Christmas in Helsinki has always been miraculous to me. Unlike many of my peers, I’m always spending my holidays here. People often feel strongly about having a white Christmas and I admit that for some years now it’s been a gamble whether we get that in our capital.

But I have this strong memory that every single of my childhood Christmas was snowy. Except once and that is the Christmas Eve I want to share with you.

My brothers and I were active Girl Guides and Boy Scouts for years and traditionally some of our members collected the offertories in Tuomiokirkko on Christmas Eve. We lived close by, so we were often asked to help out and I can honestly say that we weren’t too happy about it. But my little brother and I dug ourselves out of our cozy PJ’s, ironed our uniforms, tied our scout neckerchiefs, and headed out. It was dark, depressing weather, the streets were cold and black without a trace of snow. The church went fine, but we were restless to head back home and get on with our Christmas Eve traditions. We were walking back home and talking about how lucky some of our friends were since they were celebrating in Lapland, where surely, there was snow.

And yeah, you guessed right – suddenly, as if it was a Charlie Brown Christmas special, it started snowing.

I’ve been renovating a new apartment, packing, moving, and coughing dust for the whole December, but now I’m sitting in my new place, piles of brown removal boxes around me, staring over my laptop into the yard. The tiniest snowflakes are slowly coloring the scenery and this warm feeling is fluttering inside me.

Let the Helsinki Christmas and winter charm you, skate in Brahen kenttä, when there’s two centimeters of snow, head up to Kaivari or Kaisaniemi for toboggan rides, walk in Seurasaari and go see the big cats being surprisingly active in Korkeasaari, and share some warm drinks with friends in numerous cafés. But most of all, let us all be grateful of what we have this Christmas, brown boxes, dust, and everything.

Join us for the last issue of 2014! As fits the season, Susan tells us a little about not-so-pleasant presents and Ari goes through a list, ahem, alternative Christmas movies. For those of you who are having a hard time me saying Christmas this many times (Christmas, Christmas, Christmas, lalalalala), Laura reviews the latest from Middle Earth, Esko introduces the Helsinki Distilling Company, and Jesper has a confession to make: He totally loves wrestling. Tights and everything.

From all of us, have a Merry Christmas or any festivity of your choice! See you next year!