As soon as the one and the only Santa, - Joulupukki -, landed on the Budapest Airport it started slightly snowing. The whole country rejoiced together with the children awaiting Santa. From this long awaited magical moment onwards, just as it had happened in the previous years, Joulupukki received the overwhelming attention of both children and the media. An army of adults and children waited for occasions to meet him.

Joulupukki’s ten-day-long journey around Hungary to numerous kindergartens, childrens’ hospitals and other charity events brought joy and happiness to thousands of children and adults. Also thanks to the continuous media attention, Joulupukki reached once again more than a million viewers. Without any doubt the real Santa for Hungarians is Joulupukki!

We in Finnagora also managed to bring Christmas Spirit and happiness for one specific Hungarian family well before Christmas by finding a long lost archive documentary after many years. Rozália Tolnai and Károly Fekete had their wedding more than fourty years ago.

The Finnish television, YLE, had filmed the wedding for a report describing Hungary in the 1970s. As a consequence of misfortunate events the couple could never see this film, they had no such memories of their own wedding.  After trying for many years it was the couple’s daughter that found Finnagora. We then got contacted the archives of YLE, which sent us the material within a couple of days. Many thanks to Tiina Oksanen and Päivi Uusimaa, who helped us in bringing joy for others.  Special thanks to ambassador Jari Vilén, who organised a moving celebration at the embassy residence to honour the couple, where we could all together watch the archive documentary for the first time. We believe it is also these small acts that bring Finland closer to Hungarians.

Finnagora’s work, which is done to enhance Finnish-Hungarian relations and cooperation, was greatly honoured lately. The Finnish-Hungarian Society honoured Mr. Mikko Lohikoski, director of the Finnagora board of trustees, and Ms. Gyöngyi Mátray, project manager of Finnagora with its silver award.

Ms. Marjatta Manni-Hämäläinen, director of the Finnish- Hungarian Society, had the honour of handing out the awards at the October meeting of the Finnagora board of trustees in Helsinki.

New challenges are awaiting us in January, but until then we will celebrate Christmas. Therefore Finnagora will be closed between 23rd December and 2nd January. In urgent cases please contact me.

Finnagora’s team wishes to thank all our partners and all those whom we met in 2011. We wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year for 2012!

Leena Pasanen