Helsinki Travel Forum

We are heading over to Europe for Christmas and the New Year and my 5 year old daughter wants to see snow at Christmas......will there be snow in Helsinki or surrounding regions? Also do the Finnish REALLY celebrate Christmas with all the lights and trimmings? We live in Australia and I would love the kids to experience a Northern Hemsisphere Christmas, I am open to all and any suggestions, we have from approximately 20th - 26th December before flying onto Nice. Thanks!!

I think only one out of five Christmases are really white Christmas down south in Helsinki. The previous two did not have a snow. However, getting just a bit inland give better chance to see snow, sometimes just going 20 km to Vantaa and they have a bit snow there already or even better, going to Tampere for a day. Many tourists go all the way north to Lapland. Yes, Christmas celebrated here with lots of lights, otherwise it will be too dark. The daylight hours in the end of December are about 5 hours.

Yeah, you have more chance of snow in Central Finland or Otepää, South Estonia.

..or Alaska...

Hello,
As Gil has already told you, (hello there from Espoo, Gil!) it can be very bad indeed with snow at Xmas time.
And it's dark but we have the lights and trimmings here. People have started to decorate the houses with lights before Xmas but I haven't seen proper Xmas lights in a Finnish house yet.
It can be very empty in Helsinki at Xmas time and restrictions to the shops being open during the holidays. I haven't checked yet on which days Xmas is this year - ifm it's a weekend, it's a bigger problem.
If you need to find out more, you can always email me on VT. I know for a fact that I will be home at Xmas and home for me means living only 15-20 minutes by bus from Helsinki..:)
Hey, what do you know, a Helsinki VT meet?? :)
regards,Soili, the middle-aged woman and an experienced auntie living in the south of Finland

Even though I don´t like snow so much,I would love to have it at christmas.We live in Tampere,and have lived here since 1994.Four christmasses has been allmost without snow.Sorry to say,that three of them has been last three from now.But we go allways to middle of Finland,close to Jyväskylä,and only one christmas has been without snow.Even though sometimes it´s not so much,but anyway-white everywhere-execpt the driveways.
I think also at eastern Finland there´s more snow.But it is possible to have white christmas at Helsinki also!Let´s hope so!
I think we don´t have so much lights at homes,as at many countries.At least not everything shaped as santa or raindeer or like that.Must say I like it better our way.Mostly simple.Lot´s of candles though.You should go to cemetery to see the "ocean of candles"like we say at christmas eve.(Which is THE day in Finland)
I´m huge chrismas-fan,so I must stop before I get crazy :D