Christmas preparations

To achieve the big traditional Finnish Christmas dinner on the 24th of December, preparations must start early. It is more challenging when living abroad and ex-pat forums all over the world are now focusing on the topic: "Where does one find the right ingredients?"

I live in Switzerland since 1999, and every Christmas is a challenge.

The journey starts with the dream of a happy family enjoying a huge meal:

Here's what we are planning to have:

We start the morning with rice porridge cooked in milk. A single almond is hidden into the porridge and the one who gets it will have luck all of the following year. The porridge is eaten with cinnamon powder and sugar.

For dinner:

The starter is a buffet with cold-smoked salmon, salted herrings, and salmon roe with sour cream and finely chopped onions. A specialty is "Rosolli" (a Finnish beetroot salad) with pink whipped cream.

The main course consists of a huge Christmas ham, called "Joulukinkku", which is eaten together with carrot casserole and sweetened potato casserole.

On the 25th we have a Karelian-inspired day to honour our ancestors. and we add a Swedish twist for the sake of my mother tongue and the raspberry boat refugees.

For lunch, we have Gubbröra, which is a Swedish dish with herring, eggs, and smetana. Gubbröra is best translated as  "Grandfather's Stir" and it's eaten with rye bread.

At dinner, we eat blinis with salmon roe for starter and Karelian Stew as the main course together with Karelian Rice Pies with egg butter.

Obviously, there are plenty of left-overs from the 24th that will ensure full tummies and a resolution to start a diet in the New Year.

..and of course, between the courses above we nibble at the legendary Moomin gingerbread house.

Then there isn't much else you can do after all the food than to snuggle up with a good book: