How do Estonians Celebrate Christmas?
As in almost any other part of the world, Estonia celebrates Christmas with lots of food, games and songs, usually with close friends and family. At Christmas, people exchange gifts and lost loved ones are remembered and cherished. You might not be surprised, but one of the highlights of this festive season is the sauna!
Here are some interesting points to understand how Estonians typically celebrate Christmas:
Christmas Eve (Jõululaupäev)
The main celebration in Estonia takes place on Christmas Eve, December 24th. Families come together for a festive meal, exchange gifts, and attend church services.
Candlelit Procession to Church
Many Estonians attend a Christmas Eve church service, often preceded by a candlelit procession. The church service is an important part of the celebration for those who follow religious traditions. The churches are host to beautiful Christmas concerts and many craft groups where Christmas decorations are made.
Visiting the Cemetery
Some families visit cemeteries on Christmas Eve to honour deceased loved ones. Candles are lit at the gravesites, creating a serene and peaceful atmosphere.
Traditional Food
After visiting the church, women are usually the ones who take the lead in the kitchen, preparing tasty traditional dishes while chatting and drinking some wine/cocktails together. Men in the meantime hangout while drinking some vodka, sometimes doing some outdoor work or making firewood, enjoying the weather and each other’s company.
Christmas meals often include traditional Estonian dishes such as blood sausage (verivorst), sauerkraut (hapukapsas), roast pork, and gingerbread cookies (piparkoogid). Mulled wine (glögi) is a popular drink during the holiday season, both with alcohol or without. Apples, nuts, tangerines, oranges, sweets and carrots are also likely to be found on the table.
Jõuluvana (Santa Claus)
Jõuluvana, the Estonian version of Santa Claus, is believed to visit on Christmas Eve, bringing gifts for children. In some regions, Jõuluvana is accompanied by magical creatures called jõulutont or jõuluvanakesed.
In some families this tradition is still alive: kids believe that presents magically appear under the Christmas tree once they get home from the church. Another version of this tradition requires the work of the men in the family. Male relatives usually dress up as Santa (do not let your kid read this!) bringing the presents in a big bag. Each present has the recipient’s name on it and will get delivered only after the person reads a poem, sings a song or performs in any way.
What a nice idea to earn your gift!
Kids’ Traditions
In many ways, the Christmas mood depends a lot on the children in the family. Families with children have indeed more traditional habits.
From the beginning of December, Estonian children wait for elves who bring sweets for their slippers. Estonian children also write letters to Santa Claus, listing their wishes for presents, which they leave in their slippers. An elf who sneaks in through the window at night will take these letters to Santa Claus (if they behaved during the rest of the year!). Gingerbread making is also something that kids are involved in, even before Christmas day.
Sauna
Saunas hold a special place in Estonian culture, and some families include a sauna visit as part of their Christmas Eve traditions. It is believed that taking a sauna on Christmas Eve purifies both the body and the soul. It is also really relaxing and creates a beautiful experience to share with friends and family!
Christmas Tree
The Christmas tree is a focal point in Estonian households as well, adding a festive touch to holiday preparations. Often picked from the forest directly and decorated by December 24th, it's a simple yet enchanting symbol of the season that keeps the presents safe and the holiday spirit high!
Different and Modern Ways to Celebrate
Of course, this is not how all families celebrate Christmas nowadays. As advised from other locals as well, these are older traditions that are mostly still followed in the country side, but less in the city.
New modern ways to celebrate Christmas include cooking with the whole family (not just women or men), not visiting the church if the family is not religious and so on!
Kristina was so kind to share her experience with us, and we’re more than happy to share!
Drinks
“Never has vodka been part of any Christmas (or any other festivity for that matter) in my family. I'm from the city. Yet, probably in the countryside more vodka is consumed.. so it depends who you talk to very much.
We take mulled wine, but not during the preparations and cooking but when we have already sat at the table to eat. (Some families prefer a special Christmas beer or mead). The preparation is artesanal in my family, we heat a real wine and add spices, it's not the bottled Glögi you can just buy and warm up.
Church
We don't go to Church. As a matter of fact, Estonians are generally not very Church-going people. And those who do, probably go to the Christmas concerts.
Christmas Tree
In my family, we go to the forest a few days before Christmas to choose and pick our tree. One day before Christmas Eve it's usually the men put up the tree in the room and girls decorate it. There are several option to find and choose your a tree in the forest (and not from the supermakret parking lot).
Who’s the Chef?
[While now both men and women participate in the cooking process for the holidays] the cooking, here I agree - mostly the women cook in my family.
Santa Claus
When there are kids present in the family evening, Santa Clus comes and all the gifts need to be redeemed by a poem, singing or whatever. They are not just given as such. Alternatively, when there are no kids and no need to invite Santa Claus, gifts can be secretly posed under the chistmas tree where they are "found" at some moment and we say päkapikud (gnomes) have come while we were eating. So you don't need to sing or recite a poem in that case to get them.
Sauna
We don't have one at our apartment but the last century people went to the sauna BEFORE going to the church and before the Christmas Eve night. Sauna in my opinion is not during the christmas night as part of the evening but rather before to get clean before you dress up for the evening.
Häid Jõule!”
Now that you know how this beautiful country celebrates Christmas, I am sure you’ll make a really good impression with your local friends and coworkers.
Häid jõule kõigile! (Merry Christmas to all!) 🎄
💛 Huge thanks to Marju, Alice and Maret for sharing their traditions and habits for the festive season, making this post possible and authentic! 💛
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