It is a week until Christmas, and even if there is only a faint dusting of snow on the ground in the capital area, at least the Christmas tree salesmen have appeared to provide a touch of festiveness to the landscape.
Sales could get started officially from 7 a.m. this morning [Wednesday] and the trade will continue right up to Christmas Eve.
Trees are being sold at nearly 200 locations around the capital.
An auction for permits was arranged on the online huuto.net site in November.
The great majority of the sites from which trees are sold are traditional ones.
"For example the Market Square, Hakaniemi Square, and Hietalahti must have seen spruces being sold there for at least a century. I'd guess they have been standard pitches ever since Christmas tree sales were arranged in this way", said Tapio Sademies from the City of Helsinki's department for markets, market halls, and outdoor sales.
Sademies has followed the annual tree trade for decades, and knows to say that the real stocks of trees will only start to appear towards the end of the week.
