Merry Christmas from Salli!

Santa Claus and Sauna – the essential parts of traditional Finnish Christmas. Or perhaps this year it is Santa Claus, Sauna and Salli! All real and original Finnish things. Things that are close to our hearts.

Santa Claus lives in Lapland and is a truly Finnish figure. So it is natural that he promoted another Finnish concept, the Key Flag, in its early years. The Key Flag is a symbol given by Association for Finnish Work for products made in Finland. When it was created in 1965 Santa Claus himself could be seen in Helsinki, in the great Christmas parade, carrying a huge key that was decorated with the Finnish national flag (picture: suomalainentyo.fi).

Santa Claus delivers presents all over the world so naturally he needs a lot of elves to help him. The elves live with him in Santa Claus Village at the Arctic Circle and make the toys in Santa’s workshop, and also take care of his reindeer. 

In addition to Santa’s elves a lot of elves appear in Finnish folklore. Elves are basically friendly creatures, but they can also cause trouble if people are not behaving nicely. Children are often told before Christmas that if they are not good the elves can see it through the window, and they end up with having no toys at Christmas.

Chistmas elves are seen during Christmas time, but there are others as well. For example, the household elf is guarding the home and bringing luck to the people who live there. The sauna elf is taking care of the peaceful and quiet atmosphere of the sauna. Stable and cow house elves protect the animals, and the forest elf is the forest spirit.

It was a custom in the countryside to leave some food on the porch for the elves at Christmas Eve. In the morning the plate was empty and tiny footprints could be seen in the snow around it…

Salli Team wishes Merry Christmas to all Salli-friends all over the world! In the video below you can see a glimpse of our Marie, Janne and colourful Salli Chairs visiting Santa.

Santa Claus turned out to be a humorous guy.