Christmas Tag! :o

I found this "tag" online, and I decided to do it for this blog! It's just some Christmas related questions, and I thought that might be a good way to talk about my Christmas traditions and stuff. These questions were probably made buy Americans, so not everything applies, but I'm going to try anyway. Soo here we go!


1. What is your favourite Christmas movie?
Without question, Love, actually. I love that film and I watch it every year. (Not just Christmas time, sometimes even in summer...)

2. Are you on the Naughty list or the Nice list?
Ummm... I don't know. I haven't done anything super naughty but I haven't been extra nice either!

3. Show an embarrassing Christmas card photo!
I don't have one. It's not really customary in Finland to send photos of yourself as cards. I think that's changing though, we've gotten some baby picture cards in recent years (from the baby's parents like)! But we usually just send cards with wintery or christmas-y pictures :)

4. Have you ever had a White Christmas?
I have always had a white Christmas!

5. Where do you usually spend your holiday?
We always spend Christmas Eve at my grandmother's in Finland. Christmas Day - it varies. But Christmas Eve is always in the same place!

6. Link your favorite Christmas song!





My favourite one in English is Winter Wonderland, but not just any Winter Wonderland, it has to be this version by Darlene Love produced by Phil Spector. It's so upbeat, I love the harmonies and especially the pizzicato part!





This is one of my favourite Finnish Christmas songs. Tulkoon joulu means "Let Christmas Come" or something like that. I just think it's a beautiful song. It's actually quite new, probably no more than 10-15 years old. I remember singing it at my school's Christmas party in primary school! 


There are hundreds of other Christmas songs I like. I think it mostly depends on the version. Some arrangements are horrible, I don't like it when they revamp classic songs into weird jazzy versions... I prefer the classic way!

7. Do you open any presents on Christmas Eve?
In Finland, you usually open all presents on Christmas Eve. It's because Santa lives in Finland, so he gets to us first before he leaves to deliver presents to other countries.

That's where Santa lives. It's called Korvatunturi. Korva means "ear" and tunturi is a fell (a mountain in Lapland). This picture is from Google maps. It looks like it's on the Russian side of the border but it's not. I know the rest of the western world seems to be under the impression that Santa lives in the North Pole, just thought I'd correct you.


8. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer?
No. The American Santa's reindeer have been translated in Finnish but I don't remember all of them... But I think originally Santa didn't have any particular reindeer, he just had one pulling his sleigh. And I don't think the Finnish Santa's sleigh flies either, it just slides on the ground the traditional way!

9. What holiday tradition are you looking forward to most this year?
Probably eating!

10. Is your Christmas tree real or fake?
It's real! From our own forest :o

11. Hands down, what's your all-time favorite holiday food and holiday sweet treat?
I love eating chocolate all year round but especially on Christmas. Plus I like pretty much everything on the Christmas table. Ham (which I'm not sure I'll be eating this year because I've sort of turned pescitarian...), smoked whitefish, rutabaga "box", potatoes... And the desserts mmmm. Looking forward to it!

12. Be Honest: do you like giving gifts or receiving gifts better?
I like both! I think I'd like giving gifts even more if I was richer...

13. What is your tackiest Christmas attire?
Unlike Americans apparently, Finns don't tend to dress up for Christmas in weird tacky clothes. :D I don't know what we wear... If 10 is formal and 1 is very casual, we probably wear something around 4. If that makes sense.

14. What would be your dream place to visit for the holiday season?
It might be pretty interesting to spend Christmas somewhere really warm! But it might be hard to make it feel like Christmas. The coldness and the snow is kind of an essential part of Christmas.

15. Does your family have a special holiday recipe you like to help make?
Maybe they do but I haven't really been much help in cooking so far... Maybe this year!

16. Are you a pro present wrapper or do you fail miserably?
I'm a pro. I really like wrapping presents actually. It's therapeutic.

17. Most memorable Holiday moment?
The moment I realized that Santa is my mom!

18. What made you realize the truth about Santa?
My mom gently hinted me in first grade before Christmas, so that I wouldn't get bullied in school about not knowing! I was confused at first but reality slowly dawned on me. I wasn't traumatized!

19. Do you make New Years Resolutions? Do you stick to them?
I make them sometimes, but they're usually the same stuff I promise myself all year round. I don't stick to them, that's why I need to keep reminding myself! I'll probably try again this New Year... I have a couple in mind already...

20. What makes the Holidays special for you?
Ummmm I dunno. :o (I think the makers ran out of questions but wanted there to be 20 instead of 19 :D)


So there! If you have a blog and you want to do this tag, go ahead and copy the questions and fill them out with your own answers. You can do it on Facebook notes too! I like doing tags... They dig out information that I might not remember to share with you otherwise!


If some of the stuff I mentioned sounded strange, do not worry, I plan to post a lot of pictures and maybe videos when I get home for Christmas break, and that'll probably make it a lot clearer. I'm leaving Galway on Wednesday the 14th and my flight to Helsinki (via London and Copenhagen...) leaves on Saturday!