100 Nights Until Christmas!
Text Timo Raussi Photo Visit Tallinn / Toomas Tuul
Believe it or not, when you go to bed tonight, you have exactly one hundred nights left to sleep until Christmas Eve. If this information doesn’t exactly fill you with joy, meaning you won’t immediately dig the seasonal lights and table decorations out of the cupboard, you can nevertheless start planning your trip to Estonia for Advent or the Christmas holidays with a clear conscience. Here is a checklist compiled by Visit Estonia of key dates and events to help ensure that you find the Christmas spirit once you arrive.
The organisers of the Tallinn Christmas Market are responding to popular demand, meaning that this year’s “mulled wine paradise” and “mecca for atmospheric selfie photos”, opening in the Old Town on 20 November, will remain open until Epiphany on 6 January. In Tartu, the Christmas City, known for its glass cabin cafés, atmospheric fire pits and ice rink in Town Hall Square, opens a little later, on 29 November, but will remain open until as late as 10 January.
Do you remember the Väätsa Christmas Windows, which grew from a community-minded village initiative into a phenomenon attracting more than 15,000 visitors? This year, the small town in central Estonia, near Paide and Türi, is worth heading to from 1 December through Epiphany on 6 January. The Gingerbread Mania exhibition in Tallinn has not yet announced this year’s theme, but its opening dates will be 3 December–6 January.
If, for one reason or another, you decide to spend the weekend of Finland’s Independence Day in “southern Helsinki”, i.e. on the Estonian side of the Gulf, get into the festive spirit early on Saturday, 5 December, in Hiiumaa. The island will be hosting a Mulled Wine Café Day. A variety of drinks will be available, both alcoholic and non-alcoholic.
What would the Advent season be without Christmas fairs? The first to announce their dates for the market calendar are: the Great Christmas Fair at the Tartu Fair Centre, 4–6 December, the Christmas Fair on Tartu’s central Küüni pedestrian street on 12 December, the Christmas Market of Estonian Museum Shops at Kultuurikatel near Tallinn’s port on the same day, as well as the distinctly Estonian Christmas Market at the Estonian National Museum ERM in Tartu on 12–13 December, featuring products exclusively from local vendors.
Christmas is celebrated in Pärnu, too. A festive Christmas market with a programme of events will be open at Independence Square, at the end of Rüütli pedestrian street, from 18–20 December. And if you are travelling with the whole family, don’t forget the guaranteed-to-be-action-packed Lotte’s Christmas Wonderland, taking place from 12 December–3 January.
Last but not least, for all those who think cheerful children, Santa Claus and relentlessly jolly elves, gingerbread, and mulled wine are all far too sugary and soft, the Raskasta Joulua heavy metal tour will venture outside Finland for the first time, arriving in Tallinn on 17 December. Taking the stage at the Alexela Concert Hall, led by the project’s guitarist and founder Erkka Korhonen, will be Marko Hietala, familiar from Nightwish and Tarot, Timo Kotipelto of Stratovarius, Elize Ryd of Amaranthe, Sweden’s gift to heavy metal, vocalist Tommy Karevik, and many others. Tickets are already on sale here.
Have a nice…. eeeeh, well… dark autumn!
To learn more about this and similar topicsChristmas Christmas Markets events Gingerbread Mulled Wine Pärnu Tartu Väätsa
