All about Santa's homeland of Lapland
The question of exactly where Santa Claus lives has often been a hot topic of bar-room debate.
You could say that Santa was born in Turkey (the birthplace of St Nicholas), and made his fortune in America (when a Coca Cola advert defined his image).
It is also well-known that he keeps a mailbox at the North Pole (the address we put on letters containing our requests for toys and advent calendar fillers).
But when it comes to visiting the big man in Red, there is only one place to go – the Finnish part of Lapland above the Arctic Circle.
The Finnish part of Lapland is a vast area with a surface region more than half as large as England – easily big enough to stock all Santa's grotto supplies for good children across the globe.
Santa is said to occupy just a tiny corner of the region – the small city of Rovaniemi; a place which boasts some seriously-stylish bars and restaurants. But it is the city's Santa Claus village which interests the kids who flock to Rovaniemi – making it the capital of Finnish Lapland's Santa industry.
Santa isn't the only star draw in Lapland – there are 200,000 reindeer wandering through the snow in their herds; outnumbering the 184,000 Lappish population.
These hardy creatures are perhaps better suited to the Lappish weather than the travellers who visit the area to gaze at their beauty.
Winter lasts half the year in Lapland and for a few months of this season there is the twilight period; a time best-suited to vampires as the sun stays below the level of the mountains, hills and horizon – plunging the powdery snowy landscape into darkness.
Be warned Christmas time is the darkest part of Lapland's twilight period – many areas only have a few hours of daylight each ‘day'. The permanent dusk gives the snow and air a beautiful blue-ish tinge though!
A balance is provided by the fact that many places are blessed with long periods of the midnight sun in the summer. In the far north of Lapland, some towns can see the sun all-day round from May to July.
Climate
If you do journey to Lapland during Christmas be prepared to see the mercury barometer dip as low as minus 25C. Even when the temperature is at the average winter level of minus 10C it's still easily cold enough to see the huskies' breath in the clean, sharp winter air as they pull you through the snow to Santa's hut.
Sami language
If you're staying west of Lapland, near Finland's border with Sweden, it might be a little pointless brushing up on your Finnish by buying a phrase book from the airport prior to arriving. This is because people both sides of the border speak their very own special language: ‘mean-kieli'; a dialect with plenty of phrases reflecting Lapland's pre-occupation with fishing and logging.
There are about 1,500 Sami-speaking people dotted about the sparsely-populated northern areas of Lapland – there are three different forms of Sami language all of which are, sadly, endangered.
Arctic ceremonies
Arctic Circle Ceremonies are a must for visitors to Lapland. These involve sitting snugly around a fire in a tepee, smudging your nose with charcoal (to make you safe) and touching your ears (so that you can return in the next life as reindeer). It is not clear whether this practice was invented by modern tour operators rather than actually being, as is claimed, an age-old tradition of the native Sami people.
So do Sami people believe in Santa Claus – the figure who attracts so many people to Lapland? Probably some do not; the old Sami beliefs are closely connected to ‘animism' - the belief that entities such as rocks, weather and animals are all spiritual beings just as much as humans are.
Living in such a wondrous place for so many years, it is little wonder that the Sami have such reverence for their environment.
Even without the legend of Santa Claus, Lapland is a place which inspires a magical sense of wonder!
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