Christmas markets..

Better late than never...

Christmas time in Helsinki stands for Christmas markets. Just before Christmas I attended two of them; the St. Thomas market at the Esplanade park and Wanha's traditional Christmas market.

The St. Thomas market offered a lot of touristic items like wooden items and knives from Lapland, as well as some items made by real Finnish blacksmiths. Wonderful things, but a little bit pricy for my taste! I enjoyed the most the food part, a food lover as I am. They had even some sellers that had come down from Lapland selling reindeer sausages in hot dogs. I found that interesting and exciting, even for a Helsinkian like me. The only item that I bought at the market was some personal Christmas cards with drawings on leaves. They were ironically from India.

Wanha's Christmas was crazy buzy when I went there on Saint Lucy's (Santa Lucia) day. Wanha, which is an old building where huge parties are held, was turned into this great Christmas market with more sellers than my eyes could comprehend. Like at typical Finnish markets, most of the products are handmade. I liked the most some pieces with dragonflies, which is quite predictable since I'm in love with dragonflies and consider them my personal symbol. There were also other interesting sellers, like the company called ANNA PUSU (in Finnish: give me a kiss). They make necklaces with photos. You can order their necklaces directly through internet. They looked amazing! I highly recommend you to have a look!