Pikkujoulu

December 8th, 2012

Pikkujoulu

Little Christmas Party

A very big tradition that always takes place here in Finland during the month of November & December is what's known as Pikkujoulu, or in an English translation: Little Christmas Party

Generally, with these party's friends will gather at a home and bake traditional Christmas pastries, like Joulutorttu ja Piparkakku (some kind of Christmas pastry, not so sure of the direct translation... and gingerbread cookies!) Friends might then decorate the cookies, listen to Christmas music, watch Christmas movies, etc. In this way, very similar to the traditions of American Christmas party's :) 

Between 3 of us, our attempts of creating Muumi. 

One of my wonderful friends from school, Ronja, invited both Lu-Wei and I over to her house to experience our first Pikkujoulu as everyone else was also celebrating these traditions. I hadn't really known much about what it was all about until we actually got to her house but we all ended up having so much fun! We baked heaps of piparkakku (gingerbread) along with joulutorttu and drank many cups of glögi - a holiday drink from Sweden made out of spices like cinnamon and ginger... much like apple cider, only WAY better. While decorating our gingerbread we listened to traditional Finnish Christmas music where Ronja sang in Finnish, and Lu & I tried to think of the translation of songs in English. After we finished baking all of us sat down with all the sweets we had made and watched the movie BRAVE, because Ronja couldn't find the Christmas movie she was hoping to have us watch with English subtitles. Although I had seen this movie before it was almost even better the 2nd time around! Plus, being with great company and delicious treats made it all the better :) Overall, it ended up being a really great weekend and a very successful Pikkujoulu! 

Lu-Wei being her crazy self, as usual. 

The baking process of joulutorttu

End results - Joulutorttu ja Glögi