Christmas in Sicily VS Christmas in Finland

Christmas period is important and loved by many cultures but, the way we celebrate and spend the period before and during Christmas time can be very different.

One of the most characteristic aspect of Finnish Christmas culture are the Christmas markets where you can meet Santa or go shopping.
People sell handcrafts, local products, food and gifts.
Small and big cities have their own markets going on during the weekend and they are very popular. People drink Hot wine and eat paistres on the Streets.

In Sicily (where I am from) there are not such markets in the big cities.
In the last years, maybe to imitate northen countries, it is possible to visit some temporary markets during Christmas time, but that is not actually in our tradition.
People usually buy presents in the common shops and we have no hot wine at all.

Although,in the small villages in the countryside is possible to visit some 'food festivals' where local products are solt by the farmers.

Finnish people love decorations and lights in their houses, in the pubblic and private places.
For this reason, already weeks before Christmas the main streets have nice decorations.
In Italy that is also important but, we do not put as many as in Finland.

During the Christmas eve in Finland, the first man the of the city pronunces the ' Peace of Christmas' speach. Everybody Waits for this moment and listens to the major speach at teh television.

In Italy there is nothing like that.

Christians usually spend  the Christmas eve  evening at the Church, getting ready spiritualy and mentally to the Christmas day, during which all the family comes together to eat a huge meal and celebrate.

The food we have is usually traditional one and the grandmas make it for the all family: Pasta al forno, salsiccia con patate and panettone and pandoro as dessets.


One of the most obvious differences between Finland and Sicily is the weather and the temperature outside.
While in Finland it is freezing cold and people go to the souna to worm up, in Sicily the temperature is quite good even in December.

For this reason, it is common, after lunch, to go for a walk at the seaside and the braves ones may even go to the sea for a quick swim.