Rovaniemi, capital of Lapland, north of Finland, is officially the land of Santa Claus. Anyone who goes there on December 25th or even in the middle of August will find a decorated Christmas tree, lights, drawings of reindeer, elves and a Santa Claus.
Transforming Rovaniemi into the land of Santa Claus was much more of an economic decision than a possible concern about honoring a tradition. Currently, around 500,000 people per year visit the municipality of 63,000 inhabitants.
For the capital of Lapland, the true miracle of Christmas was bring tourism to a distant location that was almost exterminated in the 1940s. During World War II, 90% of Rovaniemi’s properties were destroyed. Years later, thanks to government efforts and UN funding, the site was rebuilt.
The main public buildings were designed by architect Alvar Aalto. Interestingly, the urban plan, seen from above, looks like the head of a reindeer.
Tourism began to be used as a driving force for recovery of the region. In 1957, the travel section of the New York Times I already recommended a visit to “desert of northern Europe“.
But the icing on the cake would only come in the 1980s, the year in which Santa Claus Village would be built, 8 kilometers from the city. An idea from the Finnish tourism department, it was implemented under the administration of the then governor of Lapland Asko Oinas, who in December 1984 decreed the city as Santa Claus’ “official headquarters”.
The complex was opened in 1985. Promotion for tourism would gain strength four years later, when the 16 largest Finnish companies would come together and create the Santa Claus Land Association. From then on, the country began sending trained Santa Clauses to tourism events across the globe to promote the region.
The story of how the city became the land of Santa Claus is picturesque, as the myth derives from the Catholic religious Saint Nicholas of Myra, who was born, lived and died in Asia Minor, where today is the Türkiyeprobably between the years 270 and 343.
It all started when, in the late 1860s, the American women’s magazine Harper’s Bazaar He began publishing illustrations of Santa Claus as an inhabitant of the North Pole, an environment naturally suitable for reindeer.
Between 1927 and 1956, journalist and radio host Elner Markus Rautio played the character Uncle Markus on Finnish state radio. The journalist had a children’s program in which he featured Santa Claus, always identifying him as a resident of Finland.
Uncle Markus said that Santa Claus lived in Earachea mountain on the border between Finland and Russia, in the municipality of Savukoski. Korvatunturi means something like “ear cliff” in Finnish. On the radio, Uncle Markus emphasized a characteristic of Santa Claus that is still known today: listening to each child’s request.
Santa Claus’s village
The village in Rovaniemi is a building complex where there is a hotel, two restaurants, themed shops, Santa Claus’ corner and the post office. As part of the attractions, you can interact with reindeer and, if there is snow, ride a snowmobile.
Santa Claus’s throne is in the center of one of the houses. You reach it after a route in which the story of Christmas is portrayed with scenographic themed scenes. Santa Claus doesn’t break character even when interacting with adults.
The post office that operates in the Village is a real post office, operated by Posti, the Finnish postal system. It’s the only one that has a exclusive stamp of the Arctic Circle. According to data from Posti, since 1985, when the agency was created, Santa Claus has received 15 million letters from 198 different countries.
