Celebrating a Milestone at the Old-Thyme Market

On the last Sunday of November, the streets of Uusikaupunki’s city center once again fill with a festive Christmas atmosphere. Market stalls overflow with handmade delicacies and crafts, the award-winning Christmas lights are switched on, and the Christmas season in the wooden house town officially begins.

The beautifully lit Christmas street has delighted locals since the 1960s. For many generations of Uusikaupunki residents, the opening of the —with Santa Claus and candies tossed from the back of a truck—is a cherished childhood memory.

In the early 1990s, the Christmas program expanded when the museum, cultural office, and local tour guides came up with the idea for a Christmas market fitting the historic wooden town’s charm. The first Old-Fashioned Market was held in November 1994, initially on a different date than the Christmas street opening.

– “The idea for the market probably originated with the museum staff,” speculates Heli Kruuna-Rauvola, who worked as the city’s communications and tourism secretary at the time.

Specially designed vintage-style stalls were built for the event and placed on Myllykatu, between the Wahlberg Museum House and Jungqvist House. Craftspeople were invited to sell their goods: bakers, knitters, artisans, and other skilled makers. The nostalgic Christmas atmosphere was further enhanced by old-fashioned attire.

– The location made perfect sense, right there between the museum and the cultural office of the time, says Ilkka Rauvola, who served as a cultural secretary and helped organize the first markets. – The event was popular right from the start, with plenty of vendors joining in.

Wreaths, bundt cakes, jams, and wool socks sold well, while Christmas music played through loudspeakers. Shoppers could take a break in the tour guides’ café at Jungqvist House, warming up and enjoying carefully prepared treats.

Authenticity was key in the Old-Fashioned Café too: coffee was served in porcelain cups, and pastries were homemade.

– I even remember baking chocolate cake for the café. Everyone’s spouses and kids pitched in one way or another, Kruuna-Rauvola laughs.

After the first few years, the market moved along with the cultural office to the courtyard of the town hall and its surroundings, initially to Rauhankatu and later to Ylisenkatu. Each year brought more vendors, leading to an expanded area. The museum stepped back from organizing the event, and the tourism office, located in the town hall, took over.

Within a decade, the market grew from a small event with a few dozen craftspeople to a bustling fair with nearly a hundred vendors. Sellers came from near and far, even as far as Hämeenlinna and Hanko.

– We always ensured that the products matched the spirit of the market and were handmade, Kruuna-Rauvola emphasizes.

In 2004, the traditional Christmas street opening and the popular Old-Thyme Market were held on the same day—the last Sunday in November—for the first time. This well-received tradition has now continued for twenty years.

The market has since relocated to the town square and Alinenkatu, closer to the downtown boutiques. However, the original vision behind the atmospheric Christmas market in the wooden house town remains unchanged: to bring joy and warm Christmas spirit to locals and visitors alike in a uniquely Uusikaupunki way.

Old Thyme Market and  Christmas Street Opening