A friend of mine, Triinu from Estonia, sent me some lovely Christmas candy called Kalev which is a mix of candies. There are dark chocolate covered wafers, dark chocolate covered raspberry candies, toffee, and lemon candies. They are very good! I wanted to share a bit of her letter to me in which she shared her Christmas traditions. I think you might find it interesting, as I did. :)
Excerpt:
Our family does not have any special "traditions". Usually we do the same as usual Estonian families. At first --> we have Christmas day on 24th - as I assume it is the same for you? In the morning we clean the rooms and make dinner. In the afternoon we spend mostly outside - if there is snow, then usually building snowmen and snow- lanterns. If there is no snow (it's very possible usually) then we just walk outside in the nature. In the evening we have our usual Christmas feast. The feast is outrageous. Sometimes we have 4 different kind of salads and dressings. It's usual to have potatoes, roasted meat (beef or pork) and sauerkraut (!). Sauerkraut is usually the thing which creates the "Christmassy feeling". After the big feast we rest a bit and then we have sauna. Sauna is soo good, especially when the weather is cold.
While we are in sauna - the Santa Clause comes (we call him Jõuluvana). He leaves the presents under the Christmas tree. When we come back from sauna - we are happy ;)
Later in the evening we drink sparkly wine or glogg and watch some old Christmas movies. So. That's it!
I hope you had fun reading my letter! I know I did while writing it!
With love,
Triinu
