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Finland/Helsinki Right Before Christmas

Posted by on

This is a hair brained idea I just got this week and would love some feedback from those of you here before I explore it any further.

I find myself in the position of having to take off early the whole month of December (due to changes in time off policy where I work and I need to use a lot of days before Dec 31) and I don't know what to get my 19-year-old for Christmas. She was supposed to be part of a Finnish exchange program in 2020 which never panned out and she's always been a bit bummed that she never got to go to Finland.

I was thinking it might be a fun Christmas gift to fly to Helsinki and stay there for a few days right before Christmas. She's off from college on December 16 and with me through Dec 25 (after which she's visiting her dad and other family). It looks like tickets to go there are affordable enough for me for December 17 (land 18th) to Dec 21 (back in time for Christmas Eve which is a big holiday for my family). So that's three days in Helsinki and the first might mostly be a jet lag day, but what a fun treat!

I think my daughter would enjoy things like the Christmas market and cafes and maybe a sauna. She's not like me, she's not into history, site-seeing, and learning on a trip, she's more into melting into the to local culture (when we went to Germany, she liked to go off and sit in cafes and people watch). And since this would be a gift for her, I am trying to leave my likes out of it.

My question is what is Helskinki like in the winter? Are their other things to do? What recommendations would you have for a winter trip?

Posted by
27120 posts

Wikipedia's climate chart shows an average of 0.9 hours of sunshine per day (which is obviously variable) and 6.0 hours of daylight (which isn't). It rains an average of 19 days in December.

Helsinki has a lot of really nice Art Nouveau architecture, so it was fun for me to walk around and gawk. Late December doesn't seem a great time for that. I'm not a winter traveler; I'd hate being in Helsinki then. You and your daughter may be totally different.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helsinki

Posted by
848 posts

For 2 full days on the ground? Eh, that sounds awful to me. Back in the day I made two different trips for one week (to Paris) when I was working (and I lived on the east coast and could catch nonstops to Paris so no connecting flights in US or abroad) and it was the most time I could allot, and it was not worth it for the jet lag and wear and tear on me...anything less than a full week seems absurdly short to me. Today the bare minimum length of a trip to Europe for me is 2 weeks, preferably 3 weeks or longer.

Where do you live? Maybe fly to NYC for a mother daughter thing, it is a festive time of year there...

Posted by
71 posts

Good points. I feel silly, but I didn't even think about the lack of daylight.

New York isn't really that special, we go there by train a lot and she's had a few high school trips to NYC. But it's a great suggestion in principle... to think of something domestic. I will keep looking.

Maybe I will just save Finland for her graduation in a couple of years. Then we can go in the summer for a couple of weeks at at time when there is more daylight (and maybe see Sweden or some of the Baltic Countries too).

Thank you to both of you!

Posted by
6389 posts

In general not a terrible idea, but I agree that it's way too short. That is a lot of travel for just two days in Helsinki. Make it a longer trip in 2024 instead.

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