Earthy Christmas home

A “perfectly scruffy” tree, a candy buffet, and great-grandfather’s gingerbread recipe—this family’s Christmas is full of fun traditions

Suveka’s Christmas tree has to have character—it should never be too perfect. The same spirit flows through the family home, where natural materials meet secondhand finds.

Author Heikki Rautio

Images Heikki Rautio

December 8, 2025Lue suomeksi

Snow covered the yard overnight. That’s good news—now the elves can ski down to southern Finland. Suveka Kymäläinen’s advent calendar for her sons has a little Christmas story for each day. It’s one of their beloved traditions. Throughout December, Suveka and her two boys savor the stories and the spirit of Christmas at home.

Home: A duplex house built in 1953 in Naantali, Finland: kitchen + living room + dining area + 3 bedrooms + 2 bathrooms + basement, 120 m² (1,291 sq ft).

Residents: Clay builder Suveka Kymäläinen with her 10-year-old son. At Christmas, the family’s adult son also comes home.

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Suveka Kymäläinen hanging a lantern — Candle lanterns are lit in the old apple trees every evening. Suveka didn’t want electric outdoor lights, so she’s been collecting lanterns from flea markets for years. They can be all sizes and styles, as long as they’re beautiful. The candle glow shines wonderfully into the kitchen and dining room.

Entryway with floral wallpaper — The entrance is charmingly set at the end of the house. The piano stool painted turquoise is a find from an old station building. Suveka has wanted to keep the home’s original lacquered birch plywood doors. The hallway still has its original plank floor.

View from the entryway into the kitchen — The entryway walls are papered with William Morris’s Lilac wallpaper. Suveka loves Morris’s nature motifs. The coat rack is tidied up for Christmas—on regular days it’s jam-packed.

“Christmas arrives here on the First Advent Sunday. At the turn of the month I swap in Christmas rugs, put round red Christmas pillows on the living room sofa, fetch a tree from the forest, and decorate it.”

I’m particular about the tree. For a couple of years now I've collected it from a local forest. I walk in the forest looking for a suitably slender, small spruce. I don’t want a cultivated showpiece—I look for a perfectly scruffy tree with branches of uneven lengths. A tree needs character. When I find the right one, the forest owner saws it for me. At home we decorate it with inherited and other cherished ornaments. The tree stays up until January 1, after which it keeps on living as an insect hotel in the twig fence I built in the yard.

Clay-painted wall and a Christmas tree — The traditional spot for the tree is the corner of the dining room. The locally sourced spruce has already gained a few ornaments. The wall shows Suveka’s clay-paint experiments, which led her to develop her own paint recipe.

Suveka Kymäläinen sits on the sofa — Suveka’s home is a 1950s duplex house right next to the Old Town. At the end of November, the busy life of a clay builder gives way to a relaxed wait for Christmas. For Suveka, Christmas is always a children’s celebration and a chance to revisit her own happy holiday memories.

rustic wooden chairs around a round table — The rustic wooden chairs came from Suveka’s childhood home. She appreciates solid wood vintage furniture that are repairable. Almost everything in the home was acquired secondhand.

“From those days we kept the tradition that on Christmas Eve the boys get to choose what we eat. We’ve had sushi, pizza, and hamburgers on Christmas Eve.”

I’m one hundred percent a Christmas person. I inherited my enthusiasm for the season from my mother and grandmother. We’ve always baked a lot for Christmas. I still have the recipe notebook I started when I was fourteen; the first page holds a gingerbread cookie recipe. I bake gingerbread cookies using a recipe passed down from my great-grandfather. He was a pastry chef who ran a bakery in Turku, Finland. The cookies are spiced with syrup, ginger, cloves, cinnamon, and bitter orange peel. I mix a big batch of dough at once and freeze rolls of it until inspiration strikes.

kitchen with steel cabinetry — Suveka didn’t want wooden panel cabinets in her home—she chose honest steel instead. The stainless surfaces from Metos are softened by clay walls and warm wood. For the backsplash she made a stucco surface that can be wiped clean, finished with a protective wax made from linseed oil and beeswax.

Open shelf with lit candles — On the kitchen’s open shelf sits a ceramic miniature castle that Suveka’s mother Heidi once bought from Turku Castle. You can slip a tealight inside to make it glow. The blue-and-white Musselmalet dinnerware by Royal Copenhagen traces its roots to 1770s Denmark. Suveka received two teacups as a gift from a friend.

Bellman chair in the kitchen — Seated on the lattice-back Bellman chair, a blue Christmas elf keeps an eye on the household hustle.

Another baking tradition for us are saffron buns popular in Sweden for Saint Lucy's Day. I’ve always been a fan of Sweden. In my recipe book I still have the instructions I drew as a teen for how to braid the buns just right.

The first 23 days of December are for getting ready to celebrate. Even though I start decorating at the beginning of the month, a little more Christmas arrives every day. On Christmas Eve we hand out the gifts first thing in the morning. The packages are waiting under the tree.

red sofa in the living room — Suveka gravitates toward warm colors in interiors. Behind the red sofa she won at a design auction, she plastered a wine-red clay wall. A white amaryllis is a part of Christmas. The painting is by Hilkka Alatalo.

Wooden cabinet in rosy pink and an evergreen garland — The old neo-renaissance cabinet in the living room is painted rosy pink. The color pairs beautifully with the clay-plastered walls. The cabinet was a gift. Suveka decorates with evergreens, sprinkled here and there.

Living room with clay-painted walls — The living room wall color comes straight from nature. It isn’t tinted—the beautiful red is an earth pigment, painted in Savella’s Vanha roosa shade. Suveka isn’t a fan of white walls; she wants warm tones around her. The blue of the oriental rug is the exception in her warm palette.

Drop-front cabinet with Tiffany glass — In the living room corner stands a drop-front cabinet that once belonged to Suveka’s great-grandfather. Only 30 centimeters (12″) deep, it was made as a bar cabinet for an office. The Tiffany glass in the door has always been part of the piece. The oak cabinet is over a hundred years old.

delicate armchair in the living room — The delicate armchair and handsome chest of drawers were gifts from her sister Viveka. The painting once hung over Suveka’s cradle.

Christmas Eve is a special day. The three of us get to be at home and enjoy perfect peace. For several years now I’ve tried to slow my work pace in December so I can enjoy the anticipation for Christmas. In my previous job in retail in Helsinki, the Christmas season was busy. From those days we kept the tradition that on Christmas Eve the boys get to choose what we eat. We’ve had sushi, pizza, and hamburgers on Christmas Eve.

“I’m one hundred percent a Christmas person.”

Since moving to Naantali, we’ve also gone to eat Christmas dishes on Christmas Eve at my sister Viveka’s place. Another special tradition is the Christmas Eve candy buffet. We set out many bowls of candies, and you can eat as much as you want. My job is to refill the bowls throughout the day. At Christmas, we don’t skimp.”

bedroom with a small interior window — Suveka favors natural materials in textiles. She inherited her keen material knowledge from her mother, a textile artist. During renovation, Suveka installed large windows at the end of the room to bring much-needed daylight into the small bedroom. In the upper hall behind the window, there’s a small desk and lots of art on the walls.

small lamp on a chair used as a nightstand — The pretty table lamp is Finnish design from the 1950s and '60s. Suveka found it at a flea market in Helsinki. Christmas Eve is for lounging at home in pajamas all day—there’s no rush.

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A “perfectly scruffy” tree, a candy buffet, and great-grandfather’s gingerbread recipe—this family’s Christmas is full of fun traditions

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