An Enjoyable Meeting with Santa Claus in the Santa Claus Village in Rovaniemi:
With Santa Claus in Rovaniemi
I never knew that Santa lived in Finland until our visit to the Lapland capital. Rovaniemi, the capital of Lapland Province is considered by Finns to be the home town of Santa Claus. Santa has an office in the Santa Claus Village and half a million visitors come to visit him each year. So when we were in Rovaniemi, we too called in at the Village and paid a visit to this immortal guardian of Christmas presents. Santa is very witty and perceptive and we had an enjoyable and enlightening conversation with him.
Santa Claus Visit
We usually associate Santa Claus visits with children but Santa assured us that we were not out of place here as anyone who is below 100 years old is a child to him. His oldest child was a 97 year-old Japanese lady and the second oldest was a 96 year-old from Tromsø in Norway.
Santa’s youngest visitor was just 20 days old! His parents would have brought him earlier but they had a little technical problem. They couldn’t find skis that were small enough for the little guy to get from their hotel to the Village.
Gallery of prominent visitors
Just outside of Santa’s office was a photo gallery of some very prominent children. Amongst the notable children were the Chinese President Xi Jinping and the Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov – see Tony pointing at them. I wonder what wise words Santa had for these two super-power children? And, did they get sent to the naughty corner during their visit?
Santa Secrets
Santa invited us to sit with him and, being in such close proximity to him, I couldn’t help but admire his beautiful complexion. It must be due to the cold weather in Rovaniemi and the reindeer meat he eats. Reindeer meat is common in this part of the world and we saw it on many restaurant menus. Yes, Santa eats reindeer meat – he told me so!
Tony admired Santa’s long flowing beard and asked Santa if he has experienced naughty kids who insist on tugging at his beard. How does Santa deal with those situations? Santa said that he would tug at their hair in return and that usually fixes the problem. They then get sent to the naughty corner.
Santa speaks many different languages. With over half a million visitors from all over the world, he has to be able to chat with everyone. I asked Santa where his most unique visitors came from. He thought for a while and then recalled the one visitor from North Korea and another from the Maldives.
Tony wanted to know where the green elves were. It should be noted that humans can only see elves when the elves want to be seen. He did meet one downstairs and the credit card reader suggests that she is a money elf.
Tony meets an elf
Friendly and Witty
Santa is very friendly and witty and you could talk about almost anything with him. At one stage I asked:
Me: “Santa, Have you ever been to Australia?”
Santa: “Have you ever got any Christmas presents?”
Me: “Ah, yes”
Santa: “Who do you think delivers them to you?”
Me: “You Santa, on your reindeer-pulled sleigh”
Santa: “So, have I been to Australia?”
Me: “Touché”
Before leaving we told Santa that we liked his shoes and funky socks. He said that the elves knitted the socks for him. We invited Santa to come down to Australia again. Tony reminded Santa that he would have to ride his sleigh upside down otherwise he would land on his head. Santa said that he didn’t worry about things like that as the guy with the red nose looked after those matters.
We thought that Santa enjoyed his little banter with us, but it soon came time to leave as there were other children to see. Our chat with Santa Claus gave us a whole new perspective of this jolly man in red…Ho, ho, ho, Merry Christmas!
Here’s our video with Santa!
Address:
Santa Claus Village
Arctic Circle
96930 Rovaniemi, Finland
Website: santaclausvillage.info/
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