Potato dishes to Pokemon, Stars share favorite holiday memories

As it usually does when John Klingberg and Esa Lindell are talking, the discussion boiled down to which is better, Sweden or Finland?
When the two defensemen were asked this week about Christmas traditions back home, the topic of Santa Claus came up, and Lindell claimed ownership of the jolly ol' elf in the big red suit.
"He's from the North Pole," Klingberg, said with mock disdain.
"You can Google it," said Lindell. "He's from Finland."

A quick search and it does show that Lapland, the northernmost province of Finland, does indeed claim ownership of Santa Claus, so score one for Lindell, who was sitting next to a nodding Miro Heiskanen.

"He's right," said Heiskanen. "Everyone knows that."
The Stars are a mixed team, with players from the United States, Canada, Finland, Sweden, the Czech Republic, and Russia. So Christmas traditions are also pretty mixed.
The Swedes and the Finns -- which include Klingberg, Mattias Janmark, Julius Honka, Lindell and Heiskanen -- celebrate at home on Dec. 24 more than Dec. 25. The Czechs -- Radek Faksa, Roman Polak -- celebrate on Dec. 25 and have Christmas service at midnight.
The players from Russia or Khazakhstan -- Alexander Radulov, Valeri Nichushkin, Anton Khudobin and Denis Gurianov -- celebrate Christmas on its Gregorian Calendar date, Jan. 7.
"January is much bigger, especially New Year," said Radulov. "Lots of presents on New Year and then some more on Jan. 7, but New Year is really big."

Like most of the players, Radulov said he remembered mostly hockey gifts and computers.
"Nintendo, that was big," he said. "But mostly hockey skates, sticks -- anything for hockey was a great gift."
That was the same in pretty much every country. Klingberg said one of his first real hockey gifts was a two-piece stick when he was 13.
"You had to glue it and heat it, so you felt like a real hockey player," Klingberg said with a smile. "It was a big deal, they were pretty expensive, so it was something special to have a stick like that and be able to work on it."
Forward Devin Shore celebrates Christmas in Canada just like the U.S., but he also has "Boxing Day" on Dec. 26. A traditional celebration in England and its commonwealths, Boxing Day has various traditions in different countries. It is a national holiday in Canada, and has become more celebrated for shopping than anything else.

"I'm not sure what the real meaning is for it, but it's pretty much become our Black Friday," Shore said. "You get your gift certificates at Christmas and then everyone has a sale on Dec. 26 and you go out and spend your gift certificates."
Shore said his favorite gift was a pair of hockey gloves.
"One year, I got a pair of Bauer Vapor 30 gloves, and you couldn't really find them anywhere," Shore said. "They were the same gloves that Team Canada World Juniors were wearing, so that was a big deal. We got that, and we got a net one year in the garage, and that was great."
Each country has different traditional feasts. Russia celebrates with pork dishes, while the Nordic countries often have fish as the main dish, the players said. All tend to have some sort of potato dish.
"It's like a big table and a little bit of everything," said Radulov. "Potatoes, chicken, special salads, all sorts of desserts. … It's really great."

Khudobin said New Year's Eve is the big celebration, though.
"Biggest day is Dec. 31st. After midnight, we all go outside, and there are fireworks, and just everyone is together," he said. "It really is welcome in the New Year and the entire country is together."
Khudobin said when he was young, he usually asked for cars or trucks, and was happy when he got them.
"I always wanted a Kamaz truck, and I got a lot of those," he said.

Klingberg and Lindell liked a lot of the same toys in Sweden and Finland, and a lot revolved around video games. Lindell said he liked to play Pokemon -- and then added, he collected the cards, too.
"I did that too," Klingberg said. "Who was your best card?"
"Charizard," Lindell replied.
"Mine was Bulbasaur," Klingberg said. "That was a lot of fun back then."
And just like that, the nations of Finland and Sweden found common ground over Pokemon.
Christmas memories will do that to you.
This story was not subject to the approval of the National Hockey League or Dallas Stars Hockey Club.
Mike Heikais a Senior Staff Writer for DallasStars.com and has covered the Stars since 1994. Follow him on Twitter @MikeHeika, and listen to his podcast.