The promotion was available on Tuesday in 43 locations across the country. The firm stipulated that customers should bake their own gingerbread and write the departure point and destination on the biscuit in sugar icing.
Initially the tickets were limited to 500 nationwide, but the company doubled that to a thousand when it became clear that demand would outstrip supply.
"So many had worked so hard on their cookies, writing the destination in icing among other things," said Matkahuolto operations manager Jukka Ylitalo. "That was a nice surprise."
Would-be passengers, however, took the promotion quite seriously. One woman in Jyväskylä made repeated attempts at baking an acceptable biscuit bus ticket, as she did not think her first effort was good enough.
Valuable lessons learned
Another cookie-clutching traveller in Jyväskylä took the ticket shortage even harder: he threw his gingerbread on the floor, gave the ticket staff the middle finger and angrily wished the room a sarcastic ‘Merry Christmas”.
"It was a surprise to us that the campaign received such widespread media publicity beforehand," said Ylitalo. "That led to surprisingly high popularity."
The firm has learned valuable lessons, according to Ylitalo.
"Next time we plan a similar promotion, we already know better how many tickets we should reserve," said Ylitalo.
Competitors also quickly learnt from Matkahuolto’s misfortune. The cheap bus firm Onnibus announced via social media on Tuesday that it would offer all customers a gingerbread biscuit.
