If you have spent the better part of your childhood singing hosannas in a church, Santa Claus Village in Rovaniemi, Lapland will only remind you of those regimented boarding school days when you stood groggy-eyed in the pews every morning.
So when I learn that my Finland itinerary includes a visit to Santa Claus Village, I knew it will be a throwback to school-day nostalgia. I am not too excited . Besides I feel a bit too overgrown to patronize a Christian legend.
But when I enter the Santa Clause Village I see more frolicking adults than children. I realize it is perfectly normal here for the grownups to behave like excited teenyboppers. Most of the adult exultations are about crossing the Arctic Circle that runs right across the Santa Claus Village. The Arctic Circle is not really an imaginary line here. It is marked on the ground prominently and at night a lazer beam tells you exactly what side of the 66 latitude you stand. There are also big lampposts erected at regular intervals on the Arctic Circle to demarcate it. Tourists head here and photograph themselves jumping across it to mark their Arctic tryst.
Most of the tourists come to do just that and Finland tourism has lots of indulgences for them in the village. There are a plethora of souvenir shops and you can take home anything from reindeer skin to Arctic bric- a-brac. There are also coffee-shops and bars. Christmas carols play around the clock from invisible speakers. But the main attraction of the village is perhaps the Post Office.
Its called the Santa Claus Post office and is like no other post-office in the world. It is open on all days and during Christmas it has to hire extra hands to deal with all the mail which still comes the old-fashioned way – i.e. via cards and letters. It is no ordinary mail either. Its more of a snail- mail spam which comes in bag-loads in the name of just one man- the resident arctic dweller – Santa. But Santa’s efficacious elves are there to take care of the letters for him. They sort all the letters by the country and the letters are stored for posterity. A pretty Finnish girl dressed up as an elve complete with her red tunic and skirt and a conical red hat, shows us a five meter long letter written by a small boy in Sweden. There were loads of letters from India too but its England that leads in the letter-writting department.
The elves gently goad you to send a letter to your loved ones from the post office. Doing so your letter bears a special Santa Claus village stamp. I send one letter (for a small price of course) to my skeptical nephew to reinforce the Santa myth in him.
Santa Claus amusement park has indeed been set up for this express purpose. Parents come with children from all over the world to get a date with the ‘real’ Santa of the North Pole .
There is a Santa Claus office where you can register yourself to meet the gregarious old man. There are three Santa’s who take turns to sit in a wooden cabin meeting an endless stream visitors. Feeling somewhat out of place I stand in a long queue of children waiting my turn. The Santa Claus office is built like the inside of a giant clock with some moveable parts that are designed to creek and groan. This clock-house with its bearded timekeeper perhaps signifies the surreal time-space that exists North of this village where the phenomenon of the midnight sun (in summers) and no sun at all in winters greets you.
When our turn comes a handsome boy dressed as an elf ushers us in. He also doubles up as Santa Claus’s official photographer and he quickly gets behind a cabin from where he photographs us exchanging greetings with Santa. The `Official Santa’ is very much the Santa of my imagination. Long white undulating beard. Rose tinted rotund cheeks. And the all too familiar corpulent frame. He greets us a predictable Namastay when we tell him we are from India. He takes turns greeting us all and asks the girls in our group if they have been good-girls in a manner he would assume for any naughty children visiting him. The girls play along with one of them insisting on getting a photograph sitting on his lap.
No sooner you are out of the Santa Claus cabin you are handed a framed photograph of you with Santa- again for a small price.
Beside the thrill of meeting Santa, there are not too many amusements for the children apart from sledging on the artificial snow-slopes at the village. However most of the merchandise at the shops from Christmas books to clothes is angled at the children. But if you are an adult and a boarding school product like me you cannot but ignore that tug of nostalgia for the church ceremonies back in your school in the mornings.
Your work is Wonderfull…again Loved those pictures and Info.
Thanks for these Extra Knowledge 😉
Thank you Vithika. 🙂
Merry Christmas from Santa Claus Village, Lapland | Sanjay Austa – just great!
merry christmas to u too.
Very nice designs, your work is great!!!
thanks
HAPPY CHRISTMAS
to you too
Merry Christmas!!Mr.Sanjay
Merry Christmas!!Mr.Sanjay.its gud to know about Lapland Village,
Thanks Farah.