How to Meet Santa in Finland

The amazing mystery as a child when it comes to Santa Claus is how does he together with his reindeers deliver the whole world’s presents in just one night. This is mind-blowing when you are young, and it gives this urge to want to meet the man in red! Lapland in Finland is one place where you can make this dream come true for your children!

Meeting Santa Claus in Lapland

Get yourself to Rovaniemi in Finland to meet the magical man and all of his Christmas crew! Your kids will remember this trip for the rest of their lives.

The most convenient place for Santa Claus to stay on Christmas Eve, therefore, is outside Finland, at a small Finnish mountainside known as “Santa’s Castle.” This is where children in Finland hope Santa Claus will come. And yet, when I spoke to a Finnish man who helps run the operation, I was startled to learn that, even for the most jolly philanthropist, Christmas is a less-than-ideal time to visit Finland.

If Santa were to pose as someone from the local paper in the most remote corner of Finland, he’d be laughed at by all the kids. I asked why. One explanation, which stressed that many Finns prefer Santa Claus to come more formally as a “house elf,” was that Santa Claus is too good to treat children this way. He’s a huge symbol of a Western cultural faith, and Finland doesn’t mind this.

But I’m convinced that the Finns want to treat Santa Claus as they want to treat Santa Claus. At the same time, I’m not sure they have much hope that Santa will help them. A Christmas gift would never even move them, they said. But Santa, or whoever Santa Claus is, is a very real role model.

More information about visiting Santa in Finland

In our house, as is often the case, certain traditions are so ingrained, and so irreplaceable, that they can’t easily be broken. One such tradition is our daily trek to Santa’s Workshop on the North Pole. Santa’s Workshop is where everything that comes Santa’s way goes. The gifts he brings are substantial, but they are also generic. When your son shows up with a toy that only joins his brand of monkeys and cats in having eyes and teddy bears, it’s always a mark of some sort of success.

Lapland is in Finland, so that’s good. Lapland is a place named after the winter that kids learn about, too: after all, the first real snow fell there in February. And Lapland is in an environment in which you can actually try snowshoeing or cross-country skiing, though I’m not sure how that will change six-year-olds’ lives. Plus, Lapland is across the border from Siberia, where you can sleep like a Russian. Where do you sleep in Finnish Lapland? You’ll have to ask Santa. While the small town of Jõgeva, the traditional backdrop for our excursions, is slowly dying in Finland, the excitement of the North Pole is back with a vengeance. When I was there 10 years ago, other photographers had been telling me for decades that they were planning to visit it themselves. And of course, once they got there, they were papped like crazy. Suddenly, Santa had a lot of competition!

The most convenient place for Santa Claus to stay on Christmas Eve, therefore, is outside Finland, at a small Finnish mountainside known as “Santa’s Castle.” (The town of Kiruna is best known for its acid rain, a product of industrialized Northeast Germany.) This is where children in Finland hope Santa Claus will come. And yet, when I spoke to a Finnish man who helps run the operation, I was startled to learn that, even for the most jolly philanthropist, Christmas is a less-than-ideal time to visit Finland. If Santa were to pose as someone from the local paper in the most remote corner of Finland, he’d be laughed at by all the kids. I asked why. One explanation, which stressed that many Finns prefer Santa Claus to come more formally as a “house elf,” was that Santa Claus is too good to treat children this way. He’s a huge symbol of a Western cultural faith, and Finland doesn’t mind this. But I’m convinced that the Finns want to treat Santa Claus as they want to treat Santa Claus. At the same time, I’m not sure they have much hope that Santa will help them. A Christmas gift would never even move them, they said. But Santa, or whoever Santa Claus is, is a very real role model.