Aleksanterinkatu - Kiseleff's house

The first shopping street in the name of

Alexander I, was inaugurated in 1832. It was home to the first Stockmann department store, founded in 1862 in the house of Kiseleff around the corner of the university on the Senate Square. Stockmann is now located at the other end of the longest street of Helsinki, at the corner of Mannerheim's Avenue.

Aleksanterinkatu has been the official Christmas Street of Finland since 1949. At Christmas time, Aleksanterinkatu is traditionally decorated with elaborate Christmas lights between Unioninkatu and the Three Smiths Statue from late November to Epiphany, on the 6th of January.

This year 2022, the Christmas lights will be lit by Santa Claus and the mayor of Helsinki, on Saturday, November 19, for the 74th time. The white-bearded Santa himself comes to the capital from Rovaniemi Lapland to open Finland's most beautiful Christmas Street with a parade from the Senate Square, attended by some 50 thousand people. The tradition has been going on since 1949, when the street vendors, who wanted to bring light and hope to townspeople recovering from the war, kicked off the downtown Christmas season.