Christmas All Year Round: Rovaniemi, Finland

Santa Claus spends his time at the Santa Claus Village every day of the year to take care of his mission in life; to enhance the wellbeing of children and the kindness of grown-ups, as well as spreading the message love and goodwill of Christmas Spirit throughout the globe.

Rovaniemi is The Official Home of Santa Claus.You can meet Santa Claus and cross the magical Arctic Circle every day at the Santa Claus Village in Lapland. Send friends and relatives greetings from the Santa Claus Main Post Office with the unique Arctic Circle postmark.

When Santa Claus declared Rovaniemi as his hometown, he told how his home at Ear Mountain (Korvatunturi) was revealed at the beginning of the last century and how this closely guarded secret spread the world over. In order to retain the privacy of his secret location, the Elf folk decided to build a place where Santa could meet people from near and far at the Northern Arctic Circle.

For kids and grown ups alike, meeting Santa in his office is a magical experience. On asking us where we had travelled from, Santa greeted us with a cheery, "Selamat Datang". Most impressive!

As we were leaving the village, Ghani, still excited from being interviewed by the local press while Adrian and I were busy writing Christmas Cards (in July, to be posted in December), left his camera on the bumper of the truck. When we were at a red light about 2 km down the road, a little white car drove up along side us and beeped. When we looked, the driver was holding up Ghani's camera, saying we dropped it along the way! The magic of Christmas and goodwill to all men does exist in this place!

On the Artic Circle
Santa's Village, Finland
26 July 2008

Adrian at Santa's Post office,
Finland
26 July 2008

We've hit the Artic Circle
5pm on 26 July 2008
Roviniemi, Finland

Adrian running off to see Santa in his office
Santa's Village
26 July 2008

With Santa at
Santa's Village, Finland
26 July 2008