Short Christmas holiday period restricts travel to relatives
Many young families preparing for their first Christmas on their own
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It will doubtless not have gone unnoticed that this year the Christmas holiday falls ungenerously at the weekend, turning a potentially massive holiday break into the minimum one free weekday, as Christmas Day and Boxing Day (St. Stephen’s) fall on Saturday and Sunday respectively.
The knock-on effect of this will be to reduce the numbers of those travelling longer distances to spend the festival with relatives. Many young families will this year be spending their first Christmas at home with the children, for just this reason.
The difficulty of visiting the parents (and the children’s grandparents) on one or both sides of the family means it is time to create some Christmas traditions of one’s own
The same thing may occur next year, too, when Boxing Day falls on a Monday. These "lite" Christmas holidays fall on an average twice in seven years - with the last occasions being 1994 and 1999.
One example of the problems on the travel front - even without the awful weather encountered yesterday - is to be had from the Soudunsaari family of Espoo. They will be spending their first Christmas by themselves, as the trip to Grandma’s is all of 1,000 kilometres, up to Posio in Lapland.
"My husband couldn’t get any extra time off. It is a bit of a bind, because down here in the city you don’t get that same Christmas feeling that we’ve become used to in the country. It would have been nice to offer the kids a snowy Christmas in the northern setting", says Eeva Soudunsaari, 23.
Her own parents and her 15-year-old little sister will for their part be headed to the airport and a plane to the a beach resort "to escape Christmas".
"This feels a bit lonely, what with not having any parents around", sighs Soudunsaari. Nevertheless, the presence of 18-month-old twins Ellen and Emil and 3-month-old baby Elias is likely to guarantee that Christmas is not short on hustle and bustle.
"An extra hand or three would be more than welcome. At the grandparents’ place the children get attention from others, and there would be a good few other things not to have to worry about, like doing the food shopping and all the cooking. There are times when I wonder how we’re going to get through all this", Soudunsaari laughs.
In the view of one scholar on the subject, some of the young families may find the short holiday a welcome reason to stay home, while others will miss the traditional Christmas with a large extended family around them.
"We still tend to have a rather traditional idea of how Christmas should be spent. Young people like to travel to their parents and in-laws for Christmas, since the parents keep up the old Christmas traditions", says Juhani Lehtonen, Professor of Ethnology at the University of Helsinki.
He believes that the often-laborious Christmas traditions will not necessarily transfer easily to the young people when they celebrate the holiday in their own homes.
Even if the migratory urge to "get back home for Christmas" has been waning somewhat of late, Finns’ conception of Christmas as a time of coming together as a family unit is still so strong that it forms the social norm.
"But Christmas has taken on new shades and nuances, and it is spent slightly differently now from the situation a few decades ago. The significance of family has changed, and it is no longer the only possible way of life", Lehtonen goes on.
Travelling south to the sun, or north to go skiing, and other less traditional ways of spending the holiday have become more acceptable, according to Lehtonen.
At the same time, the original Christian message appears to be taking a back seat, and these days one hears scant criticism of the commercialisation of Christmas.
"Presents no longer need to be modest or home-made, but can instead be indulgent and seriously expensive. Nobody has a bad conscience any longer about spending a fortune on gifts, but they are seen as something that makes people feel good and helps them after the holidays are over", Lehtonen notes.
Whatever changes may be taking place, Christmas remains in the minds of Finns as the most nostalgic holiday of the year, in which one recalls childhood Christmases from the past.
Many traditions dating back more than a century live on strongly, not least in the images seen on Christmas cards. Red-capped elves dance in deep, soft snow, straw decorations are seen in cottage windows, candles give off a warm glow, and people drive to Christmas Eve church services in a horse-drawn sleigh.
"It is rather hard to envisage Christmas cards depicting the modern urban Christmas, with a line of cars driving through the slush to church, people elbowing each other in packed department stores, or the Christmas illuminations on Aleksanterinkatu", shrugs Lehtonen.
Helsingin Sanomat
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| 23.12.2004 - TODAY |
 Short Christmas holiday period restricts travel to relatives |
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