Visiting Santa Claus in Finnish Lapland

Having a white Christmas had been a dream of mine for most of my life, so when I holidayed in Finnish Lapland’s main city Rovaniemi in late December, visiting Santa Claus was right at the top of my list. Santa lives in his own village a few miles north of Rovaniemi, dead on the Arctic Circle – that means when the winter solstice hits just before Christmas, the sun doesn’t really come up. But that doesn’t stop Santa opening his office and being ready to see the hundreds of visitors who want to tell him their Christmas wish list.

To be honest, I was a little shy about meeeting Santa, and I half thought it was perhaps something only young children should do. But it turned out that the queue to visit Santa was made up of plenty of adults-only groups! The lovely thing about the Santa Claus village in Finland is that it doesn’t cost anything to see Santa. His elf helpers will take a photo of you together, and you can buy a print, but there’s no obligation so it doesn’t feel like a tacky money-making affair.

When I met Santa, I admit I wasn’t quite sure what to say. But he was a great conversationalist, and knew something of my hometown of Perth, Australia, about as far away from the Arctic Circle as you can get. A little predictably, we also talked about the weather, because of course I was slowly freezing to death in the Arctic Finnish winter. Santa said he’d try and fix the weather for me.

Santa also turned out to be multi-lingual, chatting in Finnish, Swedish and English fluently while we waited in line. When English-speakers met Santa, I eagerly eavesdropped to see what others said to the white-bearded guy: many of the kids who saw him had been prepared enough to bring lists of the presents they were after. A sweet Australian teenager visiting with his parents asked Santa to make sure he got into the university course he’d applied for – Santa said he could fix that too.

The rest of the Santa Claus Village is full of the usual tourist rigmarole, and plenty of souvenir shops. Santa's Post Office is a highlight, with all his mail catalogued by country of origin. Just a short walk down the road is a husky farm where you can get a ride on a husky sleigh, if the dogs will calm down long enough to get harnessed up. Kids can also play on the ice slides surrounded by giant-sized snowmen in front of the village. And my big message here: you’re never too old to meet Santa.