Visiting Santas village and entering the arctic circle - Finland
Earlier this year we were lucky enough to visit "Santas Village", which is located in the Northern Finnish region of Rovaniemi, capital of Lapland. It is located on the arctic circle, and thus often referred to as the "gateway to the arctic" (more on the arctic circle later).
Rovaniemi is the supposed homeland of Santa, where he spends his year with the elves and reindeer preparing presents for children around the world. We went there at the end of the summer, and thus the "off season" - there wasn't many people around at all! I can imagine this place would become alot busier in the lead up to Christmas. There was no snow when we went, and I would think that this would make it more magical.
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One of the things to do at Santas Village is to meet Santa, and get your photo taken with him. Santa was a very friendly man, although he charged alot to get a printout of the photo with him. Sadly there was a strictly no camera policy around Santa, as they obviously want you to pay for their official photo. I decided to pass as we were on a budget, so just took a photo with the lego Santa as a souvenir.
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There is also a mail center, which is where the elves work sorting through mail to Santa and sending mail around the world. The elves were very friendly, and willing to help out.For a small fee you can purchase some Christmas paper and envelopes and send a letter stamped as being officially from Santas Village. It was amazing to see how many letters were being sent, and that they were being sent all over the world.
Being Santas Village, it is also possible to meet some of his reindeer upclose and personal. However, again as we were on a strict budget we decided to pass up this opportunity. The price was expensive (for us), and we were in our car and so had seen some reindeer recently. If you are in a car, then there are many opportunities to see reindeer in the wild!
As I mentioned, Santas Village is also the entrance to the Arctic Circle, also simply known as the Arctic. The Arctic Circle runs 66°33′47.8″ north of the equator. The Arctic Circle runs through several countries, including Canada, Unites States, Iceland, Greenland, Russia, Norway and Sweden.
A characteristic of the Arctic Circle is that during summer there is the midnight sun, where essentially the sun never fully sets and thus there is 24 hours of daylight per day. Additionally in winter there are polar nights, where the sun never rises and there is 24 hours of darkness per day.
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One thing many people do is to "leap into the Arctic Circle", which is what I decided to do. Dont worry or feel like an idiot as there were many others doing the same thing!
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As Rovaniemi is a popular tourist spot there are flights direct from Helsinki for those who want to travel by plane. Overall Rovaniemi was a fantastic place to visit, and I can imagine it would recommend visiting. I can imagine it would be extra special during winter, but also very busy.
All photos taken by me!
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