Finnish Christmas food: What to eat in Helsinki
Finnish Christmas food is a mix of old and borrowed traditions: oven-baked ham, root-vegetable casseroles, rosolli beetroot salad, cured and smoked fish, rice porridge, and gingerbread and plum pastries with a cup of glögi. In Helsinki, you don’t have to wait for Christmas Eve. Market halls, cafés and restaurant Christmas lunches serve these flavours all through December.
Christmas
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Traditional Finnish Christmas food
Only a few Finnish Christmas dishes are truly homegrown, and many have roots elsewhere. But eaten for decades, even centuries, they’ve become “traditional”, and Finns tend to either love them or hate them. If there’s one safe small-talk topic in Finland in December, it’s Christmas food. These are the usual suspects on the Christmas table, the joulupöytä.
The main course
The centrepiece is still Christmas ham (joulukinkku), oven-baked and served with mustard, though many Helsinki restaurants now offer vegetarian and vegan alternatives too. Around it you’ll find:
- Casseroles (laatikot): baked swede, carrot and potato. Swede casserole (lanttulaatikko) is one of the few dishes Finns can call their own.
- Rosolli: a salad of beetroot, carrot and potato.
The fish
Fish has always had its place at a Helsinki Christmas, and it keeps getting more popular. Expect pickled herring, cured and smoked salmon and vendace roe, and, for the brave, lutefisk. What matters most is that it’s seasonal and local.
Something sweet and something warm
- Rice porridge (riisipuuro) with cinnamon and sugar. Whoever finds the hidden almond gets to make a wish.
- Plum pastries (joulutortut): star-shaped puff pastries filled with plum jam.
- Gingerbread (piparit): baked at home and in every café in December.
- Glögi: hot, spiced mulled drink, with or without alcohol, served with raisins and almonds.
Christmas traditions evolve, so why save it all for one day? Throughout December, Helsinki’s cafés and restaurants serve these flavours long before Christmas Eve.
Where to buy Christmas fish in Helsinki
Fish is a very Helsinki thing to eat at Christmas, and all year round. Head to Helsinki’s market halls for every kind of Christmas fish. At the Old Market Hall you can taste gin-cured whitefish, gubbröra (egg and herring salad) and cold-smoked salmon on rye at the counters, and E. Eriksson will open a few oysters for you.
Prefer to sit down?
Prefer to sit down? Try caviar at the small Finlandia Caviar restaurant by the South Harbour,
fried herring at Salve, salmon soup at Fisken på Disken in Kamppi,
or the catch of the day at Restaurant Nokka in Katajanokka.
Rice porridge and glögi at the Christmas markets
In keeping with Finnish Christmas traditions, the iconic outdoor Helsinki Christmas Market offers something familiar and something new each year. The merry atmosphere attracts the hottest names in the local restaurant scene, who get to serve their own specialties to the crowds of visitors. Choose for yourself whether you would like something hot or cold to drink and something big or small to eat! Riisipuuro a.k.a rice porridge may not sound so fancy but when it is made well and served with sugar, cinnamon and oat milk – it is the comfort manna from heaven!
What could be more comforting than bowl of steaming rice porridge? Usually the porridge is served with sugar and cinnamon on top. Some prefer it with a fruit broth known as “fruit soup.” Traditionally an almond is hidden in the pot of porridge. Whoever finds the almond in her or his serving gets to make a wish. Sometimes rice porridge is served for breakfast.
When the weather gets cold, you should definitely treat yourself to a steaming cup of mulled wine, or glögi as it is known locally. The cafés and bars all serve their own special varieties, combining different fruit juices and new spices each year to come up with something truly seasonal. What will be this year’s hit drink – light or dark, hot or cold? The trendiest glögi spices include spruce and fir, while apples provide a nice fruitiness. Ginger snaps, cheeses and other finger food go great with hot drinks!
Try Café Regatta‘s glögi outside by their cute fireplace overlooking the frozen sea. A local favourite!
Finnish Christmas desserts
& (eye) candy
Sweet stuff
OK, we can’t exactly claim gingerbread. Its roots can be traced all the way back to ancient Greece (around 2400 BC to be exact!) and apparently Queen Elizabeth I is credited with the idea of making them resemble men . But it does not stop us from thinking of gingerbread as our very own traditional Finnish Christmas staple. Or competing in building some crazy gingerbread houses – like the iconic Stockmann’s Department Store – every year.
Equally, no one ever thought marmalade is a Finnish invention. Yet, Vihreät kuulat are displayed on pretty much every Helsinkian Christmas dessert table and many feel fiercely about them. These soft green balls’ recipe was made by famous Karl Fazer, the great father of Finnish confectionary, and have been manufactured since the late 1800s. Finns eat around 17 million of them each Christmas!
To get into a very sweet Helsinkian Christmas spirit, follow the confectioner’s footsteps into Fazer Café Kluuvikatu 3 where he opened his first patisserie in 1891. The historic French-Russian café & cake shop still makes most of its sold goodies and Christmas is by far the best time to visit this iconic venue. In addition to piparit (that’s gingerbread in Finnish), vihreät kuulat and glögi, you can also taste some of season’s best luumutortut (Finnish Christmas pastry filled with plum jam). While munching away you can see the confectioners at work behind glass.
Merry Christmas! Hyvää joulua! God Jul!
Is Helsinki open on Christmas Day?
Many cafés, museums and saunas stay open over the holidays, some even on Christmas Day. Check this year’s hours before you go.
Where to eat Finnish Christmas dinner in Helsinki
Many Helsinki restaurants serve a Christmas menu or buffet in December. Here are seven to try.
Map: where to try Finnish Christmas food in Helsinki
Finnish Christmas food: FAQ
What do Finns eat at Christmas?
Christmas ham, root-vegetable casseroles, rosolli beetroot salad, pickled herring and cured or smoked salmon, followed by rice porridge, plum pastries and gingerbread, with glögi to drink.
When do Finns eat Christmas dinner?
On Christmas Eve, 24 December, which is the main day of celebration in Finland.
What is glögi?
A hot, spiced Nordic mulled drink, served with or without alcohol, usually with raisins and almonds.
Where can I try Finnish Christmas food in Helsinki?
At the market halls, at the Christmas market on Senate Square, and at restaurants serving Christmas lunches and buffets throughout December. See the list above.