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Merry Christmas, my dear readers! It is time to finish this year’s grand project of writing and to open the 24th and final window of the calendar. This year has truly been spectacular — so many new experiences and so much holiday magic! I can only hope that the actual celebrations are just as wonderful…
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One night to Christmas Eve! This is the day when the magic happens — all the preparations need to be done in advance if you wish to have a grand celebration where you can also relax. In my family, we have fairly rigid traditions for Christmas Eve, including rice porridge, lighting the Christmas tree, visiting…
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I have a lifelong goal of writing my own book. The genre I have chosen is probably the hardest one I could imagine: a psychological thriller. You can imagine that it has been under construction for several years already — and will likely remain so for quite some time. However, I thought it would be…
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The darkest moment of the year has arrived. In my city, this means that the day lasts only roughly five and a half hours, and even during that time the sun does not rise very high in the sky. As someone who loves light, I am eagerly waiting for summer — but I also need…
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The day has come to write about a topic I love dearly, but one I have struggled to find new inspiration for over the years. I am always striving to discover new music — especially Christmas music — but the same old pieces keep resurfacing. Either it is a new playlist full of the same…
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When you think about Santa’s little helpers, do you imagine a young, lively, shorter humanoid — or an old man with a long beard? Both appear in Christmas stories, and even though they originate from similar sources, they have ended up represented in quite different ways. Christmas elves, specifically, originate from Germanic mythology. They were…
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I cannot understand myself sometimes. The apartment is already full of all kinds of treats, but I am not done! There is still one thing I want to bake, and I will do it today! (I am very happy that there is a workplace full of sweet-toothed coworkers waiting…) This post was actually planned already…
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I thought for a long time about what to write about Finnish Christmas food. I have already done so much, and there is still so much to do closer to Christmas Eve, so I decided that the simplest choice is the right one today: rice porridge and glögi! The porridge is commonly eaten on Christmas…
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There’s a chance that reading this post might spark some childhood memories. At least in my childhood home, whenever Christmas Eve was approaching, one thing was certain: a huge clean-up to tidy the house from floor to roof! From what I know, this has been the case in many Finnish homes as well. The Christmas…
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A large part of the holidays is entertainment; it would be naïve to say otherwise, in my opinion. At least here in Finland, the program schedule looks very similar from year to year, and many broadcasts are filled with childhood memories. Christmas Eve morning starts with a live broadcast called Santa’s Hotline. In the show,…