avitae december 2015

P y h ä j o e n K u u l u m i s e t – 19 . 12 . 2 0 16 sivu 9

A.V.I.T.A.E

Bratislava is the capital city of Slovakia, surprisingly dynamic and full of lovely places where you can spend your time. The city shows a great balance in keeping its old and traditional values undisturbed in a modern environment. In Bratislava we can indeed find one city part with factories, skyscra-pers and shopping centres, whilst in the other, older part we can walk around in little lanes and find beautiful squares, theatres, fantastic chocolate shops and statu-es of funny local characters. This is a really traditional aspect of the Slovakian cul-ture and we can find many typical statues; one of the most renowned ones is cu-riously staring at people and playfully peeping under a woman's skirt. I think this is the best part of the city for

tourists to have a glimpse of the citizens' actual lifestyle.

Bratislava also contains a great number of historic buildings, which mostly are located within the center of the city. Historic buildings can be found on the outs-kirts of the city surrounded by beautiful nature as well as only a few minutes’ drive from the center of Bratisla-va. A large part of the his-toric buildings that can be found in Bratislava are great castles that make a good trip for tourists who seek a good sightseeing spot, but these buildings are also a perfect place to learn about Bratislava’s history. Most castles offer great views, art, guided tours and cafés if you need to grab a bite.

Bratislava is also the per-

fect place, where you can spend time with friends. There are lot of traditional restaurants like historical chalets with typical Slovak style. Bratislava is known for the delicious beer, so the-re are lot of breweries and pubs with local beer. For coffee lovers there are a lot of coffee houses too with typical homemade or raw sweets and we can't forget about the many chocolate factories and bakeries. Du-ring weekends, there are a lot of traditional markets with Slovak products like cheese, fresh fruits or vege-tables of the season, meat and other products. So Bra-tislava is the perfect place for hanging out with friends or for people who like good cuisine.

The city is a good place

Introducing Bratislava

if you like shopping. The-re are many shopping cen-ters, where you can buy all

that you need. And it is not very expensive there. In the shopping centers there are a lot of well-known brands and some local little stores. In the center of Bratislava there are many fascinating souvenir boutiques and fine streets which are surroun-ded by high quality shops and cozy cafeterias. And if you the have time, you can go to Vienna which is also a shopping paradise only an hour away from Bratislava.

This is what Carlos from Spain and Thomas from Greece had to say about their trip to Bratislava

Carlos: The first day each of us was welcomed by a fa-mily which showed us local living there for a week du-ring which which we shared customs, talked and met different cultures. My trips to different places like Bra-tislava Castle or a tour pre-pared by the city helped me learn a little more about the place, a city that is compo-sed of several tram lines that

connect till the last corner of Bratislava. Another activi-ty that we did was go to a technology business where its boss gave us a question time to teach us how he be-came an entrepreneur and showed us the company. We also visited a castle outside Bratislava, a very old castle with many rooms and thanks to a guide we could see all of them and know the castle’s history, and the guide told us that a long time ago this castle was used by very im-portant people.

Thomas: The trip to Bra-

tislava was the best moment in my life because I had the chance to make new friends. I also had the chance to improve my teamwork skills. I liked the Red Castle, the UFO Tower with the best view I have ever see in my life and the visit to the compa-ny Pixel Federation because in the future I want to work with computers and make vi-deo games. I would love to visit Bratislava again.

P y h ä j o e n K u u l u m i s e t – 19 . 12 . 2 0 16sivu 10

Oriana González Her-nández

The Hotel Academy is situa-ted near the historical centre of Bratislava. Here you can spend a really good time learning different subjects and prepa-ring all sorts of events. There is always something on! In this Academy you can learn how to be a great waiter and a superb chef; students dress up in uni-forms and their teachers also give them tasks like cooking in their homes and bringing the food they’ve prepared to tas-te it. It was a real change from our schools, with lots of writ-ten tasks and homework.We had the opportunity to know how it goes and we spent some

time cooking with the senior students.We split into 5 in-ternational groups, and each group had to prepare one typical dish from one of the countries. All dishes were based on ancient recipes, but we could introduce some changes. Innovation was an important part of our final objectives.

Each group had to decide what type of food they were going to prepare, and who they were aiming at, food for young people, for weddings or spe-cial occasions, for people in-terested in being healthy, etc. Some innovations were made, using less fat, for example, as nowadays most of us don’t have to do so much physical work as our ancestors did in ancient

times. The ingredients were bought the day before the coo-king day. The food we prepared in the different groups was:

Group 1: Chestnut flour pan-cakes from Italy, cooking Denis, Taina, María, Ask, Chris and Yolimar

Group 2: Whole grain yogurt pancakes (4 large size pan-cakes), from Greece, cooking Radovan, Emmi, María, Molly, Thomas, Carlos and Chiara.

Group 3: Toasted bread topped with olives from Italy , and traditional salmon soup from Finland, cooking Andrea, Cem, Vangelis, Amalie, Nefeli, Frida and Emma.

Group 4: Kolokasi from Cyprus, cooking Emily, Oona, Stella, Juliane, Stefanos, Oria-na and Christian.

Group 5: Watercress soup from Spain, cooking Kristina Jonna, Niki, Sofie, Theodora, Valeria and Davide.

Not everything turned out as we had planned. We had some problems with some dishes like the salmon soup from Finland, because the sauce tasted “fun-ny” so, the liquid was removed and the potatoes and the sal-mon saved. The final product wasn’t really soup, but it was nice! Besides, the watercress soup didn’t have “watercress”, we couldn’t get it in Bratislava, so we added other vegetables

instead, it wasn’t like the typi-cal soup, but it was tasty and very healthy!

On the whole, the experience was very positive and we mana-ged quite well in the kitchen, of course with a lot of help from the Academy.

At last, all the students and the teachers got together, we presented the dishes and eve-ryone tasted them. The food was really good so, it disap-peared in seconds!

HANDS ON COOKING in Hotelová Akadémia Winter 2015 A.V.I.T.A.E


HANDS ON COOKING in Hotelová Akadémia

By Sofie Brøbech Hedam Hansen

Before the CAP Run even started, everyone was meeting up just a few hundred meters from the starting point - under some sort of bridge. Everyone looked ready with their tights and running shoes, eagerly wai-ting to get their own number to put on their shirts. A long time went, more and more students - both from primary schools and high schools, teachers and ot-her participants were ready to run the 2,8 km for charity. Sud-denly everyone was moving, as the woman in charge must have told us to in Slovak. By just following the stream of bodies we ended up at the waterfront, looking over the Danube as

far as the eye could see. With people eagerly waiting to get started the tension seemed to rise. Some of the participants, very eager to finish first, mo-ved their way to the front of the group, so no one would be in their way. By the time of the countdown, streaming out from a tiny speaker, everyone was ready to run. Many had a very quick start, others a very slow one - but overall most people seemed to enjoy their time at their own pace. One of the most wonderful things of the run was the view. Running next to Europe’s second largest river is not something you get to do everyday, if you, like me, don’t live any-where near Bratislava or any of the neighbou-ring countries. My time

in the run seemed to end very suddenly when we got to the end of the waterfront. At the end, everyone was just sipping water and eating some choco-late. The 2,8 km was quickly lost by thoughts, breath and a pleasing view.

The run was organized by the students of the school, the Ho-televá Akadémia, and the mo-ney went to a women’s organi-zation in Sierra Leone. That day more than 1600 euros were collected for a good cause in good spirit and atmosphere.

CAP RUN - running for charity

A.V.I.T.A.E Winter 2015


By Yolimar, Irene, De-nis, Chris, Taina, Maria & Ask

On a foggy Tuesday the AVITAE ‘ambassadors’ who participated in the Bratislava meeting gathered in front of the school in order to leave for a trip to Cerveny Kamen castle - also known as the Red Stone Castle.

As the crew went into the castle after a long walk in the castle s foggy gardens, an exciting guided tour started.

As the AVITAE crew was guided through the Castle, paintings and frescoes, deep wells and amazing dungeons and wine cellars (the largest in Europe) were photo-graphed and admired.

The Thurzo family. From 1588 until the end of

WWII Red Stone Castle was owned by the Pállfy family who rebuilt the castle seve-

ral times and turned it into a comfortable dwelling. In 1949, the Castle was dec-lared a part of the national cultural heritage and was then turned into a muse-um offering insights into the owners’s taste for room furniture and military col-lections. Through time the Castle underwent several restorations and enlarge-ments. For this reason a new entrance and a French park are now available for the public.

Shortly after a tasty lunch in the Castle restaurant, the ‘crew’ headed for a Slova-kian Traditional Ceramics Factory. Here the group was divided into two subgroups - one was guided through the Ceramics Factory, and the other took part in a workshop which consisted in decorating a small plain pot. Then the two sub groups swapped tasks.

First we entered the castle

and toured the rooms and took lots of pictures of old furniture, frescoes, etc. Our guide had a funny accent, and it was hard to follow all his explanations. The castle had several busts of kings and lords from Slovakia. They all looked very smart and powerful. We visited the chapel. It was very nice, the floor was decorated with stones. It seems the old kings liked foot massages, so, when they came inside that room, they took off their shoes and while they were walking they could have their massage. Well, at least, that is what the guide told us. It was beautiful!

All the rooms were deco-rated with frescoes, chan-deliers and splendorous chimneys. Personally, I think there must have been a gre-at place to read a book with a cup of very hot chocolate!

Later, we saw the “weapon’s room”. There were lots of

knives, guns and suits of armour. More than four hundred weapons! While we were heading to other rooms, we saw a lot of Baro-que dresses. I loved them!

A bit later we went to the wine cellar. It was under-ground. The ceiling was very low, so the tallest members of our group got hurt. We laughed for a while, but la-ter, going down the narrow stairs, it got a bit scary. Insi-de the wine cellar there was a jail. I couldn’t possibly spend any time there. I would rat-her stick pins in my eyes. I would be terrified. Probably, some ghost could appear in the middle of the night.

AVITAE - A flood of cultural destinationsOn Tuesday 6th October, the whole “AVITAEcrew “ participating in the Bratislava meeting went on a trip out of Bratislava to experience further cultural attractions.

Winter 2015 A.V.I.T.A.E


AVITAE - A flood of cultural destinations

The history of Red Stone Castle dates back to the 13th century, namely to 1240; it was built on Queen Konstanz’s properties. Originally a medieval castle, it was part of a network of frontier fortifications. Since the beginning of the 13th century and until the beginning of the 16th century the castle had several owners (all members of the Hungarian nobility, such as Matthew Csak of Trencín and Ján Zápolsky)



Before arriving in the capital of Slovakia the Finnish and the Spanish students met in Vien-na. There we first learnt about the differences between cul-tures when the Spanish tried to kiss the Finnish. In Finland nobody kisses each other. The Spanish students felt embar-rassed but when they thought about it they started laughing themselves. First funny moment of the trip!

When everybody arrived in Slovakia we met our host fami-lies. There wasn’t anyone who didn’t feel at home with their family, that’s great! But most of the students agreed on one thing: The members of the fa-mily, apart from the young Slo-vak host student, didn’t know any English so they were trying to communicate in Slovak. That was a problem because the boys and girls from the visiting countries obviously didn’t un-derstand a word so we ended up in a mess of communication resulting in a lot of laughter.

Everybody was always laughing!! Soon we became a big, friendly group of people from different countries. We

were all in great spirits, really happy that we took part in the meeting. This meant that we all shared jokes, funny moments and a lot of laughs. This trip from the first day to the last was incredible. There are mo-ments we’ll never forget…

First day in the high school. After some months talking to people in our international group it was at last time to see each other face to face. So ner-vous! It’s different when you talk to someone on the internet and when you talk without a sc-reen in front of you. But that wasn’t a problem for us! Finally! We all got together…

We remember that in the kit-chen when we were cooking everything started okay with group 3. We finished the star-ter from Italy but what hap-pened when we tried to cook the Finnish soup? Nobody knows what happened but that it was a disaster! Our soup be-came a dish without any kind of liquid just potatoes, carrots and fish. We were stressed be-cause we had to present the dish but once we understood we couldn’t do anything we started to joke to each other about what we had made.

We also laughed a lot in the ceramics factory when eve-rybody showed to the others their artistic side by painting the ceramics…. This was a total artistic disaster. Or a new ap-proach to painting cups. Who can really tell…

We had a great time during the school party. That was the best day when almost every-body danced and showed the other students typical dances from their country.

The Greek people are so pas-sionate about their dances so the rest of the students tried to learn how to dance. That was another mess but we had a great time together. Also the teachers were dancing!!

But we shared some sad mo-ments too. This was when we had to say goodbye.

Nobody wanted to go but we couldn’t do anything, time flies. It’s a good thing, though, that we still keep in touch. It seems that we have made some good, international friends.

Group 3 Funny moments during the meeting Thirty five students coming from seven dif-ferent countries of Europe were gathered in Bratislava.



Group 3 Funny moments during the meeting

“Mummy, what is Santa going to bring me this year?”

“My sister has invited us for New Year’s Eve, what shall we take with us?”

“What shall we have for Christmas Day lunch?”

“Where should we spend the holidays this year?”

These are some of the things we often ask ourselves over the Christmas Holidays. The Christmas holidays provide a great opportunity for a speci-fic business sector to increase their profit and gain new custo-mers. Our traditions are highly connected with the consump-tion of unnecessarily large portions of food, the exchan-ge of gifts, the decoration of our premises, whether that is our home or workplace, with a vast variety of ornaments and flower arrangements which are sometimes used excessively.

Within the framework of our Erasmus+ Programme, we thought of designing a struc-

tured interview through which we would ask a number of bu-sinesses to give us inside infor-mation on how they approach this hectic season. The busi-nesses we contacted were the ARISTON CONFECTIONERY LTD, BONSAI FLOWER SHOP, TIP TOP TOY SHOP, SELECT HOUSE Home Supplies and the NEW HELVETIA HOTEL.

Based on what we have learnt through our interviews, prepa-rations for the Holidays typi-cally begin in mid-November, and in some cases, where they need to import goods from aboard (for example in the case of the toy shop), as early as mid-October. What is more, it is apparent that most busines-ses are open for the whole of the Christmas period from the early hours until the late hours of the day. This, of course, app-lies only to the shops and not to the Hotels, as they work 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. The flower shop however maintains its

usual opening hours.

When asked whether or not their companies had been af-fected by the economic crisis, all but one responded that it had had a significant negative impact on their profits. The exception was Select House, suppliers of crockery, cutlery and ornaments. They stated that they have not been af-fected greatly by the economic crisis since all restaurants, ho-tels and many households are in need of a renovation to a greater or lesser extent. Furt-hermore, despite the fact that the economic crisis has had a negative impact on the majority companies, they were forced to employ extra personnel as the demands of consumers are high during this period. Hotels re-quire more staff in order to be able to offer improved services, while shops are in need of extra personnel in order to respond to the high number of people at the tills.

The majority of the busines-ses interviewed have not emp-loyed an art designer to coor-dinate and oversee Christmas decorations due to the high costs, and lack of extra funds. Many stated that they are using decorations and ornaments kept from previous years this year in order to decorate their premises in the hope of both attracting clients and helping them to feel the Christmas Spi-rit. The Bonsai Flower shop ho-wever, not unexpectedly, makes its own decorations every year.

Again within the context of the Christmas Holidays, four of the businesses participate in numerous charity fairs, and other events, either by selling their products and donating their profits or by promoting the charity fairs through their company.

When asked whether they be-lieve that the Christmas period is profitable for their business or not, responses included “not

as much as in previous years”, “yes, sales are up at this time of year” and “this is the time of year when we have the oppor-tunity to promote our

On reflection, the question regarding whether the compa-ny imports products for the Christmas season or not was of no value. The reason being that it is not appropriate or relevant to the hotel. Con-fectionaries make their own products and this, of course, is true throughout the year. Flower shops typically import products throughout the year and so again this question was found to be of no value. Home and Business Suppliers import their products from abroad as a general rule but even more so when the Christmas period ar-rives, as they import a wide va-riety of Christmas decorations, ornaments and lighting.

Summing up, Christmas is a time during which businesses have an opportunity to ex-

pand on sales and to promote their goods and services in an original and seasonal spirited manner which could perhaps capture the attention of new customers. This potentially in-creases their profits to a grea-ter or lesser extent and, at the same time, promotes their la-bel. This is of utmost importan-ce for businesses, especially in times of economic difficulties, as the one we are faced with at the moment.

Michalis StavrouNikolas LambrianouPanayiotis LambrianouVictoria Josephides

The … Entrepreneurial Spirit of Christmas - Cyprus



Christmas is the best-selling season for many companies in Finland . Especially department stores, supermarkets, clothing shops, present shops and bake-ries are usually very busy at the Christmas time. We interviewed three companies in Pyhäjoki to find out how Christmas affects them.

The 4H café and handic-raft store

Here in Pyhäjoki, our 4H or-ganization has its own café and handicraft store. The store is located by Highway 8, which goes through Pyhäjoki. The café sells delicious snacks, ca-kes and many different delicio-us things. From the store you can buy handmade things like carpets, decorations, accesso-ries and cards. It is open every Monday to Friday from 9.00 am to 3.00 pm. On weekends local young 4H entrepreneurs work there.

From cafe you can buy many kind of snacks and piece of ca-kes.

4H doesn’t usually organi-ze this kind of action. Usually 4H arranges work for young people. 4H is a worldwide or-ganization and it come from the United States. Camps, courses and helping service are most important parts of 4H activi-ties.

Maire Luoto works as execu-tive director in the 4H organi-zation in Pyhäjoki. As in many other organizations and com-panies, Christmas is the most lucrative season also in the 4H café. Many people wants to buy handicrafts as Christmas pre-sents. Also Christmas snacks bring customers to thestore.

But what differences does Christmas make in the 4H bu-siness? For example, there are different Christmas deco-rations on sale at Christmas

time. There are gingerbreads and traditional Christmas plum pastries on sale, the advertising is designed for Christmas and many differences Christmas parties are also arranged there. The prices are same as usually in Christmas season too. The Rush doesn’t change the prices.

The advertisements are suited for Christmas and draw customers to buy more Christ-mas things, for example pre-sents and decorations. As can be expected they bake more Christmas cakes. The shop’s decoration is also suitable for Christmas: there are candles, lights and soft sofas to make customers feel more comfor-table.

Restaurant Dado

Restaurant Dado has been in Pyhäjoki for nine years, and has become familiar to the lo-cal people over the years. Dado has got a lot of positive feed-back and become well-known also in the neighbouring areas. Dado contains a restaurant and a bar.. The restaurant’s ow-nership has changed over the years, but at this moment the owner is Vesa-Matti Toppari from Pyhäjoki.

In the Christmas season pre-Christmas parties are usually arranged in Dado. Christmas food is also a good tradition. Some companies, associations and private people have boo-ked Christmas parties in Dado. There is also a Christmas lunch open for everyone on 8th and 15th of December. So, it is possible to eat very good Christmas food there before Christmas! But apart from the Christmas lunches, on the ot-her days the same food as usual is served..

Pre-Christmas parties are an important season Finland which

can be seen in the number cus-tomers. Different social events gather more people than usual because everybody want to get to enjoy waiting for Christmas together. “The end of the year is in itself like a celebration be-cause of the Christmas holidays and New Year’s Eve”, we are told in the restaurant. The New Year’s celebration is a tradition that makes people go out.

Dado’s opening hours chan-ge a little bit near Christmas, partly because of the private pre-Christmas parties. In the Christmas holidays and bet-ween Christmas and New Year's Eve there are special opening times, which can be checked out on Dado’s web site du-ring the Christmas season. At Christmas there is no need to hire more employees, but at the busiest times there will be more of them in the restaurant at the same time than usually.

There is a special Christmas athmosphere, which is also seen in Dado’s decorations. Christmas lights are shining around the restaurant's ent-rance and there are Christmas flower arrangements on tables - candles have been burning a lot since the autumn.

Supermarket Eväskontti

Tuukka Lisko is the shop-keeper of K-Market Eväskontti in Pyhäjoki. Eväskontti belongs to Kesko, which owns every K-chain shop in Finland. The shop always invests in Christ-mas more than in other sales. They start to prepare for it much earlier than many people think. Orders are made already six months before Christmas. For example Christmas hams are ordered before Midsummer and sweets are ordered in the summer. Tuukka says that the Christmas planning does not take a lot of time and Christ-mas preparation does not change the work in the shop.

“We fill shelves as usual”, Teemu says. However, some pro-ducts are emphasized at Christmas. Christ-mas makes shops to order a lot of seasonal products, for example fish and different tra-ditional Finnish Christ-mas oven casseroles. Still, the extra orders do not increase the amount food loss. The sales before Christmas make Eväskontti much profit and parrticu-larly the Christmas week is one of the best times of the year.. Mostly Christmas sa-les are similar every year, which means that there is no need for significant chan-ges. The weekdays of Christmas change every year which ma-kes things a little bit different every year.

“Of course. when Christmas makes its way to Eväskontti and everywhere else, we decorate the shop in a Christmas sty-le: we bring things to the shop , that bring more Christmas spi-rit and we change the marketing, so it gets a Christmas look.

The competition between shops is growing, especially in Pyhäjoki, as usual. It has always been a challenge, but profit has always been made.

And because the sales grow, the shop assistants will have more work to do, when the preparation starts.

It is hard to tell, if the customers will do their shopping in bigger ci-ties and their shops, or in Pyhäjoki.

And because of the economic downturn, the amount of profit is little lower than be-

Christmas is the best-selling season -Finland

fore, but not as much as you would think.

There have been conversa-tions about deregulating open-ing hours, which could affect sales, but Tuukka says that there is no need to change the opening hours, because for our shop they are already free for

choice.



We live in La Laguna, a char-ming town of 151,718 inhabi-tants. At Christmas this cos-mopolitan town becomes even more beautiful and welcoming. It is part of a campaign aimed at attracting people and inc-reasing sales. A group of stu-dents from the Canarias Cab-rera Pinto went to the Town Hall to interview the Mayor, Mr. José Alberto Díaz. He ex-plained that preparations for Christmas start in Septem-ber. Dynamic campaigns and events are organized from the Town Hall to promote the city. Las Noches en Tinto (The Red Nights), during November, the wine month, when customers get special offers and delicious “tapas” with a glass of wine in bars and restaurants. This year, a trademark with the name, De La Laguna, distinguishes all the products harvested in this district. According to Mr. Díaz, the starting point of the Christmas campaign is The White Night. It is a specific day in November in which there are many activities on the streets, concerts, exhibitions and all the museums and shops are opened until very late at night, with special sales and promo-tions, the city lights are turned on, and walking along many of its pedestrian streets is even more special. Customers start shopping for Christmas then.

Another event organized by The Town Hall is The Craftwork Fair, where the artisans from the island sell their handmade products.

Finally, on 5th January the Town Hall organizes the “Ca-balgata de Reyes” which was founded in 1912. It is one of the most beautiful “Parades” with a lot of floats, pages and cartoon characters. The Three Wise Men who are on their way to deliver their presents, throw sweets to the people, and this day is very exciting for children. All shops are opened, of cour-se!

There is another interesting activity taking place in our town, the first population whe-re a Nativity scene was shown outside a church in the islands –during the seventeenth cen-tury. There are different nativi-ty scenes which will be shown this Christmas. The Culture Councillor organises a compe-tition. Young people are wel-comed to participate in it. And also ‘’Merkcarte’’, the Art Fair for young people, where young artists’ products can be exhi-

bited and bought as a special Christmas present.

We also contacted with a bu-siness association of about 150 stores, ALAPYME, founded in 1995, whose main function is to make the shopping area of La Laguna more competitive. The manager of the association, Ju-lián González told us that the decoration is one of the most important things, because it is like the window that connects the customers of the street with the store, so it is necessary to have the best one at Christ-mas time. We also talked about how the crisis has affected the number of customers who buy things at Christmas time, and he said “there are three variab-les that have emerged with the crisis, more competition, less consume by the customer and fewer possibilities to negotiate with the banks because the-re is less money so, the crisis has affected a lot, but profits exist”He sees innovations on communications as the key to the future of commerce.

Obviously there are a lot of different strategies to make people buy, as he said, they know us... they know the kind of music we like to hear in the streets, the volume, the pro-duct that we like and the type of showcase that makes us want to buy, even the smallest thing in this city is a business strate-gy at Christmas.

Finally we interviewed diffe-rent shopkeepers in the town. Most of them agree these are the most important sales. Pro-fits are bigger, they increase up to 25%. Customers also inc-rease. For coordinating peop-le, sales and activities, most of them employ more shop assis-tants. They want to guarantee success, so they open all days and extra hours.

Wehbe is one of the most prestigious and oldest de-partment stores in town. Mr. Fernando Wehbe, the manager of the shop, told us for them decoration is important, they actually make a huge change in façades, shop windows and in the stores ’interior, with gar-lands, ribbons and other deco-rations based on the Nativity.

However, the products offe-red only vary about 5% be-cause they sell products which are divided in collections.Mr. Luis Rodríguez, manager of Supermarket ‘’El Parque’’ and his six employees order special products for Christmas, such

as “turrón”, and also some ex-quisite products to attract cus-tomers looking for quality.

This shop belongs to a Food Association that organises a raffle of a Christmas’ basket, there is also advertising on radio and TV and other offers and discounts. Other shops print catalogues and coupons.

We also talked to a young entrepreneur Cristian Pérez, who opened a restaurant in La Laguna two years ago, ‘’La Tas-ca de Cristian’’. November is a busy time for him. He has to or-der different products and he changes the menu.

In December there are many people who book, especially dinners. However, Christian cannot employ more people, so his waiters and cooks work all days, including Christmas Day and New Year’s Day, and do extra hours on each day.Bake-ries also have special cakes and sweets for this time of the year. We talked to ‘El Aderno’ mana-ger in La Laguna.

Apart from their specialities, they have some “star pro-ducts” for Christmas like the panetone, the epiphany cake (the ring-shaped cake) and the “gipsy arms”.

Toy shops “Arvelo” and “Gonay” place the trendiest toys in their window shops and they are full of new products and customers desperate to get their orders.La Laguna is an example of a commercial area with a special seal, where The Town Hall together with small business, tascas and res-taurants have managed to keep traditions alive and the charm of a historical town, becoming one of the best shopping areas of Tenerife.

Now that you know all about the Christmas in La Laguna, what are you waiting for to come shopping here? We are waiting for you!

Carolina Mª Torres Rodríguez

Carla Andrea Rodríguez Rodríguez

Yaiza Castro Hernández.

BUSINESS AT CHRISTMAS IN “LA LAGUNA”A WORLD HERITAGE SITE TOWN


P y h ä j o e n K u u l u m i s e t – 19 . 12 . 2 0 16sivu 18Winter 2015 A.V.I.T.A.E

By Mie Knudsen, Silja Nidløse & Bianca Ras-mussen

You know the feeling – One minute it’s the 31st of October, heaps of pumpkins in every gro-cery store, witches and ghosts running through the stree-ts, your neighbor has come over thrice already to ask for candy. Then the clock strikes midnight and in the blink of an eye, Christmas decorations are twinkling merrily in all the shop windows of the city. Suddenly, Mariah Carey’s version of “All I Want For Christmas Is You” is blasting through the speakers of five different department stores – Justin Bieber’s (super festive!) version is playing in the rest.

“Why is this happening?” you complain with outrage, “My goodness, it was only just Hal-loween like yesterday!”

It is true - But the Holiday Season is just around the corner and the city center is bustling with busy shoppers, ready to spend their money. So what does Christmas mean for the businesses in Copenhagen?

On the contrary to what one might assume, Christ-mas doesn’t equal rocketing amounts of customers and sa-les for all types of businesses.

For Foodshop no. 26 on Is-landsbrygge, Christmas means less customers than in the sun-ny summer months. Typically, Danes will flock to the popular harbor pools on Islandsbrygge during the warmer season, brin-ging plenty of hungry custo-mers to the café slash bakery’s counter. But during Christmas, the Danes disappear elsewhere, says Foodshop no. 26’s Jasmin Falk Jensen. “During the win-ter months we definitely lose customers to the bigger com-panies. Everybody goes to the city center during Christmas to shop, so we see fewer cus-tomers because of our summer-location.”

But of course the Christmas spirit is still evident in Food-shop no. 26 for the customers who do come by to get at de-licious sandwich. “We spend some extra time decorating in the shop,” says Jasmin Falk Jen-sen, “and we make sure to some have freshly baked Christmas cookies for our customers as well.”

Another business that doesn’t use Christmas as a significant selling point either is Scandina-visk Data Center. Scandinavisk Data Center is an IT-center that provides all-round service for several financial institutions in Scandinavia. With it’s unique position as an inter-Nordic IT-center, SDC’s vision is to create a pleasant banking experience

for their clientele at a com-petitive price. The Christmas festivities are not a part of the branding strategy, as the banks, SDC’s target group, are traditionally finishing their an-nual reports during this period. Instead, the IT-center uses the Holiday season for something else.

“We use Christmas as an op-portunity to say thank you to our customers and show them our appreciation for working with us.” says sales and account manager at SDC, Jacob Canto Hallager.

The retail chain Bilka stands in sharp contrast to both Food-shop no. 26 and Scandinavisk Data Center. “We definitely use Christmas as a part of our sales strategy.” says Mia Steffensen, head of decoration and the textile and sports section in Bilka Fields. “It typically starts around Black Friday, which re-ally launches the Christmas sales, but the store has to be decorated already from week 42, 13th – 20th of October. So we start getting our depart-ment stores ready for the Ho-lidays already 10 weeks before Christmas.”

The retail store is decorated from the middle of October with Christmas lights, garlands, stars and hearts, as other exis-ting themes in decoration are slowly phased out. The isle-

layout changes as well. During week 43-44 21st – 31st of October, the Christmas secti-on is built up in the front of the store, bulging with chocolates, Santa hats and Christmas de-corations.

The surge of customers du-ring this period is also very ap-parent. “The second half of the year is by far our busiest. Com-pared to the first half of the year, the increase of customers is approx. 20% throughout the period.” Says Mia Steffen-sen, “Christmas is something that sells; it’s a feeling and an atmosphere that everyone can relate to in some way.”

Even though Bilka starts de-corating the same time every year, Mia Steffensen still ex-periences customers, who feel it’s too early. “They say “Wow, you guys sure started decora-ting early!” or “Oh, it just starts

earlier and earlier each year, doesn’t it!”, but in fact it’s al-ways the same week we do the decorating. Actually, the de-corations have even become simpler these past years, so we have a little less than previous-ly.”

The early decorating of the stores is something very com-mon in retail, and it can be fatal for retail chains if they don’t follow the pattern of other re-tail stores.

“I know of a different retail chain that peeled nearly all of their Christmas decorations from the department stores, which gave a very negative response from the customers.” Says Mia Steffensen, “The cus-tomers were of the opinion that the decorations had become to sparse, so store lacked the cozy feeling and Christmas spirit of the season. The retail chain

actually hired externs to come and decorate the department stores after that.”

So that is why the cities are full of twinkling Christmas lights and tinsel in the shop windows. It’s all for you!

“Customers love that the sto-res are decorated. They love that there is a special kind of Christmas atmosphere.” Mia Steffensen concludes, “We would lose too many custo-mers, if we didn’t put so much effort into decorating.”

We can conclude that even if not all our businesses make a business of Christmas by ear-ning more money and getting more customers, they all think of Christmas in doing somet-hing special for their customers in form of greetings, decora-tions or other treatments.

The business of Christmas in CopenhagenWe have taken a look at three very different bu-sinesses to see how they prepare for the holiday season and what the business of Christmas me-ans to them.

CHRISTMAS BUSINESS IN SLOVAKIAIt s almost Christmas time

again! But rather than give you the same thing every year, „How we do Christmas in Slo-vakia and more how are the companies influenced by this season? “

Apart from having all family together, eating carp and pota-to salad, being gifted, it s most-ly about business.

Slovak Christmas Trees are decorated with coloured lights, fruits, hand-made decorations made of wood, baked goods made with honey of different shapes like Angels and other religious symbols and sweets. Christmas Trees are kept until January 6th, Feast of the Three Kings. Then the children are finally allowed eat the candies and other sweets from the tree. Christmas gifts are brought on 24th December, after dinner by the Baby Jesus.

Is the Baby really presented in each of our gift? Slovaks find answer in different way.Let s have a look for Slovaks´ compa-nies view.

We attended a hotel, a restau-rant and an insurance company and interviewed managers, Mr. Durica, Mr. Zeman and Mr. Cas-

nocha. We asked them the same questions and were sure to get more or less the equal answers, but it was a bit diverse.

We intended to know whether the companies have extra ex-penses connected with Christ-mas time as well as increased profit. In fact, all companies gain extra outlay associated with organizing Christmas par-ties for their clients and giving small presents to thank them all.These costs are important because they bring higher pro-fit next year, as the partners and clients appreciate their favour. Other charges are lin-ked with decorating, but they usually use the flourish from previous years, just with little changes.

It was quite a big surprise for us to hear that companies don´t receive extra profit and more clients are knotted with Christ-mas. On the contrary, hotels and restaurants have less cus-tomers. Are you interested why is it so? The hotel is a business hotel and business clients don ´t travel during that time, they prefer to stay with their families and a restaurant obtains a big competitor, Christmas markets

in our town. People prefer the atmosphere of the markets, meet their friends and enjoy special Christmas meals and drinks. Insurance company has the same amount of the custo-mers.

We wanted to know whet-her there is any change in the offer. Only the owner of the restaurant declared that they add some typical Christmas products, mostly drinks and Christmas menu, others have the same proposal.

Christmas time is special time of giving, so we wished to know whether companies organize or take part in charity events. Only insurance company con-nects this time with charity. They organize golf tournaments for their business partners and during these events they raise money for various charity or-ganizations. Besides, they buy calendars and works of art sold to support ill children. Hotels and restaurants don´t form any special events during this peri-od, but they support these kind of events during the whole year.

It was great to hear that all companies gift their employees and the insurance company

arranges Christmas party for them and St Nicolas party for their children.

The last question made the managers think more serious-ly. We wanted to know what they would do for the magic of Christmas if they had unlimited budget and power. Mr. Casno-cha would prepare traditional Christmas for all children who don´t have parents, and for those, whose parents don ´t have enough money. Mr. Zeman

would give money to all people in need.

Mr Durica was very clear in his message. Magic of Christmas can be created in our hearts and with our families and loved ones. It is not important how much money we have, relation-ships are important, respect, love and humility.

We can´t agree more, we feel the same way, but if we had the power and money, we would ensure all people, especially

children the magic of being lo-ved, respected and treated like kings.

The spirit of Christmas is the spirit of love and of generosity and of goodness. It illumina-tes the picture window of the soul, and we look out upon the world's busy life and become more interested in people than in things.

Patrik Spusta, Boris Pacher, David Kurthy

Hotelova academia, Slovakia

P y h ä j o e n K u u l u m i s e t – 19 . 12 . 2 0 16 sivu 19Winter 2015 A.V.I.T.A.E

The business of Christmas in Copenhagen

To begin with, the overall impression we got is that in all three businesses Christmas is, undoubtedly, a special season when profits rise. And it may not be an exaggeration to say that this probably applies to any kind of trading activity du-ring this period.

Specifically, the owner of the toys and books shop told us that they begin their preparati-on very early, compared to ot-her shops. They have to change the layout of the shop window so as to bring in a huge Christ-mas tree, put away their usual stuff and alter the arrangement of their products so as to show the Christmas decorations and toys.

Their shop window is of gre-at importance. They consult experts for its decoration. She says that it attracts people and invites them in. As early as it is ready, people start coming in to browse or ask for prices. It’s a busier period which means that if they need it, they may hire some extra hands. Definitely, the crisis has changed their at-titude regarding the products they sell. They try to offer lo-wer cost items so that it would

be easier for clients to decide to buy, but always making sure that their products are not to be found elsewhere in the town.

The lady in charge in the cos-metics shop told us that their philosophy doesn’t change dra-matically during the Christmas season because it is the firm’s policy to consider every day as a festive day. They always want to make their clients feel happy and at ease. This makes them shop more not only for them-selves but also for their beloved ones, especially those that are in need. And Christmas is the time that we make sure to show our care and love for others. She added, though, that no matter how difficult things have become due to the economic crisis, their kind of business is doing well because of the kind of products they sell.

They are things that people will always need. Preparing for Christmas, they also hire experts for the de-coration of the store and they also give more emphasis to the promotion of certain products (perfumes, for example). In this case they may even bring in models to advertise them more

“What changes in your business during Christmas?”-Greece

effectively.

Finally, in the pastry shop they told us that they change their concept of decoration every year and they believe it is an important feature of their marketing strategy. For the ho-lidays they make special sweets associated with the celebration of Christmas (melomakarona, kourampiedes, new year ca-kes, diples) and their business grows during the Season as people buy sweets for home or as presents and new comers, vi-sitors or tourists are added in their usual clientele.

They keep their prices fixed so people will be able to afford buying. Their working hours

are always long 8:00-23:00 contrary to the two other bu-sinesses that follow special ex-tended shop hours to enable customers to do their shop-ping.

All three businesses offer some products to charity. They offer sweets to institutions or care homes, give presents for municipality competitions or school events, or as lottery prizes.

Christmas is a lucrative busi-ness all around the world. It’s a game of offering, taking and offering back. It’s something we all enjoy participating in as it is a great boost for our psychology. It is a festivity made for children and one that makes everybo-dy feel like children. For most

peop-le there is a Santa, secret or not, who takes care of their wishes and needs. We must never forget, though, that there are people and unfortu-nately, many children among them, who have no one to cater for their needs. We must have our eyes and ears open to de-tect such cases, offer them a

Here in Arta, we decided to ask this question to three busi-nesses: a books and toys shop, a pastry shop and a cosmetics and beauty store (branch of a greek chain of stores all over Greece).

little present and most importantly of all a warm smile and a feeling of security.


It’s a chilly November night, the air is sweet and wintery, the shops all open and everyone is walking down the lanes and peeking around at the shop windows: the atmosphere is al-ready Christmassy. Nine of us split up to walk to the shops we have previously decided to visit for the interview. To cover all the different faces of the Christmas spirit from a busi-ness-like perspective, we deci-de to look for different kinds of shops selling such varied goods as flowers, chocolate, toys. Our dilemma is: how does Christmas affect each of these commercial activities? Chocolat is a typical French chocolate shop, whose name comes from the namesake film released in 2000. French design elements are blended with Tuscan pieces, since the general idea aims for interna-tionality. The image is impor-tant for the owner because, as he observes: “The business’s image is one of the most ap-pealing aspects for customers.” La città del sole, “The Sunshine City” is a chain of old-school, antique-oriented shops for kids; there are about seventy, the owner tells us, scattered

around Italy. The one in Luc-ca, he informs us, was opened in 1994: “this is not an every-day typical shop”, the owner tells us.I fiori di Paola, “Paola’s flowers” is instead a color-ful and joyous florist’s, one of the most renown in our town.In a small town like Lucca the wintery atmosphere gets fren-zied and sweetly fir scented, the streets get crowded and all decked up, hectic parents and teenagers walk around with a staggering excitement and with Christmas-themed presents in their bags. Certainly more or less every commercial compa-ny gets creative on Christmas time, but we wonder what toys are in store for the time when children get more demanding than ever, what flowers can be offered and what chocolate can be tasted to get festive. “Father Christmas”, one of us murmurs with a laughter, “must trigger quite an earning.”

What kind of customers do you usually aim to?

Toyshop: Our shops sells toys for both kids and adults. All the toys and games are crafted and expected to be interactive

and non-technological, so kids are meant to use their senses and learn to handle, feel and listen. Our target depends on the period, but as for the usu-al percentage, I would say our customers are 60% kids, whilst a good 40% are adults. Choco-late shop: During the winter our typical customers are Lucca’s inhabitants, while during the summer foreign tourists visit us the most. We can be proud of the fact that our chocolate shop is one of the few that re-main open during the summer. However, during the winter our typical products are the cold chocolate spoon, chocolate-topped fruit and home-made cookies.

Over Christmas the com-petition is high. How do you face it? Do you have any par-ticular

Toyshop: We believe that kids are always kids, no matter what the season or the century is, so that’s what we base our choi-ces on. Thereby we sell mostly classic toys, many are even the same as they were forty years ago, yet still unabridged and

globally appre-ciated. Most of our toys don’t derive from cartoons or adverts; the only thing that changes from time to time is the design, but the toy is still what it was back in the past. That’s why we didn’t even perceive the obvious change of the ge n e r a t i o ns : necessities and demands are still the same. For us the most impor-tant thing is an active approa-ch to the toy, whichever it is, and this falls outside of the general 21st century dyna-

mics, but hopefully in a po-sitive way.Chocolate shop: Our strategy is to keep the customers that we have and to draw new ones, promo-ting tastes of every type of chocolate. We work for quality, kindness and for the personalization of the products; our specialties are chili pepper-chocolate, truffle walnut and ginger, honey covered fried rice balls and honey-covered marron glacés. What’s more, to give a personal touch to our recipes we also use spi-ces like pepper, aniseeds and tea, especially to make hot chocolates and choco-late candies.

How does the flow of costumers change during Christmas time?

Toyshop: “Christmas starts in November for a shop owner”, as I always say. Christmas is of course the busiest time of the year in our shop. Parents come to buy presents, but also young people come to find ori-ginal gifts... you definitely noti-ce a big difference as regards the amount of customers and the income as well, as a conse-quence.

Chocolate shop: Of course a lot of things change. Christmas is one the most important op-portunities for us; we focus on the biscuit decorations for the Christmas trees, gifts and pre-sents. We don’t really produce specific products for Christ-mas, but we propose special boxes containing several gour-mandises made by our choco-late lab.

Flower shop: Of course we get busier on Christmas time. I usually sell a lot of mistletoe, hollies and obviously many firs. Decorations like garlands, candles and floral arrange-ments, made mostly with artifi-cial flowers but also with fresh flowers, are highly requested too. They’re used as center-pieces on Christmas and New Year’s Eve, so I usually sell many of these

As regards the way your

shop appears, what changes for Christmas? Any make-over?

Toyshop: We don’t actually do much decoration. We are pretty traditional on this front too, so the shop stays more or less what it is throughout the year. Of course we put some festive stickers, like snowflakes, on the door to just fit in with the general spirit, but as for the rest we keep it simple and plain. Maybe that’s where you see a difference as well, since we don’t opt for an eye-catching visibility, as many other shops do. We count on our toys; usu-ally a couple decorations and stickers will do, but we don’t want any distractions, for we like to think that the customers’ eyes are caught by the toys only and nothing else.

Flower shop: I decorate the inside and the shop windows with lights which intrigue pas-ser-bies. I cannot forget things like garlands, adorned trees, ar-tificial snow and musk because they are a Christmassy must. Advertising is fundamental in this period, so I try to promo-

te the shop through the local newspapers mostly.When the Advent calendar announces the beginning of the final count-down to Christmas, shop ow-ners can keep their shops open till midnight on Friday and Sa-turday before Christmas Eve. It all makes the town more lively and brighter. What we got out of these interesting interviews is the fact that on Christmas time the number of customers definitely rises, but what cat-ches more buyers is not neces-sarily the use of overabundant decorations: for example, a traditional and purposely so-ber shop, like La città del sole, doesn’t believe in decorations as a means to attract custo-mers, whilst I fiori di Paola told us how important it is to make the atmosphere more festive when Christmas is round the corner.Either way, Christmas represents quite an opportu-nity for any entrepreneurial initiative, no matter how deco-rated or “plain” it decides to be.

Class IVB Liceo Classico Ma-chiavelli - Italy

What Christmas means for small entrepreneurs in Lucca

Made by Elias Hirvikoskifrom Finland.


avitae december 2015

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