On Christmas Eve Finland is similar to a fairy tale. Walk on Aleksaterinkatu – most «shopping»  street in Helsinki – and be convinced: there is no one comparing with Finns in Christmas decorating. It is accepted to decorate literally all: streets, buildings, apartments, shops, offices.

The diversity of celebratory furniture is incredible: mistletoes, Christmas angels, a fur-tree with a star on top, a tinsel, toys and cookie… Is that actually truly Finnish?

The tradition to establish a fur-tree in public places appeared in Finland in the beginning of XIX-th century. There is a set of the legends connected with this tree. Here is one of them, may be the closest to Finland. Somehow on the eve of Christmas doctor Martin Luther, the founder of Lutheran church, walked on wood. Having lifted his eyes to the sky, he saw the clear star sky through fur-tree branches. It seemed to Luther so fine that in memory of this moment he decided to bring home a small fur-tree.

Many ornaments became for a long time an integral part of Finnish Christmas, and it is not so important that glass spheres “come” from the south of Europe, cookies – from the Arabian East, elves – from England, and the well-known star on a fur-tree began to sparkle at first in Germany. By the way, the lappish hill of Korvatunturi became a residence of German Santa Claus only in 1927 .

Santa Claus Finns name Joulupukki that is translated as the Christmas goat. Once very long time ago gifts to kiddies were brought by a goat (as a rule, with horns and a beard). Peasants-pagans considered a goat as a deity, its visit brought a rich crop and promised good luck. In the course of time the goat disappeared, but the name remains. And today in each Finnish house on the Christmas eve there is a straw goat with the twirled horns.

It is necessary to tell, Finns do not do a goat of straw casually: this short-lived material was considered as an abundance and a symbol of luck. In the beginning of the second millenium of our era the local population decorated the dwellings skillful hand-made articles from straw – stars, angels, little men. Straws covered the floor (most likely, for heat), though rules of the Christmas world in Turku, first declared in XIV century, used to forbid doing this in order to avoid a fire. And here stars, angels and straw little men still remain attributes of  Christmas in Finland.