulupäivä
Boxing Day
tapaninpäivä
Advent
adventti
advent calendar
adventtikalenteri
Christmas holidays
joululoma
New Year's Eve
uudenvuodenaatto
New Year's Day
uudenvuodenpäivä
Epiphany
loppiainen
Practice these words
joulu
The day that counts: jouluaatto, 24 December, is Christmas in Finland. Dinner, sauna, presents and Santa all happen that evening. Joulupäivä is for sleeping it off, and tapaninpäivä on the 26th is when people visit relatives or get outdoors.
Tree, Lights and Presents
Christmas tree
joulukuusi
Christmas decorations
joulukoristeet
Christmas lights
jouluvalot
candle
kynttilä
straw mobile
himmeli
straw goat
olkipukki
Christmas card
joulukortti
Christmas present
joululahja
wrapping paper
lahjapaperi
Christmas carol
joululaulu
Practice these words
joulukuusi
Two old decorations: the himmeli is a geometric mobile built from rye straw and hung over the table — a pre-Christian winter ornament that never went away. The olkipukki, a small straw goat, is the other one, and it connects to the name in the next section.
Joulupukki and the Tonttu
Santa Claus
joulupukki
elf
tonttu
reindeer
poro
sleigh
reki
pack basket (Santa carries one)
kontti
Lapland
Lappi
Practice these words
joulupukki
Why Santa is a goat: joulupukki means "Christmas goat." Pukki comes from Old Swedish bukker, a billy-goat, and it's the same root as English buck. The name survives from an older custom in which men in goat costumes went round the villages demanding the leftover food and drink — the nuuttipukki, who belongs to St Knut's Day on 13 January and marks the end of Christmas rather than the start. The red-suited figure arrived much later, layered on top of the goat by Swedish and American imagery. Radio programmes from 1927 onward are usually credited with settling him at Korvatunturi, a fell in eastern Lapland.
Not an elf, exactly: a tonttu was originally a house spirit that looked after the farm and expected to be left food. The small red-hatted Christmas version is a much later borrowing.
The Christmas Table
Christmas table
joulupöytä
Christmas ham
joulukinkku
cured salmon
graavilohi
rice porridge
riisipuuro
almond
manteli
beetroot salad
rosolli
swede casserole
lanttulaatikko
potato casserole
perunalaatikko
carrot casserole
porkkanalaatikko
gingerbread
piparkakku
Christmas tart
joulutorttu
spiced Christmas drink
glögi
Practice these words
joulupöytä
The almond game: one manteli goes into the riisipuuro, and whoever finds it in their bowl is promised luck for the coming year. In some families they also have to sing.
The three casseroles: lanttulaatikko, perunalaatikko and porkkanalaatikko are baked casseroles of swede, potato and carrot, and most Finnish Christmas tables carry all three. The potato one is markedly sweet, the swede mildly so and the carrot close to neutral — visitors expecting savoury and getting sweet is the most common surprise of the meal.
Joulutorttu is a star-shaped puff pastry with prune jam in the middle. It appears in every bakery from late November and disappears in January.
About the glögi: it's usually translated as mulled wine, and most of what Finns drink is nothing of the kind — a hot spiced blackcurrant or apple drink with no alcohol in it at all. Bottles come both ways, so check the label if it matters to you.
Joulurauha, Sauna and Candles
Christmas peace
joulurauha
Christmas sauna
joulusauna
Christmas church service
joulukirkko
grave candles
hautakynttilät
Christmas party (work)
pikkujoulu
Practice these words
joulurauha
Christmas Peace is broadcast live: at noon on Christmas Eve, a city official reads the Declaration of Christmas Peace from the balcony of the Brinkkala Mansion in Turku's Old Great Square — from that balcony since 1886, on the radio since 1935 and on television since 1983. A great many families treat listening to it as the moment Christmas starts.
Candles at the cemetery: on the afternoon of the 24th, Finns take hautakynttilät to family graves. Cemeteries fill with light and people, and it's one of the quietest and most striking things a visitor can see at Christmas.
Before dinner, not after: the joulusauna comes between the cemetery and the meal. It's unhurried, and in many families it's the last calm hour of the day.
Pikkujoulu — "little Christmas" — is the season of work parties that runs through November and most of December. It's one of several words with no English equivalent, collected in untranslatable Finnish words.
How a Finnish Christmas Eve Runs
The order is fairly consistent across the country. Morning is for finishing the food and watching the Declaration of Christmas Peace at twelve. Early afternoon, people go to the cemetery with candles. Then the sauna is heated and everyone takes a turn. Dinner — ham, casseroles, salmon, rosolli — comes in the early evening, and the rice porridge with its single almond either opens or closes it depending on the family.
Then joulupukki arrives. Not overnight and not by chimney: he knocks, comes in, asks the room whether there are any good children present, and hands out the presents while everyone watches. A neighbour or an uncle is usually missing from the room at that exact moment, and nobody comments on it.
A great many of the words above are compounds built on joulu-: jouluaatto, joulukuusi, joulupukki, joulukinkku, joulurauha, joulusauna, joululahja, joulutorttu. Learn the one stem and the whole holiday becomes readable — which is the general trick with Finnish compound words.