We decorate our school for Christmas. Our Christmas holidays last for 2 weeks. We’ll come back to school on the 6th of January.

At school we have parties and concerts. All the pupils gather in the big hall and enjoy some Christmas music and performances.

Every year we have a Christmas Fair. Pupils sell self-made items and can participate in the workshops with their parents.

Christmas Fair workshops

Four weeks before Christmas it is very common for children to put their slippers onto the window sill in the evening to discover that an elf (Päkapikk) has left some sweets in there by morning.

On Christmas Eve (24 Dec) everyone in the family waits for Santa Claus (Jõuluvana) to come from Lapland with his sleigh pulled by reindeer. Our Santa comes with a huge bag of gifts. Both young and old people have to sing songs, chant verses or perform dances to get gifts.

Estonian families usually have a large Christmas meal – pork, blood sausage (with cranberry sauce), sauerkraut, oven-baked potatoes and meat in jelly. According to an old tradition, seven to twelve different meals were served on Christmas Night.

For dessert people usually have gingerbread or piparkoogid, as we call it. Baking gingerbread is a complex process, as all friends and relatives gather together to bake the fancy figured gingerbread men and other figures.

In December we always have Christmas Market in Tallinn Town Hall Square.

It looks really beautiful!