Radio | News week in plain Finnish | Sunday 21.12.2025

Christmas tree and tree shop

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Christmas tree shop

This time, the topic of the news week is the Christmas tree and the Christmas tree trade.

Christmas Eve is approaching, and it’s the busiest time of the year for Christmas tree shops.

Approximately 1.4 million Christmas trees are sold in Finland every year.

We will now tell you how Finns buy a Christmas tree and what kinds of fir trees are sold in Finland.

About twenty fallen spruce trees lie on the ground. There are nets on them.

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Approximately 1.4 million Christmas trees are sold in Finland every year. Many trees are also purchased online. Photo: Malin Lindholm / Yle

Shopping places

The Christmas tree market is at its busiest right now.

Many Finns buy spruce from the supermarket or directly from the grower.

Finns are buying more spruce from large stores than before.

Online sales of fir trees are also growing. You can order a fir tree to your home from the online store, and some of the fir trees are already sold in advance.

Forest spruce

Kuopio-based spruce farmer Harri Koponen grows approximately 5,000 Christmas trees every year.

He says that the Christmas tree trade often starts around Independence Day.

The most popular Christmas tree is a spruce just over 2 meters tall.

Today, the selection of spruce trees in Finland is wide. Black spruce and Serbian spruce are also on sale, for example.

Entrepreneur Harri Koponen next to the spruce trees.

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Harri Koponen grows spruce trees in Kuopio. Photo: Sami Takkinen / Yle

The right size for a spruce

Spruce growers advise that you should buy a spruce of the appropriate size and shape for your home.

A narrow spruce tree, about 170 centimeters tall, is often suitable for an apartment building.

Finns buy tall and wide spruce trees for their detached houses. Some even buy spruce trees that are almost 3 meters tall.

![Ett landskap med ett tiol i granar i en Backa och en man som står lått borta vid en gran. ](https://images.cdn.yle.fi/image/upload/c_crop,h_3375,w_5998,x_0,y_0/ar_1.7777777777777777,c_f ill,g_faces,h_431,w_767/dpr_1.0/q_auto:eco/f_auto/fl_lossy/v1766074947/39-15721836944283aaa5ed)

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Growing a spruce takes many years. Photo: Malin Lindholm / Yle

Spruce care

Spruce growers give two important pieces of advice to spruce buyers.

It is worth measuring the spruce tree’s foot before buying, because the base of the spruce tree should not be too thick for the foot.

A spruce tree will stay fresh if it is given enough water. A spruce tree needs a lot of water, especially during the first day after it is brought inside.

An important Christmas tradition

Growing a Christmas tree requires a lot of time and patience. It takes many years to grow a tree.

The demand for spruce trees varies from year to year.

Snowy Christmas weather increases sales of fir trees, but many Finns buy a fir tree even when there is no snow.

Christmas tree shopping is an important part of Christmas traditions in Finland.

Decorated Christmas tree.

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The Christmas tree is part of Christmas traditions. Photo: Henrietta Hassinen / Yle

Newsweek Christmas break

This was the last news week of the year in plain Finnish.

The program will now take a Christmas break and will resume in January.

At the same time, the news week will be slightly renewed.

From now on, we will tell you the most important news of the week on Sundays in plain Finnish, meaning many news stories in one program.

There is still one topic on Saturday’s program, namely the important news of the week.

You can also find news in plain Finnish on the website yle.fi/selkouutiset.

See you again, bye!