Rovaniemi and Santa Claus Village

Capital Of Finnish Lapland On The Arctic Circle, Marketed As The Official Hometown Of Santa Claus · Rovaniemi, Lapland

Rovaniemi is the capital of Finnish Lapland, a small city on the Arctic Circle that has made itself world famous as the hometown of Santa Claus. A few kilometres north, Santa Claus Village sits right on the line of the Arctic Circle: a collection of log buildings, shops and restaurants around Santa's office, where visitors meet Santa himself, and the Santa Claus Main Post Office, which receives letters from children around the world and stamps mail with a special Arctic Circle postmark. Entry to the village is free; meeting Santa is free, but the photographs are not. Around it runs the business of Lapland in winter: husky and reindeer sleigh rides, snowmobiles, glass-roofed cabins for watching the northern lights, and charter flights from across Europe and Asia in December. The city itself was almost completely burned by retreating German troops in 1944 and rebuilt to a plan by Alvar Aalto; the Arktikum museum explains the Arctic. December is dark, busy and very cold, and some visitors find the village commercial, but children rarely do.

Santa Claus Village on the Arctic Circle, about 8 km north of Rovaniemi, Rovaniemi, Lapland, Finland

Santa Claus Village is open every day of the year, with longer hours in the Christmas season; entry is free. SantaPark, a separate paid attraction, has seasonal opening. Rovaniemi Airport is a few minutes from the village, with many winter flights. December brings the polar night, with only a few hours of twilight.

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