A sunny twist on Christmas

Inside the bright yellow Christmas cottage: Christmas mattresses, gingerbread, and loads of cheer

This 1930s log house looks traditional from the outside but is brightly sunny inside. The barrel stove keeps it warm, and on the floor, the Christmas mattresses await the day before Christmas Eve—a tradition the family can’t imagine Christmas without.

Author Natalia Rehbinder

Images Kristiina Kurronen

November 13, 2025Lue suomeksi

The Luomaranta family’s most eagerly awaited Christmas tradition begins on the day before Christmas Eve. That’s when they carry the Christmas mattresses into the living room, where the family sleeps until Christmas Day. After that, they head to Grandma’s. The idea for these Christmas mattresses came from a Finnish poem by Heli Laaksonen, in which she suggests that after spending the holidays lying down, you’ll have plenty of energy well into spring.

“Could there be a better way to spend Christmas than this?” asks Elisa Luomaranta with a smile.

But before it’s time for the Christmas mattresses, plenty happens in this century-old log house. In mid-November, decorative lights go up outside, and stars appear in the windows. Christmas flowers are planted in cheerful retro containers, and the living area is beautifully decorated. Even though the home’s main color is a vibrant yellow, the flowers boast a more traditional Christmas color, red. Around the third Sunday of Advent, the family brings in a real spruce tree adorned with subtly fragrant dried orange slices.

The mansard-roofed house was built in 1936. It’s just a stone’s throw from Lake Pyhäjärvi, where the family has a dock and a yellow rowboat.

Residents Elisa and Samuli Luomaranta and their two daughters, plus Tilda the Jack Russell Terrier. Instagram: @elluyellow.

Home A two-story, mansard-roofed log house built in 1936 on the shore of Lake Pyhäjärvi. It measures 180 m² (about 1,940 sq ft).

Red on the outside but enchantingly yellow on the inside, the house is familiar to many a Finn from the Elluyellow social media account, where Elisa shares interior design inspiration, color therapy, and her fabulous yellow thrift finds. She and her family moved in spring 2017 from Kirkkonummi to this red lakeside house on Lake Pyhäjärvi.

“We immediately fell in love with the cozy atmosphere of the living area, the brightness upstairs, and the spacious rooms. And of course, a old red house feels made for celebrating Christmas!”

This handmade 1950s-style kitchen is a magnificent example of master carpenter Tapio Tiainen’s craftsmanship. The remodeling took just over a week and a half.

The rounded design of the kitchen cabinets, the concave and convex corners, the handles, and the carefully chosen yellow color fit the space perfectly.

Important recipes and reminders are neatly organized in the Christmas notebook Elisa put together. Pictured is a Christmas bread recipe is from a high school friend—the family bakes it every year. The world’s tastiest sandwich is made with that bread, brie cheese, cured salmon, and red bell pepper.

No one in this home stresses over Christmas cleaning.

“Usually, we clean a small part of the house on weekends. For example, organizing cupboards and polishing tin cans go by pleasantly when we enjoy hot glögi, gingerbread cookies, and mint chocolate candies while we do it. We also love to bake—it’s part of the Christmas countdown,” Elisa says.

Both daughters are enthusiastic bakers, so the family works together to make gingerbread cookies, Christmas bread, and glögi cake. The Christmas bread is Elisa’s specialty. That bread recipe is from a high school friend, so it’s been part of their holiday tradition for 20 years.

“Back in my childhood home and at my mother-in-law’s, everyone knows I’ll bring one or two of those Christmas breads to the shared holiday table.”