Anna's Christmas Calendar 2025

I need to make a huge confession. For a seemingly chaotic person, I can be super organized. Here it goes: I have a Christmas Excel table. You heard correctly.

The Excel table has all the required dishes, recipes, decorations, and everything else you need for a successful Christmas celebration. And it has really saved some effort for many years already! Everything needed is there, and you can just print the shopping list and all and start doing it. No remembering is needed, and you can almost guarantee that nothing is forgotten.

I don’t know if it is common elsewhere, but at least in my city, grocery stores are super crowded before Christmas Eve. That is a good reason alone to have a good shopping list to avoid needing to go another time. This year, though, my mom was very helpful and had ordered all the groceries in advance, so I did not need to do anything about the Christmas grocery shopping.

What I needed to do, however, was start cooking tasks to be prepared for tomorrow. Like I said, the Finnish Christmas table includes beetroot salad and vegetable casseroles. So does our table. That is why I started cooking them already today. The casseroles I prepared for the pans are in the fridge, so I only need to bake them tomorrow before dinner. I will include the recipes below.

1. Boil the beetroots in the water until they are cooked. Cool down and take off their peels.
2. Grate the cooled-down beetroots into a large grate.
3. Mix in the creme fraiche and blue cheese crumbs. Add breadcrumbs on top.
4. Bake in the oven at 175°C for 30 minutes.

1. Boil the peeled carrots in the salted water until they are cooked. Save the boiling water.
2. Cook the rice in the carrot water.
3. Mash the cooked carrots. Add cream, milk, the egg, and spices, and mix well.
4. Add cooked rice to the carrot mixture and pour the mixture into a buttered cooking pan.
5. Bake in the oven at 200°C for 45 minutes.

1. Cut the ingredients into small cubes and mix them together.
2. Let the mixture rest for a few hours or until the next day.

I was not the only one making preparations today. My sister decorated the gingerbread house I baked earlier and managed to keep it whole! I guess the batter was a success, then. No one, of course, knows if the gingerbread tastes any good, but luckily the house will traditionally be eaten after the New Year.

Now, it is finally time to relax a bit and start enjoying Christmas Eve, which is the main day of celebrations in many Finnish homes. I cannot wait!